Oliver Stone stated filming Pure Born Killers positively had its challenges and Robert Downey Jr. didn’t make it any simpler.
Thirty years after the discharge of the 1994 crime romance, the Oscar-winning filmmaker regarded again on the movie for a latest oral historical past by Esquire. This included Downey’s improvisation in a scene, the place his character dips the entrance tails of his white shirt in pretend blood and pulls it via his pants zipper to simulate a bloody penis.
“Oh come on—that’s an excessive amount of! You’re going too far, Robert,” Stone recalled yelling on the actor for the crude second. “You’re ruining my film! Neglect the dumb dick thought. … This isn’t some slapstick bullshit.”
Nonetheless, the director later reversed course, telling the Oppenheimer star, “Wait, wait—wait a second. Let me see the dick factor once more.” Downey complied with the orders earlier than Stone added, “Pull it again a half inch. All proper. Let’s go.”
Pure Born Killers adopted Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis’ characters, lovers and psychopathic serial killers, who grow to be media sensations whereas on their cross-country killing spree. Downey performed trashy TV journalist Wayne Gale.
Filming for the 1994 film additionally got here at a time when Downey was combating habit. “The one time I used to be awake… was between Motion and Reduce,” the Iron Man star admitted.
Nonetheless, it wasn’t simply Downey. Stone advised the outlet that manufacturing “was a zoo within the sense the actors have been all on completely different sorts of journeys. I believe Woody was probably the most sane.” And that’s saying quite a bit, as Harrelson is thought for his marijuana use.
“I’ll say this, and Oliver reassured me of this: I don’t wish to say I used to be the ethical heart on this film, however I used to be the one doing the least quantity of medication! Which is—it’s by no means occurred in my profession or my life,” Harrelson added. “And nobody’s ever executed extra medication than me, however I used to be Mom Teresa on this one.”
Except for the craziness that ensued on set, which Downey additionally described as a “precision-executed three-ring circus ballet,” the actor nonetheless extremely praised Stone for what he created with Pure Born Killers: “With this film, Oliver Stone has bought one thing that also bears reexamination.”
Downey later added, “Oliver Stone is a director who, barring [Christopher] Nolan and perhaps a couple of others, is the best embodiment of social commentary by way of cinema. Oliver Stone has by no means made a film that wasn’t saying one thing. By no means.”