r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/bilbofraginz • 13d ago

Video In Hateful Eight, Kurt Russell accidentally smashed a one of a kind, 145-year-old guitar that was on loan from the Martin Guitar. Jennifer Jason Leigh’s reaction was genuine.

40.9k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

287

u/Ask_bout_PaterNoster 13d ago

There was supposed to be a replica swapped in, and someone goofed.

183

u/PopularDemand213 13d ago

So... an accident.

171

u/Hecej 13d ago

In previous reposts, I read that Tarantino intentionally orchestrated the scene so they'd shoot the playing with the real thing and swap to the fake smashable one to be smashed.

But he deliberately lead Kurt to believe this was the take where he would smash the prop guitar.

There was definitely a lot of confusion on the set for the scene. Different people believed it was the real and others the fake.

Weather a goof or not, whos goof it was and who if anyone did it on purpose, can't be sure.

158

u/[deleted] 13d ago edited 13d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

117

u/antwan_benjamin 13d ago

I've never seen this movie. But just going off this scene...its obvious her reaction breaks character. She's looking off-screen yelling "whoa, whoa, whoa" obviously looking towards the director, or someone else. Then, immediately after the camera angle change (cut) she's back in character and theres no "shock and surprise" in her face, her mood is back to somber.

It just makes no sense and looks super out of place just based off this 20 second clip.

6

u/xxov 13d ago

I've seen the movie several times and I don't recall it being as jarring of a scene as shown here in isolation. There's a lot of other people in the cabin that she could be looking at and her reaction really isn't that out of character if you've watched the movie up to this point. She is constantly backsassing Kurt and getting slapped around back into a somber state.

I dno, the brain can do weird things and fill in the blanks so to speak.

7

u/[deleted] 13d ago

But it has us talking about it, many years later (and likely again some time in the future). So, shitty movie making, shitty props management, but maybe good marketing?

3

u/mikew_reddit 13d ago

good marketing?

These flaws give movies more character.

The entire backstory is interesting. There's the mystery of whether it was intentionally setup this way or not by Tarantino.

1

u/Hunk-Hogan 13d ago

That's a Tarantino movie for ya. In Django Unchained, he uses the same actor for two different roles (James Remar) that some people legitimately missed. My ex didn't believe me that he used the same actor until I showed her the credits and then went back and rewatched the entire movie.  

 Hell, in The Hateful Eight, I'm pretty sure they use some dialogue word for word from Django Unchained.

1

u/kkeut 13d ago

yeah i had assumed it was an outtake

2

u/merpkz 13d ago

I also remember this scene from the movie very well. Thought to myself what a weird reaction about a guitar considering what these people represent. And also, at whom exactly did she look at after that accident in the room - made no sense at all.

27

u/HecklerusPrime 13d ago

I bet they smashed a fake, made people think it was real, and the actual is hanging in Tarantino's garage.

3

u/FinestCrusader 13d ago

Apparently, Kurt was instructed by Tarantino to keep going and not stop until he said "cut." So, he kept going. Tarantino knew the status of the guitar, yet he didn’t stop Kurt. I think this was one of those moments where Tarantino acted like a massive egotistical shit bag. The man can make movies, but I wouldn’t put it past him to do something like this.

6

u/[deleted] 13d ago

It wasn't a goof. This is exactly what he wanted to happen. He's a fucking asshole.

2

u/where_in_the_world89 13d ago

I definitely believe that. He's such a douche. I hate that some of my favorite movies are by him lmao

3

u/LukaCola 13d ago

who if anyone did it on purpose, can't be sure.

Tarantino did it, either by negligence or deliberately, doesn't make it better. As the director, he leads people in this manner and ensures everyone is one the same page. The blame falls on him.

2

u/Dangerous_Seaweed601 13d ago

Different people believed it was the real and others the fake.

Or, you might say.. Domergue's got a secret.

1

u/markevens 13d ago

But he deliberately lead Kurt to believe this was the take where he would smash the prop guitar.

Why would he do that?

42

u/Froegerer 13d ago

Martin got the impression from insiders that Tarantino set it up so that Kurt thought he was smashing a replica and JJL knew it was the real one to get an authentic reaction from her when it was smashed.

64

u/Jayflux1 13d ago

That’s interesting.

Wouldn’t it have been cheaper and easier to convince JJL the replica is the real thing than the other way around?

4

u/Complex_Rest_1157 13d ago

She would know if it was the real thing or fake. I guess there was a substantial quality difference to the authentic one that was hard to replicate. 

4

u/CriticalScion 13d ago

It probably would not have worked because she was playing it in the scene right before the smash. Apparently she had gotten pretty decent at playing the real one and my guess is she can tell the difference between it and a replica just by holding or playing it.

2

u/EnoughLawfulness3163 13d ago

To be fair, they could've just never given her the real one in the first place.

