and ... a guy who is never going to lie to me." The studio was still resistant, until The French Connection was released to commercial success and a Best Picture Academy Award. While doing his press tour for that film, Friedkin began reading a copy of the novel Blatty had sent. After the first 20 pages he canceled his dinner plans and finished the book. The issues that had given other directors pause did not bother Friedkin: "I was so overwhelmed by the power of this story, and I didn't stop to think about the problems involved with making it." "The pacing is deliberate, and I wanted it to happen slowly because the story, as it affected the real people who inspired it, took place in just that way", Friedkin said in 2015. "I felt we had to go through all of that. You had to see the symptoms. You had to see the treatment that was given out by internal medicine and by psychiatry, and to see that it all had been tried and failed." Early in production, Blatty fired Friedkin when he challenged him after they clashed over what the director felt was Blatty's mishandling of Burstyn's request that a limousine pick her up from the airport, a policy Friedkin himself had instituted. Blatty assumed the two would soon reconcile. Two days later, according to Blatty, he was summoned to a meeting with not only Friedkin but his agent and seven studio lawyers who told Blatty he could not fire the director. After that, Blatty recalled to Peter Biskind, he informed the studio he could no longer have any responsibility for controlling the budget; he and Friedkin did reconcile and got along well for the rest of the picture. Production costs soon exceeded the film's initial $4.2 million ($ in modern dollars) budget. Friedkin went to great lengths manipulating the actors to get the genuine reactions he wanted. Later, Friedkin was unsatisfied with O'Malley's performance as Dyer ministers to the dying Karras at the end of the film, telling him he was doing it "by the numbers". O'Malley protested that it was 2:30 a.m. and he had just administered last rites to his friend for the 15th time. Friedkin then asked if O'Malley trusted him; when the priest said yes, Friedkin slapped him hard across the face to generate a deeply solemn yet literally shaken reaction for the