One day during the production of The Rose (the tragic tale of a self-destructive female rock star), Bette Midler was called upon to shoot the film's seminal concert scene. Midler gave it everything she had and, after two takes, was completely exhausted. Director Mark Rydell, worried about Middler's health, dropped by her dressing room to see how she was doing. The first words out of her mouth? "Can we do another take?"
["We have enough great footage for two films!" he replied. Nonetheless, Middler was such a perfectionist that she became upset when Rydell refused to let her do another take. The film's fitting tagline? "She gave and gave, until she had nothing left to give."]
[In the early 1970s, Midler briefly earned a living singing in a gay bathhouse.]
Sources
imdb.com; The New Yorker, 2004-01-19
