In a scene filled with various dangers, stuntwoman Kimberly Shannon Murphy reveals Once upon a time in HollywoodHis epic finale had a big challenge to put together. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the 1960s Hollywood dramedy centered on fading actor Rick Dalton and his stunt double Cliff Booth. After finally finding new success with a string of Spaghetti Westerns, the duo find themselves attacked by a group of Manson Family members at Rick’s house, though they get the better of them in vicious fashion.
During the latest episode of “Stuntwomen React” on Runway crew YouTube channel Kimberly Shannon Murphy reflected on her time working Once upon a time in Hollywood.
While detailing the making of the finale to Tarantino’s Hollywood epic, seen in the video above, Murphy recalled the one major challenge she and the crew faced in its production, pointing to the dog featured in the sequence. The stuntwoman revealed that she and her team rehearsed on stage for three months, while also using three different dogs, gradually progressing with each one for the wildest attacks. See what Murphy recalled below:
We rehearsed this scene for three months. The reason was because of the dogs. [I’ve] not [worked with] Pitbull [before], we actually rehearsed for three months in this space with the dogs and we had an idea of what the scene was going to be, but Quentin hadn’t really decided who was going to do what. When he enters the stage is when he decides exactly what is going to happen on stage. Well, we were all trained with the dogs, so I was doing bites and doing all the things that, if he said, “Okay, actually, we’re going to have the dog go to Kim,” we were all ready for it. We took baby steps, so first we learned to pull the dogs with a trailer.
So we had three pitbulls, one was Brad’s that we didn’t do anything with because it was his dog that he worked with throughout the movie so the dog never had to be around attacks or see attacks or anything obvious reasons. This dog had a double that made small, not so violent attacks that we were starting to do things with. At the beginning, there’s a crotch bite, so we used the tamest dog to start doing that, and then Sir, who’s the really violent dog that we did all the attacks with, is the one who’s in all those scenes. We ended up doing it with just him, but it was a gradual process, which is why we rehearsed it for so long. We’d put on music, add all these elements to the scene, so the dogs would get used to it, and then we’d put on a mask so they’d get used to seeing us with blood on our faces, and then we’d do it with the lights off.
So it was like all these little things that we did to add to a scene on a daily basis so that when we went into it, the dogs weren’t overwhelmed or confused or all these other things. We had to introduce all of that early so they wouldn’t freak out, because once they started attacking you, if they got distracted coming off you, they could go somewhere else. We had other protection, but mostly you’re protected in the area they attack, so you never want them to come off and go to another part of your body or someone else in the room. If the dog came out on someone we all just stopped and didn’t move and let the trainers come in and deal with it. There wasn’t an issue. [Chuckles]
The dog plays, as far as the dog goes, but you don’t ever want to get bitten by a pit bull, I’ll tell you right now. We had plaster-like things that we put on our hands, and I would come home with bruises and bumps and blood because it was so strong, and I literally had the dog drag me across the room. But the trainers were so good and could get the dog off us in two seconds, and it was so well made, tested and prepared, everyone did an amazing job.
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Murphy would go on to detail the doubling time for Madisen Beaty Once upon a time in Hollywoodits epic finale, which saw Katie’s character brutally beaten by Brad Pitt’s Cliff. With the help of Pitt, Zack Duhame’s stuntman and a mannequin, Murphy found herself thrown into a stripped-down rotary telephone, which saw its wall mount replaced with foam, a padded fireplace and poster encased in candy glass, and a membrane layer. to avoid further cuts.
That wasn’t the only dangerous sequence in Tarantino’s Oscar-winning film. Stuntman Mark Wagner recently revealed that the Nazi flamethrower scene is coming Once upon a time in Hollywood The opening nearly went awry when Leonardo DiCaprio’s hesitation during one of the takes led to him and Travis Fienhage getting an extra dose of flame, resulting in a second-degree burn on his hand.
Once upon a time in Hollywood it wasn’t the only time Tarantino’s dedication to practical filler production led to a risky production run. Inglorious Basterds, a similar saga that changed history, saw much of the cast nearly cremated, as star Eli Roth revealed during the theater fire scene, while Tarantino also revealed that he strangled Diane Kruger herself during the death scene of her character in hopes of getting an authentic reaction from the star. With Tarantino at least one more film in his career, it will be interesting to see if his move to realistic productions leads to more harrowing behind-the-scenes stories.
Source: Corridor Crew
