2012 saw Blake Lively in one of the grittiest roles of her career in Savages. It not only challenged her professionally but put a lot of things in perspective in her personal life as well. So it truly was an experience of a lifetime for her.
Especially as she shot it side by side with Gossip Girl, which contained a completely different theme and tone, the whiplash from one to another struck deep. However, there was one experience, that although was humiliating for her co-star Benicio Del Toro, found her having a ball.
Basically, she had to spit on his face during a high-intensity argument between their characters. Making things more interesting, this happened right when Del Toro was still reeling from another co-star Salma Hayek’s continuous slaps.
Blake Lively loved spitting on Benicio Del Toro
Savages found Blake Lively starring opposite Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Taylor Kitsch as their shared girlfriend. The entrepreneur trio from Laguna Beach have established themselves as the best ma***uana developers of all time.
As a result, they quickly end up attracting the attention of the Mexican Baja Cartel led by Salma Hayek’s character. Looking for a partnership the Cartel approaches them by kidnapping Lively’s character.
Things get even more complicated when Lively, during her stay with them develops a sort of parent-child relationship with Hayek. Now, obviously, a stay with powerful dr*g dealers never goes smoothly and as a result, Lively gets into frequent confrontations with them.
During such an altercation, Lively ended up spitting on Benicio Del Toro who played the part of one of Hayek’s high-ranking executors. However, there was more to the story, as Lively claimed that the scene was actually an improv. She explained in an interview,
“A lot of this movie just kind of happened, with so many of the key moments. When I spit in Benicio’s face, that was something where Benicio and I were talking about this character, after a take or two, and he said, ‘If you feel so angry at me, spit in my face!’ I was like, I can’t do that! And he was like, No, hock a loogie in my face. I was, like ‘This is the greatest day ever! I get to do that to someone?’ I was like, ‘Okay, he’s asking for it. I’ll spit in his face.'”
According to Blake Lively, the freedom to create their own characters and go with the flow without having everything hammered out beforehand, really helped them bring their A-game to the table.
Salma Hayek got into an uncomfortable situation while slapping Benicio Del Toro
Similar to Blake Lively, Salma Hayek had some intense confrontations too. However, having the highest position of power made the time of those altercations a lot different than what Lively went through.
Hayek claimed that all of them met a lot of people involved in the business. From DEA agents to even some really powerful people from Mexico, she refused to name, all of them helped her understand and design her character better.
Especially in cases where she needed to wield said power even by inflicting physical harm. Now, obviously being one of her most utilized executors, Del Toro faced a lot of the brunt of her anger. She explained a particular scene where she had to slap him, saying,
“You know, it’s funny, I slapped him a lot. It was the strangest thing because I was nervous, but Benicio was like, ‘Hit me! Hit me! Come on, do it harder!’ And I was like like, ‘Are you sure?’ So, I did it one time and he was like, ‘Okay.'”
In fact, the slap came out so hard that according to Blake Lively, all of them could feel its effect. However, the strangest part was Salma Hayek’s husband was present on set during the said shoot. She elaborated,
“What was really uncomfortable about it was that this was the day my husband came to visit the set and he was like, ‘What are you doing?! How many times are you going to slap him?!’ He was so worried for Benicio because he was red. I said, ‘I need to stop. My hand hurts.'”
What insult to the injury according to Hayek was the movie’s director, Oliver Stone, would often just stop her after one take and refuse to let her continue with more takes, “But, this scene where I slapped Benicio, we did it 20 times.”
As a result, it is evident that as fun as the entire shooting was, it surely left them with some experiences that none of them would forget anytime soon.
Source: Collider
