Intro for January 29, 2026

Dear Gossips,

This week in Trash Take Thyself Out news, we finally have an explanation for the dissolution of the Safdie Brothers’ creative partnership. I have pondered openly about what caused filmmaking brothers Josh and Benny Safdie to quit working together, apparently out of the blue in early 2024, and now we know. According to Tatiana Siegel of the new California Post—a west coast answer to the New York Post, which no one on the west coast was asking for—it’s because of misconduct during the production of the 2017 film Good Time.

That film was co-directed by Benny and Josh, and produced by Sebastian Bear-McClard, who is Emily Ratajkowski’s now ex-husband. I am not making him EmRata’s responsibility, but their divorce plays a role in the story. The Safdies, together and separately, like to use a mix of professional actors and regular people in their films, to add to their cinema verité style. In Good Time, they cast a then 17-year-old girl to play a sex worker in the film, as well as Buddy Duress, a non-professional actor. Some grist is being made from the fact that Duress, who died of an overdose in 2023, had been in and out of jail but just being a former inmate doesn’t automatically make a person a problem.

The issue is that Duress was high during filming on that day in 2016, when he performed with an underage girl—a child—and he reportedly exposed himself to the girl and asked if “he could stick it in” (the scene was cut from the film). Josh was directing while Benny manned the boom microphone, which means both brothers were on set when this happened. YIKES.

Benny, who directed The Smashing Machine as a solo project last year while Josh tackled Marty Supreme, claimed he didn’t know the girl’s age at the time, which is kind of splitting hairs. The girl’s age is just one problem, there’s a whole other problem of one actor exposing himself to another, which is an issue regardless of anyone’s age. But there is a lot of hair-splitting here, as Sebastian Bear-McClard claimed he wasn’t responsible for knowing the girl’s age, which doesn’t track as he is (allegedly) the one who reached out to the girl via Instagram, though maybe he’s covering his ass because he was romantically involved with the girl after production. WHAT.

Some of this came out during Bear-McClard’s divorce from EmRata, with Tatiana Siegel now laying out all the pieces and a timeline in relation to the Safdie split up. Allegedly, Josh Safdie became aware of the girl’s age that day on set in 2016 as she “spiraled” following Duress’s behavior, and then Bear-McClard became aware sometime later (insert eye roll here), with Benny finally cluing in in 2023, when Bear-McClard’s gross behavior came to light during his divorce and Benny learned the full extent of what went down in 2016. The Safdies and Bear-McClard dissolved their production company in 2023.

Who knew what when doesn’t matter, though. I don’t care how realistic your cinematic style is, I don’t care how low budget your work is, I don’t care how many directors or producers you have, at the end of the day, everyone should have been made aware they hired a minor to play that role. But actually, go one step back and just don’t f-cking hire a minor to play a sex worker. I thought we all agreed to leave that behavior behind.

The whole thing is a mess from top to bottom, there is no version of this with any heroes. Benny Safdie isn’t off the hook because Josh was the “de facto leader on set”. Benny was still a credited director, he had the ability to stop what was happening, even if it meant fighting with his brother about it, and Josh and Bear-McClard definitely aren’t off the hook just because they didn’t know the girl’s age. They should never have been running a work environment where there was even the slightest chance a minor could end up involved in that scene. And Buddy Duress should have been booted from production not because he was incarcerated, but because he f-cking exposed himself on set! THAT is the problem! Even if the actress involved was 57, it would STILL be a problem!

And then there is the timing of this expose. Josh Safdie is nominated for four Oscars for Marty Supreme, which he directed, co-wrote, co-edited, and co-produced. Benny, meanwhile, missed out entirely and The Smashing Machine only got one nomination, for hair and makeup. It’s hard not to see this story as a classic awards season hit piece, meant to slow momentum and hurt the chances of a particular film/filmmaker, in this case Josh and Marty Supreme. But if this was meant to disparage Josh Safdie, it also disparages Benny Safdie.

Neither brother looks good, both should be answering a lot of questions. Using a story about gross misconduct/negligence on set to damage one brother when you both directed the damn movie isn’t the achievement you think it is. I guess we finally know why the Safdie brothers stopped working together, but what I really want to know is if there will be any real repercussions for what went wrong on set that day in 2016. Josh Safdie was never going to win those Oscars, anyway, increasing his chances of not winning even more is hardly a consequence. Both brothers and all of the producers, but most especially Sebastian Bear-McClard, should be answering some very tough questions this week. So far, though, they are not.

Live long and gossip,

Sarah