Robert Altman said that during filming “MASH” (1970), Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland together went to the studio and complained that Altman was filming too much of the secondary characters.
They requested that he be removed from the film, but the studio refused.
After the film was completed and received its accolades, only Gould confessed the matter to Altman. As a result, he received parts in other Altman pictures, whereas Robert never used Sutherland again.
In an interview with Mitchell Zuckoff for his 2009 oral biography of the director, Gould said, “I think that, in hindsight, Donald and I were two elitist, arrogant actors who really weren’t getting Altman’s genius.”
Altman originally wantedGould to play Duke Forrest, ultimately played by Tom Skerritt.
It was only at Gould’s request that he was cast in the role of Trapper John, as he was worried that he would spend more time focusing on Duke’s accent than he would memorizing his lines.
Gould and Sutherland kept calling each other “Shirley” on the set. Gould did it in one shot, cracking Sutherland up, and Altman decided to keep it in the film. “Shirley” was a reference to Sutherland’s (then) second wife, Shirley Douglas.
According to Gould, Sylvester Stallone revealed to him that he was an extra in this film.
When Gould later told this to Altman, the director refused to accept this as fact, because he was not a fan of Stallone’s work.
This was not the first Korean War-based movie to carry the title “MASH.” In 1953, Humphrey Bogart starred in a film also about a MASH unit by the same title.
But the studio thought the title might make audiences think it was about potatoes, so the title was changed to “Battle Circus” (1953). (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Elliott Gould!