Before his career came crashing down, Bryan Singer was one of the most successful directors in Hollywood. Having risen through the ranks thanks to his early indie work, Singer was one of the first big directors to emerge from the Sundance Film Festival. His first movie, Public Access, won the Grand Jury Prize, and his follow-up, The Usual Suspects, became a smash hit that made Kevin Spacey a household name. After making an underrated Stephen King adaptation, Apt Pupil, Singer directed 2000’s X-Men. This was arguably the first true Marvel superhero movie and a noted detour from how comic book movies were usually filmed because Singer took the material seriously. The follow-up, X2: X-Men United, was an even bigger smash and helped make Hugh Jackman, who was plucked from obscurity to play Wolverine, one of the biggest stars of his era.
But, behind the scenes, there was a lot of drama surrounding Singer. It began with a 1997 lawsuit where Singer while making Apt Pupil, was accused of forcing minors to shower nude for his film. The lawsuit was never major news in that era, long before #MeToo and Singer’s career continued. Still, whispers always seemed to follow him, even as he churned out Superman Returns and his massive return to the X-Men franchise, X-Men: Days of Future Past. But, in the middle of shooting his Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody (ironically his biggest hit), allegations about Singer’s conduct finally caught up with him, and he was unexpectedly fired from the film with only two weeks left to shoot (he would keep his directorial credit). Since then, Singer has laid low, with his proposed return to directing on Millenium’s Red Sonja reboot cancelled after an outcry.
In this episode of WTF Happened to this Celebrity, we dig into the allegations against Singer and where the former A-list director is now. Should we separate the artist and the art? Let us know in the comments!
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