Showtime’s Ray Donovan aired seven seasons before wrapping earlier this year, so you’d be forgiven for not remembering the season one arc of Frank Whaley’s doomed FBI agent. Whaley, however, remembers it well, if for no other reason than he allegedly got slapped in the face by co-star Jon Voight while on set.
Whaley, a Hollywood veteran who you probably remember from Pulp Fiction and Swimming With Sharks, tweeted out the claim last night after watching Voight, a noted Trump supporter, introduce the fever dream that was last night’s Republican National Convention. (Voight praised Trump’s “swift action” in addressing the spread of COVID-19, which is rich.)
“Fuck Jon Voight,” Whaley wrote. “On Ray Donovan he slapped me across the face in the middle of a scene because he couldn’t keep up, then denied doing it. He forgot about the still photographer who was on set. Bottom line: Jon Voight is a major dick.”
Sure enough, the tweet comes accompanied by a still photo of Voight mid-slap as Whaley reacts, looking almost as shocked as Kramer did when Voight bit his arm.
It wasn’t long before the less-talented but equally Trump-supporting Dean Cain logged on to defend Voight. “He slapped you—that’s quite clear,” wrote the guy making a movie about Trump walking on Mars. “The reason he slapped you remains a mystery…although I have an idea.” Whaley has yet to respond to the one-time Superman’s tweet, but others have, mainly to call him “pooperman.”
A representative for Voight did not immediately respond to The A.V. Club’s request for comment.
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93 Comments
So, a couple things:An article about Frank Whaley with nary a mention of Career Opportunities is yet another indication that the AV Club was never good.Except for the fact that his suit fits, Jon Voight looks…a lot like Donald Trump in that photo.Does being a Republican/conservative celebrity turn you into an entitled aggro asshole, or does being an entitled aggro asshole just lead you to align with Republicans?
Check out the big brain on Brett!
An aside…I always thought the quote was “check out the big brain on Brad”. I googled it and apparently I’m not alone, half of the quotes I see are for Brett and Brad! Yet his character’s name is Brett. So I’m wrong but I’m not sure if I can unlearn that after 25 years. 2020 just kicked me in the balls…again.
I’ve seen this movie many times. Sam Jackson definitely says ‘Brad.’ I always took it as belittling or making fun of Brett’s name since it comes after Sam Jackson has already established the character’s name as Brett. Thanks for coming to my Brett Talk.
He clearly said “Brad” but then he just as clearly says “Brett”. I never sweated it, and assumed he couldn’t keep the name straight and didn’t care because Brad/Brett was just an inconsequential pissant to him, and was about to die in two minutes anyway.
An aside…I always thought the quote was “check out the big brain on
Brad”. I googled it and apparently I’m not alone, half of the quotes I
see are for Brett and Brad! Yet his character’s name is Brett. So I’m
wrong but I’m not sure if I can unlearn that after 25 years. 2020 just kicked me in the balls…again.Mandela effect!
Welcome to Earf!
I know!It’s not like we didn’t already know that Voight’s a major dick. The only question I have for Whaley is this:What does Marcellus Wallace look like?
The fact that Frank Whaley probably gets asked that question once a week in real life causes me no end of amusement.
I’d be surprised if it’s only once a week..
does he look look like a bitch?
If the chart is accurate, then that would be a negative.The more important question: Why did Brett try to, shall we say, treat him like one?
I think that was the only blooper in the movie when there were bullet holes in the wall before the guy came out of the other room
One of the few, but most people didn’t notice the first few time they saw it because Jackson was chewing the scenery so thoroughly.
The first thing I actually noticed the first time I saw it was how badly they sewed the squib into Brett’s shirt. I knew he was going to take one in the shoulder before Jules even raised his gun.
1st time I saw it, I thought there was a continuity mistake, like Bruce Willis at Marcellus’ and then shooting travolta, but I haven’t been able to see it again
More likely it was the product of many, many edits. It’s also possible they hastily re-shot the scene after they shot Alexis Arquette’s scene and didn’t patch the holes.
