One of the most iconic lines in backwoods horror Deliverance was actually never in the script – and one star “took it too far” when it came to method acting.
Fans of the 1972 backwoods horror will remember that horrific scene when the four city-slicker pals are brutally attacked by two inbred mountain men on their canoeing trip gone wrong.
It’s a horrific rape scene which had fans covering their eyes in the cinema, in which one of the men taunts: “Squeal, piggy, piggy!”
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But that line was never actually written in the script.
Burt Reynolds, who shot to fame as Lewis in the flick, confirmed that his co-star Bill McKinney – best known for playing one of the mountain men – improvised the line.
(Image: Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
The legendary actor said Bill “took the method [acting] way too far”.
He confessed in his book My Life: “I used to get up at five in the morning and see [Bill] running nude through the golf course while the sprinklers watered the grass. A strange dude.
“He always played sickos but he played them well. With my dark sense of humour, I was kind of amused by him.”
The actor went on to say: “As we got closer to the rape scene, I caught him staring at Ned Beatty in an odd, unnerving way. Ned would see it, and look away.
(Image: Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
“I asked him how he planned to handle the rape scene. McKinney turned out to be a pretty good guy who just took the method way too far. Staring straight at Ned, he whispered, ‘I’ve always wanted to try that. Always have.’
Director Boorman was forced to bring in additional cameras, knowing the actors would only let him get a single take of the brutal scene.
Reynolds confessed that the mountain men actors were “hands down brilliant” and “scared the sh**” out of cinema-goers at the time, who were left “crawling out of the theatre” in fear.
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“None of that creepy ‘Squeal, piggy, piggy’ stuff was in the script. But McKinney, I swear to God, really wanted to hump Ned. And I think he was going to,” he went on.
It was the first time Burt ever saw camera operators turn their heads away from a scene – and he was then forced to intervene, “diving” on McKinney and pulling him off his co-star Ned.
He said: “Ned, who was crying from both rage and fear, found a big stick and started beating him on the head. Half a dozen guys grabbed Ned and pulled him away. We separated the two of them and let things cool off.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
