There’s method acting, and then there’s whatever the hell went on behind the scenes and on-camera during David Ayer’s gritty war epic Fury, with the filmmaker labeling himself as a “ruthless director” when justifying the intense, rigorous, and physically violent preparations he thrust upon his principal cast.
We’re not just talking about Shia LaBeouf refusing to bathe, converting from Judaism to Christianity, repeatedly slicing his own face open with a real knife, and pulling out a tooth in the name of getting into character, either, although that does neatly sum up the borderline barbarism on display.
A stuntman was accidentally stabbed in the shoulder, Brad Pitt had to break up a fight between LaBeouf and Scott Eastwood, with the leading man also getting into a heated exchange with Clint’s boy when he kept spitting on the outside of the tank, which additionally happened to be their place of residence during the shoot to add yet another layer of authenticity.
In fact, Pitt admitted that Fury‘s relentless intensity was deliberately designed to break the ensemble, with Jon Bernthal recalling the time he repeatedly kicked his A-list co-star in the nuts, while black eyes and bloody noses were par for the course. Was it all worth it in the end? Well, the movie won strong notices from critics and landed $211 million at the box office, so maybe.
It’s definitely been doing a turn on Netflix this weekend, though, with FlixPatrol naming the torturous tank tale as one of the platform’s most-watched titles, offering another sliver of justification for what everyone involved had to endure.
