Behind the scenes of Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996)
“First they rehearsed - Alan Rickman dutifully drank the ‘poisoned Madeira’ (which was actually grape juice) and ate the pastries. Three pastries, three glasses of juice. Then came ‘Attention, camera, action!’ Yusupov ran upstairs, grabbed the revolver, ran back down and there was Grigory Efimovich, sitting there alive and singing ‘Don’t fly, eagle, too close to the ground’. Meanwhile, a pyrotechnician was lying on the floor on standby. Under Rasputin’s shirt was a complicated setup of wires connected to a bag of red paint. Felix fires the shot, the pyrotechnician remotely yanks the wires, the shirt tears, a bloody stain appears on the chest… but there’s no gunshot sound. So, back to square one. They change Rasputin’s shirt, attach a new blood bag. Take two. More pastries, even more pastries, and more juice, of course. “Don’t fly, eagle…” Felix runs upstairs again, comes back with the revolver, raises his hand - the pyrotechnician pulls the wires, the shirt rips… still no gunshot. “Fuck!” yells Felix, furiously throwing the gun aside. By now Rickman is turning a bit green and whispers pathetically: “I’m feeling sick.” No wonder! Take three. Back to positions. New shirt on Rasputin, Felix gripping the pistol so tightly his knuckles are white, the pyrotechnician is in position, everyone holding their breath. But no luck. This time Felix shoots successfully, but now there are problems with the pyrotechnics. Third take, fourth, fifth - they keep changing shirts, adding fresh blood, more pastries, more Madeira (damn that stuff). In the end: Alan Rickman heroically ate eighteen pastries (well, he didn’t finish all of them, but he took big bites out of many) and drank eighteen glasses of grape juice…”
Marianne Dimant
Originally shared and compiled on Instagram by @alan_rickman_
All credit goes to the original photographers and respective sources. Shared for archival and appreciation purposes.
