Barbra Streisand Says She Almost Replaced Mandy Patinkin in Yentl After He Told Her He Wanted to Have ‘an Affair’

Barbra Streisand recounts a difficult situation on the set of the first film she directed.

In the new memoirs of the 81-year-old Streisand My name is Barbrawrites the EGOT winner about her directorial debut in 1983 Yentl. Streisand wrote, directed and starred in the film, which follows an early 20th-century Ashkenazi Jewish woman named Yentl who pretends to be a man after her father’s death in order to receive a religious education.

In the book, Streisand recalls casting actress Mandy Patinkin to star opposite her as a character named Avigdor — and that the actor was the only person who “threw my balance” during the film’s production.

“‘I thought we were going to have a more personal relationship,'” recalls Patinkin, now 70, speaking during a run-in with the actor in Streisand’s dressing room shortly after production began. Streisand writes that she asked to speak with Patinkin because he was acting angry and upset on set.

” ‘What?’ I had no idea what he was talking about,” writes Streisand. “[Patinkin says] ‘I thought we were going to have an affair.’ ”

Patinkin’s representatives did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Barbra Streisand Pulls Back on Famous Friends, Lasting Love & More in New Memoir (Exclusive)

Barbra Streisand and Mandy Patinkin in the movie ‘Yentl’.

Hulton Archive/Getty

“I looked at him like he was crazy… 1) I would never have an affair with the actor I was leading, 2) he was married and 3) I wasn’t attracted to him at all,” she recalls. “But I couldn’t tell him that I wasn’t very fascinating. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so I just said, ‘I don’t work that way.’ Tears were running down his cheeks.”

Patinkin is married to actress and writer Kathryn Grody, whom he married in 1980. The New York Times. Streisand, who was married to Elliott Gould from 1963 to 1971 and married to James Brolin since 1998, dated producer and hairstylist Jon Peters during Yentlproduction. She told PEOPLE in 1983 that she originally broke up with Peters while she was making the movie, and that Peters “told me flat out that I was never going to make a movie.”

Streisand writes that she told Patinkin that she would replace him in the film and reshoot his scenes if his behavior did not change. She also described teaching the actor, then only a few years removed from his first film role in 1978. Big fixthrough a series of scenes with varying degrees of success.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Barbra Streisand in ‘Yentl’.

Hulton Archive/Getty

Streisand recalls in the chapter that she wanted Patinkin’s character Avigdor to serve as a strong co-lead for her character Yentl and for the film’s audience. “Mandy was probably irritated. He must have felt like I was putting him in a straitjacket,” she writes. “I realize now, in retrospect, that he wasn’t used to being the leading man. And I was trying to make him that way.”

Elsewhere in the chapter, Streisand writes that Patinkin contacted her years later and asked if she would write a note on the back cover of one of his albums. Streisand refused. “I said, ‘Mandy, you put me through hell… Why did you torture me like that?’ ”

‘Well, I was scared.’ ‘Really?’ ” she writes. “I guess people have different ways of reacting to fear. I was afraid too, but that made me quieter. I listened more carefully. But it was nice to hear the truth, finally. And I said: ‘I didn’t know you were afraid, because you hid it so well. And then you were so rude to everyone.'”

Barbra Streisand says she didn’t have ‘a lot of fun’ in her life before publishing her new memoir

Cover of the book My name is Barbra.

Amazon

Streisand also describes how her difficulties working with Patinkin resulted in her decision to change the climactic scene where Yentl and Avigdor originally spent the night together.

“By this point, Mandy had been making my life miserable for months and I just couldn’t bear the thought of making love with him. I’m not that good of an actress,” she writes. “So I changed it. I rewrote the scene. And now that I look back on it, I wonder if I let my frustration with Mandy get the better of my instincts. Maybe I should have let Yentl… and the audience… that moment.”

Yentl earned Streisand a Golden Globe for Best Director and an Academy Award for Best Original Score upon its 1983 release.

My name is Barbra it’s out now.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education