Sydney Sweeney’s second collaboration with director Michael Mohan, Immaculate, recently premiered at the SXSW Festival. Horror film fans are in for a treat as this film is filled with its share of blood and gore. During the filming of one of the particularly ‘bloody’ scenes, Sweeney suffered an ocular injury from fake blood flowing into her eyes. The Euphoria actress pulled off a Leonardo DiCaprio move and continued filming the scene with her hurt eyes.
DiCaprio set the precedence for this acting commitment in his movie Django Unchained with Quentin Tarantino, where he ignored a bleeding hand to perform an intense scene. Also serving as the producer of the film, Sweeney could’ve felt the extra pressure to deliver on her role.
Sydney Sweeney Filmed Immaculate With An Injured Eye
Sydney Sweeney approached her The Voyeurs director Michael Mohan with a horror movie script, that she auditioned for as a teenager. Andrew Lobel’s script passed through hands until Sweeney, fresh from her executive producer role on Anyone But You, picked it up and decided to produce it. The film, Immaculate, recently premiered at the SXSW Festival before its theatrical release in March.
At the festival, Mohan appeared for an interview with IndieWire where he detailed the Everything Sucks actress’s commitment to her role. Sweeney played a young nun, Sister Cecilia, whose faith is tested by her experiences at the convent. The film gets bloody real soon and a pregnant Sweeney at the center of it all makes the film even more gory.
Mohan explained the last take of the film which became challenging after the fake blood got in Sweeney’s eyes. The fake blood was part of the film’s policy of relying mostly on practical effects and it consisted of ingredients like corn syrup, red food coloring, and cocoa powder. According to Mohan, the Madame Web actress got this fake blood in her eye and it put her in a lot of pain.
However, the shot was yet to be completed and Sweeney asked the director to keep shooting the film until they had nailed the take. Sweeney being the boss/producer on the set, Mohan followed her instructions and kept the camera rolling. She had to suffer the pain through at least three takes until they got the perfect one. Mohan shared with IndieWire:
“The biggest challenge was on the last take. Sydney got blood, fake blood, in her eye, and it was stinging her, but we hadn’t nailed the take, and she was actually in quite a lot of pain. But she’s my boss, and she was like, ‘Keep shooting, Mike. Keep shooting until you f–king get this.’ We didn’t reset or anything. We kept the camera rolling, and I think it was the third take where we finally got the perfect take […] but the pain in her voice was because she’d gotten fake blood in her eye.”
Mohan shared that the character’s arc in Immaculate was so deep that it showed the “full breadth of [Sweeney’s] acting capabilities”. Critics and fans are impressed by the actress’s performance, which might be her best so far.
Sydney Sweeney’s Inspiration Might Have Been Leonardo DiCaprio’s Django Unchained Scene
Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed one of the most hated Quentin Tarantino villains, Calvin J. Candie, in the film Django Unchained. The slave owner villain appeared as a charming host to Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx‘s characters before he realized the truth and turned into his menacing self. The scene unfolds at a dinner table and during the intense scene, DiCaprio bangs his hand against a glass on the table.
The cut and bleeding on the Killers of the Flower Moon actor’s hand was not in the script, but he decided to continue with the shot. The result was one of the most terrorizing guest performances in a film ever. Tarantino took other shots with the actor’s hand bandaged, but he ultimately decided to keep the shot in the film.
Django Unchained is now available for streaming on Starz. Immaculate will be released in theaters in the U.S. on March 22, 2024.
