oddy knocky

14th Dec 2012

Death Becomes Her (1992)

Question: In the scene when Madeline falls down the stairs, the stunt double appears to take an impossibly hard fall tumbling down those solid marble steps. It is obvious that CGI was used at the start of the fall, when we see Meryl Streep's face hitting the stairs, but during the tumble there was definitely a stunt double used. Do you know if the stunt double did this fall in one take, as it appears in the film, or if special editing was used to make the fall appear harder and faster than it actually was? I can't believe the stunt double could perform such a hard fall without serious injury, but it looks genuine in the film.

Answer: Special editing was used to make the fall seem faster and longer than what it was. If you watch the fall and look closely you can see that two of the shots used were a repeat. The editors used these two shots twice in the fall in order to make the fall appear longer and faster.

oddy knocky