
An actor who was really stabbed on stage - smacktoward
https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51878964
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KyleBrandt
Somewhat related, Brandon Lee was killed in a firearm accident filming "The
Crow". A dummy bullet was stuck in the barrel, and a subsequent blank
cartridge was fired, causing the dummy bullet to propelled.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee)

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reitzensteinm
Also Jon-Erik Hexum, who played Russian Roulette between takes with a blank
cartridge.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-
Erik_Hexum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Hexum)

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atgreen
I saw an actor get stabbed for real on stage in a production of Julius Caesar
at the Stratford theater (Ontario, Canada). It was a long time ago, and not
googleable. IIRC the retractable knife was broken. It happens. He finished his
scene, and returned as a corpse (acting!), before leaving for medical care.

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jimbob45
I’ve wondered if productions throughout history have used live actors in real
deathmatches for shows. I know Apocalypse Now had real corpses procured for
some of the scenes accidentally until someone made a correction.

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lvturner
Galidtorial combat and it's other side shows perhaps?

[https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ancient.eu/amp/1-432/](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ancient.eu/amp/1-432/)

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youzicha
Here's a similar example except the victim didn't survive:
[https://youzicha.tumblr.com/post/137883089259](https://youzicha.tumblr.com/post/137883089259)

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bradknowles
I did SCA heavy weapons fighting many years ago. The rule I was taught was
that real weapons plus real techniques equals real injuries and deaths.

The SCA dealt with this issue by using real techniques with fake weapons —
rattan swords, not metal. Some techniques were banned, too. Even with fake
weapons, they were just too dangerous. The result was that a newbie could go
out in armor and weapons and they might get bruised, but unlikely to get much
worse than that.

The Marklanders dealt with this issue by using fake techniques with real
weapons — blunted metal, but still metal. But you needed many years of
practice before you could go out there and do what amounted to an impromptu
“dance” with swords and survive without choreographing everything within an
inch of its life.

Stage acting with metal weapons needs much choreography by people who know
what they’re doing. And constant vigilance. I grew up in a theater family, and
I refused to continue to participate in one amateur production where the
director and the actors weren’t taking safety seriously. The director never
forgave me for leaving, but I am confident that I was right.

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closeparen
Responsible productions run a _fight call_ , or a walkthrough of all the fight
choreography in the show, before each and every performance. For a stage
manager to bring up the curtain without having done this is a serious ethical
violation. There would be fallout in the community, and likely official
sanctions from the union. This is not okay.

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dahart
How common is it to use metal swords, as opposed to foam or cardboard?

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nothrabannosir
Pervasive. Metal swords give a nice * ting * when they clash, and there is a
whole discipline called stage combat precisely around dealing with how to
fight safely using these weapons.

There are steps you're meant to go through before and during each move. We
were taught "CRAP": you Communicate your move, the opponent Retreats, you
Advance / Attack into the now empty space, the opponent Parries "into" the
attack, but their body is out of the way. The idea being here that if you
forget the choreography at any point, you're still safe, because you can't
attack anything before the receiver has retreated out of the place you're
attacking. However, the trick is to do this as smoothly and fluidly as
possible, because that sells. It takes practice and maintenance not to let the
emotion and adrenaline of the scene take over, and stick to the process, while
ignoring the muscle memory of the choreo. It's often not considered an
important skill during an audition by casting directors or directors, relative
to credits and actual acting, and therefore not by actors themselves. Result:
dangerous fights.

But cardboard or foam swords? No way. You want the audience to be on the edge
of their seats, and that requires metal.

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Wowfunhappy
> Metal swords give a nice * ting * when they clash

I assume it's impossible to do this with sound effects without it sounding
stupid (because if not, they'd presumably be doing that). Is there a reason
why?

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jeremysmyth
Foley is just not practical for live performance, especially fast reactive
stuff like metal clashing.

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osamagirl69
The show had recently moved to a new, slightly smaller, venue and due to
schedule constraints did not have a chance to fully rehearse one of the
swordfight scenes. During the first showing of the play one of the actors was
struck in the face by a (presumably dulled) sword due to improper positioning
of the actors (related to the slightly smaller set). This broke the orbital
bone of his eye and caused brain damage. The show was immediately ended and he
was hospitalized, but he was left with brain damage. After 7 months of PT he
was able to walk again, but never fully recovered and was left with limited
mobility and had trouble speaking. He still is acting to this day.

~~~
steelframe
Thank you for the summary; you are the hero we all need.

I wish HN had a policy to more strongly moderate posts that clearly have
absolutely nothing to do with Hacker culture, but I suppose the noise is low
enough for the current policy to not really be a problem?

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jdc
If you have another look at the guidelines you'll see that _any_ article that
arouses the community's curiousity is fair game.

~~~
steelframe
I know what the guidelines are. I'm questioning the guidelines.

