Klaus Kinski Clutching at the Throat of Director Werner Herzog During the Filming of “Cobra Verde” (1987)

The relationship between director Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski reached a volatile peak during the filming of Cobra Verde (1987), which marked their fifth and final collaboration.

Tensions frequently escalated into physical or psychological threats. In one well-documented moment, Kinski held a machete to Herzog’s throat to supposedly heighten a scene’s realism. On other occasions, Kinski reportedly attempted to attack Herzog with a rock and was photographed attempting to throttle him in front of extras.

Kinski’s “perpetual torrent of verbal abuse” led the film’s original cinematographer, Thomas Mauch, to walk out on the project. Herzog was forced to replace him with Viktor Růžička. The pair often spoke of wanting to kill one another. Herzog later claimed that during a particularly bad argument where Kinski threatened to quit, Herzog threatened to kill Kinski and then himself.

Disputes began as early as pre-production, with Kinski disagreeing with Herzog over filming locations. Herzog often used a “gray rock” method, remaining calm and unresponsive, to prevent Kinski’s explosive rages from completely derailing the production.

This would be Kinski’s last collaboration with Herzog – he’d die four years after its release, having made only two films, both nearly unwatchable (Nosferatu in Venice and Paganini). It seems to have gone about as well as the preceding four, going by Klaus’s comments.

Kinski’s later writings about the film were filled with vitriol, even comparing Herzog’s methods to those of “Adolf Hitler” due to how Herzog managed the large crowds of extras. He said: “I wish Herzog would catch the plague, more than ever. He was even more helpless, more stupid and at the same time more persistent against me, than he was in the last four films, I shot with him. Although he urgently needed my help, and pretended, he would kiss my ass for that, he did the opposite behind my back. The people from Ghana are friendly and peaceful. Herzog knew, how to use them for his purpose. I knew his criminal and enslaving methods since Peru, where he always went for the most helpless and where I eventually called him Adolf Hitler. In Ghana he excelled himself.”

Herzog’s opinions of Kinski are deeply explored in his 1999 documentary retrospective, My Best Fiend (Mein liebster Feind), in which he examines their unique friendship, the associated hatred, and the legacy that both qualities were responsible for. The filming of Cobra Verde and the relationship of Herzog and Kinski was also the subject of a 1987 Swiss documentary film titled Location Africa.