Footloose focuses on a teenager living in a small town hell-bent on overturning the oppressive ban on dancing. Starring Lori Singer, the film is a cinematic masterpiece that holds the power of teleporting its viewers to the vibrant era of the eighties. While the film received mixed reviews from critics, it is now considered to be amongst some of the best cult classics of all time.
Undoubtedly, Footloose holds a lot of nostalgia for the actors who had the privilege of being a part of the film, including Lori Singer. However, there was one incident that the actress would probably want erased from her memory – the time when she risked her life hanging out of a moving car.
Lori Singer Talks about Filming a Dangerous Scene for Footloose
Lori Singer’s Ariel Moore was driving down the road with her friends when Jim Youngs’ Chuck came up the road driving his truck. In a moment of recklessness, Ariel decides to climb out the window of the moving car and pull a ‘Jean-Claude Van Damme’ as she stands with one leg on the car and one leg on Chuck’s truck.
As if the scene wasn’t already nerve-wracking enough, a truck comes up from the other side of the road, speeding towards the two vehicles. While her friends and Chuck go into panic mode, Ariel seems to be in ignorant bliss before finally being pulled into Chuck’s truck, moments before the truck passes them.
Now, while Footloose used a stunt person to perform the scene, Singer actually dangled out of the car all by herself. Talking to The Daily Beast, the actress revealed how she risked her life by performing a part of the stunt and how it was the very last scene they filmed, in case she couldn’t make it out alive. Yikes.
“I risked my life by doing that scene with actors driving. I was trusting my fellow actors while I was out there doing that. We shot that scene on the very last day in case I died. It was very serious.”
While precautions are always taken, things could’ve gone pretty bad, pretty fast. We’re just happy Singer was unharmed!
Lori Singer Did Every Stunt Herself
Singer portrayed Ariel’s character to perfection whether it was dramatic scenes or romantic. But acting was not all that she did. In fact, Singer revealed that she performed all of her stunts on her own in the film, even the harrowing train scene where Kevin Jacob’s Ren McCormack saves her from getting trampled by the vehicle just a moment before impact.
Singer stated,
“I did every stunt myself, like when we were doing the scene with the train. I was very wild. It was a real train; a huge locomotive. I’d choreographed what I was going to do and showed [the director and stuntman]. Then afterwards, [the stuntman] grabbed me by the arm and pinched me. He said, ‘Don’t say one more word.’ I’d just given them something wild and it was now going to be up to him to make sure I was safe doing it.”
And just like Ren jumps across the rails to save Ariel from the Grim Reaper, the stuntman had to do the same thanks to Singer changing her mind at the last minute. The actress recalled how the stuntman told her to move out of the way the moment the train got close enough. However, Singer had other plans.
“Evidently, I thought I could stay there longer, and the stuntman had to fly across the rails and knock me out of the way [of the train], the way Kevin actually does in the movie.”
Honestly, Tom Cruise who? Clearly, Singer was not afraid of putting her life at risk for the sake of the film! As Footloose celebrates its 40th anniversary, it’s absolutely incredible to hear about the crazy stories that took place on the set of the film.
You can stream Footloose on Max.