There were other actors in Career Opportunities?
That poster still haunts my dreams
THAT scene awakened a very young me
What’s Career Opportunities?
I only remember two performers in Career Opportunities, left and right ones.
I just remember the famous two on the movie poster. And this guy.
Someone had to lock him in the Target store with Jennifer Connelly.
Jennifer Connelly is VERY disappointed in you:
“An article about Frank Whaley with nary a mention of Career Opportunities is yet another indication that the AV Club was never good.”No one cares about your Jennifer Connelly fapping regimen.
To your last point, can’t it be both?
I think once you get swollen pockets and a swollen head, suddenly the party of no taxes and no apologies starts to look good.
An article about Frank Whaley with nary a mention of Career Opportunities is yet another indication that the AV Club was never goodtook the words right out of my mouth.
Excellent, EXCELLENT point on Career Opportunities.
And an amendment to point 3: Does being a Republican automatically make you, when seeing a photo of someone committing a violent act, to say “We need to see THE REST of the video!”
~ Is being a devoted dependent of the Nanny State a congenital condition or an acquired trait? ~ Was your brother an only child?
I came here specifically to make sure someone said Career Opportunities, and all that it provides as a visual experience.
or riot in the street and scream at people-oh wait, not republican
Wow, it’s crazy how so many Trump supporters are turning out to be horrible people in their personal lives!
Turns out you CAN judge a book by its cover. So long as the title of that book is “I’m a Trump supporter”.
It’s almost as though breathlessly fawning over an objectively bad person says something about you as a person…
Tell it to the Louis CK stans.
Just the other day a coworker of mine referred to Keanu Reeves as a “boring white guy,” which led to a discussion about people of colour that white people think are white, and someone asked if Dean Cain was white-passing enough to count. I guess this settles it.
Then there’s Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas…
This kind of thing didn’t happen when they just had Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair.
EMPTY CHAIR 2020
The empty chair passed six months ago from easily preventable oak disease.
Sounds good.
Moby Dick is about a whale. Coincidence!?!?
And Voight is well known as a Chrysler man.“Hop in my Chrysler, it’s as big as a whale and it’s about to set sail…”
Well, he already bit Kramer.
Was it the right Jon Voight though? Did you match up the slap mark with his hand?
It could be the other guy, the one who owned the Chrysler LeBaron…
The Assman met the other Assman.
Whaley got off easy…
If I ever see Frank Whaley in person, I’m slapping him…on his assssssyeeeahhhbabbbyyy!
Hey Dean, I come across people all the time that have good reason to be slapped. I don’t do it though, because that’s assault.
Dean Cain is bush league – a true Republican of the 2020s would say that the photograph doesn’t exist and stand by that assertion. Saying “this photo is real, but there are situations where your coworker is allowed to slap you” is some 1990s Republican shit. And he’s on especially shaky footing since professionalism and basic decency were literally the only things that prevented Teri Hatcher from whaling on his pretty ass every single day.
Wait, are there interviews where Teri Hatcher drags the shit out of Dean Cain because those are an intersection of many of my interests….
Well, Dean Cain stopped being popular in the 90s, so that makes sense.
I had no idea he was a Trumper; then again I know nothing about him other than my tween self being jealous of him gettin’ with Hatcher on screen. I got to meet him while bartending a decade or so ago, and he was one of the most down-to-earth ‘faces’ of many I interacted with over the years. He was really charming, and was very entertained that absolutely none of my Irish or Scottish coworkers had even heard of the Superman show. One of the bolder ones said “Do ye still fit in that suit? Care te try it on fer me?” and got him choking on Guinness. Hopefully I don’t see him on camera ever again, so my only memories are “Dude who banged Lois Lane” and “Funny chap at the pub”
Only because of a massive liberal conspiracy to blacklist him, obviously.I mean, what other reasons could there possibly be for a person not to become a wildly successful movie star?