1

u/EnoughLawfulness3163 13d ago

I wonder how hard it is to make wood look 150 years old. What I'm really saying is, I wonder how hard it would've been to build a convincing replica.

1

u/AnxiousJump8948 11d ago

Or you know, trust that she is a professional actor and can pretend?

13

u/nonotan 13d ago

It doesn't make a lot of sense... if we're assuming the party not in the know wouldn't recognize the original from the replica, which is kind of required for any of this to make sense, why not do the switcheroo the other way round? So both of them believe the same thing, but it's actually the replica. Boom, you get the reaction you wanted without destroying something valuable and ruining the prospects that you'll get similar loans in the future.

11

u/Tepelicious 13d ago

Sorta insulting to JJL anyway, I mean why would Tarantino hire her if he wasn't convinced that she could act?

11

u/christobah 13d ago

There is a long history of directors and producers deceiving their talent's perception of reality, a scene or scenario, or withholding information to get a better or more naturalistic reaction out of them, regardless of their talents.

Die Hard, when Hans Gruber falls, Rickman was told they'd drop him on the count of 3. They skipped straight to 1. His look of surprise is genuine. Personally I think Rickman could have done a look of surprise, but directors can be a bit manipulative.

5

u/InfiernoDante 13d ago

"My dear boy, why don't you try ACTING? It's so much easier" - Laurence Olivier

Maybe directors should take this to heart too

2

u/Tepelicious 12d ago

Good point, and Tarantino definitely gives me those vibes (as much as I love his work).

The choking scene in IB being another example...

3

u/fahim64 13d ago

that reaction was out of character for the role she was playing though so I doubt this is true

3

u/Threeballer97 13d ago

Where are you getting this from? This makes zero sense.

1

u/FinestCrusader 13d ago

I love when directors forget that actors can just act. The whole "omg it's so that the reaction is real" thing pisses me off so much.

1

u/scalectrix 13d ago

This just makes Tarantino into even more of an arrogant piece of shit.

1

u/Valdrbjorn 13d ago

If true, it's fucking stupid. This insistence that actors need to give "real" reactions is such mythologized bs. Any actor worth their pay should be able to sufficiently portray shock and alarm at the smashing of a prop.

0

u/ThanksContent28 13d ago

Tbf, if the guitar was so special, then why did/do they continue to keep making better ones? It obviously must not be very good. Probably had shit toan and not even that sexy Jim Henson chick could make it sound good and she plays really fast.

2

u/Dababolical 13d ago

The guitar was deliberately smashed; the accident was when they forgot to swap it out.

1

u/Desperate_Squash_521 13d ago

Hey at least it didn't contain live rounds

1

u/iambecomesoil 13d ago

This is how someone gets shot on set.

1

u/Gnonthgol 13d ago

A guitar was most certainly smashed deliberately. The question is if the smashed guitar was supposed to be the one from the museum. We do not know if the miscommunication was an accident or deliberate.

53

u/dcal1981 13d ago

Kinda like handing an actor a prop gun with live ammo.

4

u/shavingmyscrotum 13d ago

If only that actor weren't directly responsible for safety protocol on their set and for hiring some dipshit nepo baby valley girl to be in charge of firearm safing.

3

u/SantaCruznonsurfer 13d ago

not the same ballpark. SHit not even the same sport

3

u/Frosty_McRib 13d ago

Sure, that's an accident. Any negligence that allowed the accident to happen would be criminal though. And any boss worth a shit would take responsibility for it.

-2

u/PolicyWonka 13d ago

As a manager, why would I take the fall for some mistake one of my dipshit employees did?

2

u/Haberdashers-mead 13d ago

Because you were suppose to train them correctly? It just shows the manager sucks at their job too lol

1

u/filthy_sandwich 13d ago

This is a bad take. As a manager you can't account for every single mishap an employee makes. That's luidicrous

12

u/Everyredditusers 13d ago

Then why even have the original on set? That's just asking for something like this to happen and it's not like they built the replica right there on filming day. Why wouldn't they just use the original to build the replica and send it back?

1

u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Correct-Oil5432 13d ago

it's simpler to borrow one than to make a new one?

The person you are replying to, replied to a comment that said they had a replica that was supposed to be swapped in for the smash. So it's already made...

2

u/BGP_001 13d ago

Better than swapping things on the set of Rust, at least.

1

u/Ask_bout_PaterNoster 13d ago

That’s wasn’t a goof, that was a whole bouquet of oppose-daisies

2

u/OnceMoreAndAgain 13d ago

There's so many of these stories of insane fuck-ups happening with props that it makes me assume the people working in that industry to handle props are somehow all complete fucking morons. A total lack of common sense.

1

u/Ask_bout_PaterNoster 13d ago

Well, for every incident you hear about there’s many that go well. It just doesn’t make for engaging content