The teenage sex scene that sparked infamous rift between edgy director brothers behind Hollywood’s hottest movies

One of the more enduring riddles that has mystified Hollywood in recent years is what triggered the rift between Josh and Benny Safdie.

Trying to figure out what prompted the breakup of the hottest indie director duo in town — brothers, no less! — after a string of critically acclaimed hits has been a favored parlor game of Hollywood insiders and reporters. Rumors swirled that one brother went full MAGA, creating tensions, while the duo vaguely blamed the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike in conversation with colleagues. 

Speculation only intensified on Thursday, January 22, when Josh nabbed four Oscar nominations for his solo effort “Marty Supreme,” while Benny came up empty-handed for his “The Smashing Machine.”

Josh Safdie and Timothée Chalamet filming “Marty Supreme” in Manhattan, October 2025. GC Images

But the root of the quarrel stems from a much darker incident that occurred on the set of their 2017 breakout “Good Time,” Page Six Hollywood can reveal, with Benny cutting ties with his brother in 2023 after he learned the full scope of the event.

According to “Good Time” sources, a 17-year-old girl was cast to play a prostitute in the crime thriller. Once on set, the teenager was thrust into a scene that involved nudity and simulated sex with “actor” Buddy Duress during production in New York.

As part of their verité style, the Safdies were known for using a mix of professional stars like the film’s lead, Robert Pattinson, as well as non-actors like Duress, who had just been released from prison. (Duress, real name Michael Stathis, had been jailed numerous times dating back to 2009 on drug charges, weapons violations, fencing stolen property and motor vehicle theft, according to court records.)

While Josh watched the action unfold on his monitor, and Benny stood in the corner holding the boom, Duress, who was high at the time, pulled down his pants, exposed himself and asked the girl if “he could stick it in” as the cameras continued to roll, multiple sources tell Page Six Hollywood. (Duress died of a heroin overdose in November 2023.)

“Any director who had seen that should have yelled ‘Cut!’ and stopped the scene, but Josh let it continue,” says an on-set source who noted that Josh, and not Benny, was the de facto commander on set.

Three sources say Josh, who is now vying for this year’s best director Oscar, became aware of the girl’s age on the day of production, shortly after the scene shot, as the traumatized girl spiraled. Josh declined comment.

Using a minor for nudity and a sex scene would flout industry norms, including a Screen Actors Guild rule that stipulates work conditions not be “detrimental to the health, morals and safety of the minor.” Those familiar with the chain of events say Josh’s recklessness was beyond the pale.

The Safdies removed the scene sometime before the A24 film made its splashy world premiere at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Sources close to them insist that the scene was excised “for creative reasons.” But the repercussions of that incident didn’t surface until 2022, when their former producing partner, Sebastian “Sebo” Bear-McClard, became locked in a bitter divorce with actress Emily Ratajkowski, threatening to expose the “Good Time” dirty laundry. (In a side drama, the then-single Bear-McClard had become romantically involved with the “Good Time” actress after production wrapped, and that information was now bubbling up in EmRata’s battle for custody of their son.)

Sources also said Bear-McClard had dalliances on the set of the Safdies’ “Uncut Gems,” including an extramarital fling with a cast member. A rep for the siblings at the time said they were “made aware of [McClard’s] behavior in July 2022.” 

It was also the moment Benny was made aware of the “Good Time” actress’s age, creating a “wedge” between the brothers, as one friend of theirs described it. Josh blamed Bear-McClard for hiring a minor. Bear-McClard pushed back and noted that he wasn’t the producer responsible for ensuring her age. Sources also note that Bear-McClard wasn’t in the room when Duress tried to have on-camera sex with the teen. The brothers cut ties with Bear-McClard and began private mediation to unravel the company the trio founded.

“You don’t all of a sudden develop a moral conscience six years later. Like that’s not how it works,” says a source familiar with the drama.

Still, the Safdies continued to work with each other for another nine months amid mounting tensions. In early 2023, they were in pre-production on yet another red-hot property that would reunite them with their “Uncut Gems” star Adam Sandler at Netflix. Then, in March 2023, I reported for Variety on the behind-the-scenes drama of Ratajkowski’s split from Bear-McClard, which included some of the details from the “Good Time” incident including the girl’s age. It was the final straw for Benny, who swiftly ended his creative partnership with his brother, insiders say.

As a result, their Sandler project for Netflix was suddenly dead. The edgy auteurs then went their separate ways, with Josh tackling “Marty Supreme” with Timothee Chalamet, and Benny pivoting to “The Smashing Machine” with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Benny Safdie and Dwayne Johnson on the set of “The Smashing Machine” last year. Courtesy Everett Collection

As the town pondered the Safdie breakup, it turns out the sibling rivalry in this year’s Oscar race is merely a secondary drama. Now that the dust has settled on this year’s nominations, it’s clear that Josh prevailed, with “Marty Supreme” landing nine nominations overall, while “The Smashing Machine” earned just one in a minor category.

Regardless, both will continue to work with Hollywood’s A-list. But some of Josh’s longtime associates are asking, At what cost? The brothers have a history of playing fast and loose with labor norms in creating their signature aesthetic. While shooting the Jay-Z “Our Block” music video in Brooklyn in 2017, they allegedly raised eyebrows when they kept a child actor on a rooftop past 1 a.m. and long after the allowable eight hours. One on-set source says he was horrified by Josh’s lack of regard for the child, who cried and asked to go home because he was tired.

Josh, for one, still appears to be enamored with working with unhinged non-actors: During a recent awards season Q&A, Chalamet said that a “Marty Supreme” background actor threatened him and warned, “I was just in jail for 30 years. You really don’t want to f–k with me. You don’t want to see me angry.”

Apparently awards voters were more inclined to reward his risky style.

“It seems Academy members have a very short memory when it comes to the on-set behavior of their ‘best directors,’” says Anne Henry, co-founder of BizParentz, an advocacy group for child actors. “It is troubling that just a few years later Josh Safdie is being honored as a director. Maybe it is my perspective as a child advocate, but I don’t consider a director who hires a non-union kids off Instagram, skirts safety protections for minors, has a girl do a surprise nude scene, to be stellar. I would have hoped Oscar-nominated directors would be judged for their methods and professionalism as well. This is 2026. We shouldn’t be in a ‘create entertainment at all costs’ environment.”