Famously, Janet Leigh, star of Psycho, is killed off much earlier in the landmark film than audiences ever expected in a gruesome shower scene, which has since become one of the most famous murder scenes in film history.
For Scarlett Johansson, who appears as Leigh in the “making of” film Hitchcock, the filming of the shower murder was just as unpleasant for her as it likely was for Leigh.
In a conversation with V magazine, she points out that the scene was filmed on a tight schedule. She reveals, “We only had the luxury to shoot the scene for a day, and everybody was feeling very nervous because it involved water and nobody wants the actor to get wet. They were concerned with modesty and all these things – but I don’t care about any of that stuff and Janet Leigh never did either.”
However, the water was the least of her worries. Johansson also had to deal with knife-wielding co-star Anthony Hopkins… who just happened to also have played one of the scariest killers in movie history, Hannibal Lecter. “You have got to be brave, get into the shower, and face Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock jabbing you in the face with a 12-inch kitchen knife. As much as Anthony Hopkins is a pussycat, he’s terrifying. Maybe I watched Silence of the Lambs too many times when I was a kid. Maybe I was having some flashbacks. So I didn’t need too much preparation for the scene.”
via People
