The making of American History X has passed into cinematic legend: Kaye was locked out of the editing suite by the producers after he recut the film; he was enraged when Norton was allowed to produce a third edit behind his back, and tried to change his own directing credit to Humpty Dumpty. By his own admission, he was suffering "a kind of mania": he brought a rabbi, priest and lama to a meeting with the producers; then refused to talk directly to them, communicating via (extremely expensive) ads in the trade press. Even after American History X had conclusively got away from him the studio released Norton's version Kaye continued to act up, cementing his notoriety as a wildman. He stopped using his phone, hiring an intermediary to do all his talking for him. His Osama stunt was prompted by a request from Marlon Brando to host an acting workshop; the students reacted badly and threw their coffee at him.