Faye Dunaway says bipolar disorder was ‘the reason’ for her infamously bad behaviour

Faye Dunaway has reflected on her notoriously bad behaviour on movie sets, explaining that a medical condition was partially to blame.

Faye Dunaway says in an upcoming HBO documentary that her bipolar disorder was partially to blame for her notoriously bad behaviour on movie sets.

“Throughout my career, people know there were tough times,” the actress, 83, says in the movie, before stressing she doesn’t want to dismiss her behaviour.

“I don’t mean to make an excuse about it,” she continues in the doco which premieres locally on BINGE on July 14.

“I’m responsible for my actions but this is what I came to understand, was the reason for them. It’s something you need to be aware of, you need to try and do the right thing to take care of it.”

Faye Dunaway partially blames her bipolar disorder for her bad behaviour on movie sets. Picture: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty

Dunaway’s peers labelled her “hostile” and said she was difficult to work with. Picture: Francois GUILLOT/AFP

Dunaway added that the condition, which she called a “biological physical” reality, is “part of my makeup” and she is grateful that medication is available.

“The medication is crucial,” she explained.

The Bonnie and Clyde star’s clashes on sets are legendary.

Stream Faye on BINGE from July 14, available on Hubbl.

Dunaway and Warren Beatty in a scene from Bonnie and Clyde in 1967.

Chinatown director Roman Polanski called her a “gigantic pain in the ass” but added that he had “never known an actress to take work as seriously as she does.”

Bette Davis famously called Dunaway the worst person she had ever worked with during an interview with Johnny Carson in 1988, describing her as “totally impossible,” “uncooperative” and “very unprofessional.”

And in 2019, she was fired from the Broadway-bound play Tea at Five for creating a “hostile” and “dangerous” environment backstage that left production members fearing for their safety.

The actress starred opposite Jack Nicholson in the 1974 film Chinatown.

A performance was reportedly cancelled before curtain rose because Dunaway slapped and threw things at crew members who were trying to put on her wig. She also allegedly began “verbally abusing” the crew, who became scared for their wellbeing.

She has also clashed with hairstylists in both Los Angeles and New York.

Dunaway admits to throwing epic tantrums on the set of Chinatown and Bonnie and Clyde.

This photo of the actress in 1977 at the Beverly Hills Hotel the morning after winning the Best Actress Oscar for Network is also the doco’s cover art.

In 2018, the star reportedly moved an appointment at the swanky Warren Tricomi salon 10 times in one day and then bellowed at staff, “Do you know who I am? … ‘I am Faye Dunaway!’”

Dunaway’s son, Liam, whom she shares with late photographer Terry O’Neill, reveals in the documentary that his mother “hit rock bottom” a couple of years ago.

Dunaway with her son Liam, photographed in the early 1980s.

“So I kind of got to the point where I said, ‘Hey listen, let’s get you to this clinic in Boston,’” he recalled.

“She went to lectures and classes and they got her on the right stuff and she came out like a whole new person.”

The Thomas Crown Affair star also spoke about having “problems with alcohol” and added that she has been in a “program for 15 years.”

The documentary, which premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, also delves into her role as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest, which has become a camp classic.

Faye premieres Sunday, July 14 on BINGE, available on Hubbl

This article originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission