Bo Derek Almost Died on Set of $36.5M Iconic Movie
What's even crazier, the shot got into the final cut.
Film history is littered with examples of actors and crew suffering serious consequences after mishaps on the set.
While some end well for everyone involved and don't affect the production in any way, others can be truly tragic.
Like any other professional, actors know the risks they're taking with every contract they sign, and many of them have various insurance policies.
However, no one really thinks that anything more than an injury could happen to them… until it does.
Any on-set incident that puts someone on the cast or crew in real danger is always scary to hear or read about. But it gets 10 times worse when you can see what happened for yourself because the production team decides to keep the footage.
From an ethical standpoint, it doesn't seem appropriate to share scenes of someone's near-death experience that are likely to cause drama.
From a financial and marketing standpoint, such moments provide shock value and can significantly increase profits.
This was probably a dilemma that kept the director of Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981), John Derek, up at night after the incident on the set.
Besides being unfortunate for Bo Derek's career, as she won a Razzie Award for her portrayal of Jane, it was almost fatal for her.
During one of the scenes on the beach, the actress was attacked by a lion.
With the entire crew far away from the location, shooting a remote scene, Derek's only chance was her co-star Miles O'Keefe, who played Tarzan himself.
Fortunately, he was able to help her get into the water with nothing more than a scratch on her shoulder. But it was a terrible scare for the actress and her then-husband John Derek.
"He was furious. He was like, 'Screw movies, nothing is worth this!' But by the time we got to dinner, John was there with a storyboard figuring out how to use the attack in the film," the actress recalls.
Despite the live-action footage of the main character's near-death experience being used in the final cut, the movie failed to live up to expectations and was panned by critics.
However, the general public seemed to enjoy it just enough to bring in a generous $36.5 million at the box office.
Source: Yahoo