Director Bryan Singer burst onto the scene in 1995 with the hit The Usual Suspects and continued that upward trajectory with the blockbuster X-Men series. But his success hit a snag when he was accused of sexual assault by multiple victims and now the discgraced director is planning a documentary about his own life in an attempt to resurrect his career.
After finding mega success in Hollywood, that came crashing down when he was fired from Bohemian Rhapsody with only three weeks of filming left after prolonged absences and fights with the cast and crew. Then as he was trying to get his career back on track, a 2019 Atlantic exposé came out detailing allegations made by four men who claim that Singer sexually assaulted them when they were underage (one of whom says Singer raped him when he was 17). The director denies these allegations.
Now four years later the hit-making director is trying to return to Hollywood with three new lower-budget films all set in Israel where he’s been living for the past few years.
Stranger still is the fact that Singer plans to direct a self-financed documentary about his own life. Variety reported that the film will focus on “his struggles” and will address the sexual assault allegations made against him. Documentaries are usually made by directors who can look at the events through an unbiased lens because they are unconnected to the story, but clearly that won’t be the case here. Also, the self-financing screams of privilege.
Singer will have a lot to contend with though because the sexual misconduct allegations date way back to 1997 when he was directing the film Apt Pupil. A civil suit was filed by two teenage boys (one 14 years old and the other 17) alleging that they were alllegedly ordered to strip naked to film a shower scene. Other underage actors also filed civil lawsuits with similar claims, including one who said Singer allegedly molested them. The famous director never faced criminal charges and the suits were settled for an undisclosed sum.
By the late ‘90s Singer had become known in Hollywood for allegedly throwing pool parties where underage boys were plied with drugs and alcohol, with one telling the Atlantic he was “passed around like a party favor.”
Journalists Alex French and Maximillian Potter wrote in the Atlantic exposé that Singer’s wealth and fame meant that people in the film industry helped him in disturbing ways. “Their accounts suggest that Singer didn’t act alone; he was aided by friends and associates who brought him young men. And he was abetted, in a less direct way, by an industry in which a record of producing hits confers immense power.”
Singer is one in a seemingly never ending line of men who have abused their position in Hollywood and his star power meant that for years his alleged crimes were brushed under the rug.