It’s real…and it’s spectacular.
It’s Assault and Battery.(tbh i’d punch a nazi for Jesus).
Everyone in Donald Trump’s orbit is complete dogshit.
I would normally say to heck with professionalism, Whaley should have kicked the shit out of Jon Voight, except that Voight is a really old man and that probably wouldn’t be cool. Dean Cain, however can get beaten to death as far as I’m concerned
Plus, Voight probably has enough clout to ensure Whaley would never see work ever again.
True, but Dean Cain could make sure that Frank Whaley never does another Lifetime or ION movie of the week so ……
What’s the downside?
Really feel like Whaley should have happened more. Did Broderick or Cusack get his roles? Was Career Opportunities his shot and he missed?
I mean, he’s had a nice career as a that guy. Killed Hoffa. Was Moonlight Graham. Got killed by Jules. Token white guy in Luke Cage.
And he was one of the more interesting criminals in Law & Order-CI, as his case was based loosely on the Madalyn Murray-O’Hair murder.
he did a mean Robbie Krieger in Oliver Stone’s The Doors where he, if I remember correctly, actually learned how to play those guitar parts and played them live on film with the actors. I mean, the movie wasn’t exactly a classic but that’s some serious committment.
He teamed up with Broderick in The Freshman.
Considering how closely he resembles Corin Nemec, maybe casting directors got those two guys confused.
“He didn’t start the fire…had nothing to do with it..”
Whereas ASSMAN demands to be slapped… and not on the face.
I think the most amazing thing about this article is that Dean Cain thinks he’s in the same league with Frank Whaley
So true. Whaley is a WORKING ACTOR.
Frank Whaley is one of those actors who, when he shows up in something, I’m always glad to see him. He’s got a super solid body of work. I’ve liked him since he played young Archie Graham in Field of Dreams.
I‘ve liked him since A Midnight Clear. God, that movie destroys me.
He taught us that no one who likes swing music could become a Nazi in Swing Kids.
“Y’ know ‘oo’s got a super solid body? Adam Dry-vah! That’s ‘oo!
love that Dean Cain sees a 4th-rate Twitter beef erupting and decides he needs to chime in…probably thinking there’s still enough time to be added as a substitute speaker during the RNC
While likely true, it would have been a much better headline if it was Gerald McRaney instead of Jon Voight.
The real messed up part is that Voight later chewed on all of Whaley’s pencils.
hey remember when he was estranged from the adult daughter he hadn’t really bothered to raise and said *she* was the crazy one?
Fun Fact: His brother wrote “
That is pretty fun, had no idea.
The fact that you led with “Wild Thing” and not “Angel of the Morning”…
You’d think the biggest disappointment in this story would be Voight, but instead it’s Dean Cain. Growing up I liked the adventures of Lois and Clark and I liked him as Superman. Now I have trouble even imagining him as the character.
Randall Colburn, hmmmm…lets see. He “occasionally writes plays and was a”talking head in Best Worst Movie”. Very, very impressive. I think his so called curriculum vitae is fairly reflective of the junior high school tenor and composition of this article. Never before heard of this AV Club site, but I have an earnest question. Did you guys actually pay the author (and I use that term advisedly) of this rubbish?
The worst thing about the Spacey situation is the hurt and damage it did to his victims and the psychological effects it may have on them for life. The second worst thing is that Swimming With Sharks will now probably never get a blu-ray release.
Say Trump again! I dare you, I double dare you motherfucker!
Frank Whaley is a National Treasure:Steve
Bushak Happy
as a clam. Use the air
conditioner.Clark
Kellogg: He said to leave them open.
Steve
Bushak Who? Haystack Calhoun? What is he? A zoologist? I’ll take
responsibility.
Clark
Kellogg: All right.
Clark
Kellogg: I told
you he’d throw up.
Oh come on, that’s clearly a picture of Jon Voight slapping John Savage.
Isn’t his entire career based upon looking and sounding like a guy you want to slap the shit out of?