Continuing a series recalling little nuggets heard on film maker commentaries. In this instalment Gunnar Hansen remembers filming a scene with Marilyn Burns during the legendary 27 hour shooting day and the moment when the mild-mannered actor transformed into his character Leatherface...
This scene there's a tube...a bulb in my palm with the knife and there's a tube to feed the fake blood. We shot this over and over again because the tube kept clogging. There's a piece of scotch tape over the blade edge to keep it dull. We couldn't get the blood out of the tube onto the knife edge and so after the 4th or 5th take while they're all getting ready to shoot it I turned away from everybody and stripped the tape off the knife and the blood tube and actually just cut her. And the reason was at this point we were insane and now we're 18 hours into this 27 hour day and at this point I was so crazy I just wanted to get the film over with. And I didn't care about anything, I didn't care about hurting her, I just wanted to not do this again...
Gunnar Hansen,
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Dark Sky DVD/Blu-Ray, commentary index point 71:01)
Great article. He was at Frightfest one year and I thought extremely friendly and very articulate on modern horror. Gunnar is a good bloke.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Paul. Yep, he seems like a really nice guy. I'm looking forward to reading Gunnar's forthcoming book Chain Saw Confidential: How We Made the World's Most Notorious Horror Movie...
ReplyDeleteNice one Wes. Look forward to any more info on the making of TCM... By the way I recommend The Friedkin Connection. This one focuses on filmmaking, not his personal life. Really enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant stuff Paul, I had no idea about this Friedkin memoir. I'm gonna get this right away. Many thanks !
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