Search The Line of Best Fit
Search The Line of Best Fit

Kurt Russell accidentally destroyed an irreplaceable antique guitar during The Hateful Eight

05 February 2016, 17:46 | Written by Laurence Day
(News)

It has emerged that Kurt Russell accidentally obliterated a guitar from the 1870s (worth $40,000) while shooting The Hateful Eight, Quentin Tarantino's latest blockbuster.

The incident took place in a scene with Jennifer Jason Leigh (who played Daisy Domergue). Leigh was strumming away on the six-stringer, when Russell's character snatches it from her and wraps it around a nearby beam.

The Hateful Eight's sound mixer Mark Ulano said to SSNInsider that there was supposed to be a cut between the snatching and the wrapping around a beam, where a prop would replace the priceless artifact.

Ulano says: “Somehow that [the cut] didn’t get communicated to Kurt, so when you see that happen on the frame, Jennifer’s reaction is genuine.”

Dick Boak, director of The Martin Guitar Museum, who loaned Tarantino & Co. the axe, said of the incident: “We were informed that it was an accident on set. We assumed that a scaffolding or something fell on it. We understand that things happen, but at the same time we can’t take this lightly.

“All this about the guitar being smashed being written into the script and that somebody just didn’t tell the actor, this is all new information to us. We didn’t know anything about the script or Kurt Russell not being told that it was a priceless, irreplaceable artifact from the Martin Museum.”

“Upon inspection of the pieces, we realized that the guitar was beyond fixing,” Boak added. “It’s destroyed.”

“We want to make sure that people know that the incident was very distressing to us. We can’t believe that it happened. I don’t think anything can really remedy this. We’ve been remunerated for the insurance value, but it’s not about the money. It’s about the preservation of American musical history and heritage. As a result of the incident, the company will no longer loan guitars to movies under any circumstances.”

[via The Independent]

Share article
Email

Get the Best Fit take on the week in music direct to your inbox every Friday

Read next