If truth be told, it wasn’t entirely Polanski’s problem. Cassavetes was extremely difficult to direct. Everyone who worked with him testified to the fact, even directors who personally liked him and enjoyed his performances. Don Siegel, who was the closest of personal friends and almost always responsive to Cassavetes’ suggestions on the set, was regularly exasperated by his antics. In Siegel’s view, Cassavetes seemed to treat every encounter as a test of his manhood. He seemed to have a chip on his shoulder and a hair-trigger for perceived insults or slights. He positively enjoyed arguing, and treated the most politely framed request as a putative challenge or threat. In short, in his interactions with other men he was, at least at moments, not very different from some of the male characters in Faces.