Kimberly Shannon Murphy, the stuntwoman who performed in a perilous scene, disclosed that the epic finale of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” faced a significant challenge during production. Directed and written by Quentin Tarantino, the movie is set in 1960s Hollywood and tells the story of an aging actor named Rick Dalton and his stunt double, Cliff Booth. In the climactic scene, the duo confront a Manson family attack in Rick’s house and engage in a brutal fight to gain the upper hand.
Kimberly Shannon Murphy, while appearing on the Corridor Crew YouTube channel’s “Stuntwomen React” series, shared her experience working on “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” in the latest episode.
In the video above, Murphy discussed the production of the finale of Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and recounted the primary challenge faced by her and the crew, which involved the dog featured in the scene. According to the stuntwoman, they rehearsed the sequence for three months and used three different dogs, each trained to perform progressively more aggressive attacks.
OUATIH was one of Tarantino’s riskier shoots
Murphy also recounted her experience as Madisen Beaty’s stunt double in the climactic scene of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” where Brad Pitt’s character, Cliff, violently attacks Beaty’s character, Katie. With the assistance of Pitt, his stunt double Zack Duhame, and a dummy, Murphy was hurled into a stripped-down rotary phone installed with foam walls, a cushioned fireplace, and a poster with a layer of film and candy glass to avoid additional cuts. There was another hazardous scene in Tarantino’s award-winning movie. Stuntman Mark Wagner disclosed that the Nazi flamethrower sequence in the opening of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” almost went wrong when Leonardo DiCaprio hesitated during a take, causing him and Travis Fienhage to get more flames than intended, causing a second-degree burn on Wagner’s arm.
Tarantino’s commitment to practical filmmaking has resulted in several perilous production sequences, not limited to “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” In “Inglorious Basterds,” many cast members were nearly burned alive in the theater fire scene, as Eli Roth has revealed. Tarantino also personally strangled Diane Kruger in her character’s death scene to elicit a genuine reaction from the actress. With at least one more movie left in his career, it remains to be seen if Tarantino’s quest for authenticity will generate additional nerve-wracking accounts from behind the scenes.