I have all characters and events a bit mixed up but wasn’t MF in another production from HW some years ago? I don’t remember if it was this movie or another one where he was considered a candidate to win some awards. Then he lost all of them and his career sort of slowed down for a while. I seem to recall that some people thought MF might have not agreed to go ahead with the usual promotion stunts & there was a sense that he was punished but he did not bend over.