Actress Jennifer Jason Leigh’s part in Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” was the role of a lifetime in more ways than one.
Now 54 years old, she had to learn to play the guitar in order to play the part of murderer Daisy Domergue. She had to spend hours at a time handcuffed to actor Kurt Russell, who played a bounty hunter in the film, and endure freezing cold temperatures. And, the icing on the cake — her character gets punched in the face several times, resulting in a bloody nose and missing teeth, has a bowl of stew dumped on her head and gets projectile vomit in the face. But none of this is enough to dampen her orneriness.
Although Leigh has been acting for over 40 years (since the age of nine) and appeared in many notable films, her role in “The Hateful Eight” has resulted in her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.
Leigh was just one of a number of well-known actresses that Tarentino was rumored to have been considering for the job — many of them much younger. Some publications considered her an “unusual” choice for the role, but Tarentino is known for helping actors bring back the sizzle they had earlier in their careers, like John Travolta.
In her Q&A with the Malibu Film Society audience after a screening of the film on Friday, Feb. 19, Leigh talked about what it was like being handcuffed to and hit by Kurt Russell for so many days of shooting.
“After four days of being chained together, it became like a dance,” Leigh said. “I know I never would’ve been able to give this performance without Kurt Russell, because I knew I’d never get hurt [by accident]. He knows how to throw a [fake] punch.”
Leigh described her character as “seriously insane and dangerous.”
It was a real challenge for Leigh to learn to play the guitar for the first time for the Daisy role.
“Quentin Tarantino asked me to play guitar, and I never played before in my life,” she said. “During the course of the movie, I fell in love with it. It was not easy for me, and I had to work really hard — every spare moment, I was practicing.”
In the guitar scene, Leigh was to play and sing a song with a museum quality 1860s Martin guitar. Tarantino was supposed to yell “cut,” they would switch to a far cheaper Washburn guitar, and Kurt Russell would take it and smash it on the floor. Unfortunately, Tarentino forgot to yell “cut,” and Russell smashed up the $40,000 guitar by mistake.
“It was devastating, and Kurt’s eyes welled up with tears,” Leigh said. “At the end of filming, Tarentino gave me an 1890s Martin guitar as a wrap present.”
Leigh said, “I had the time of my life [making this film] — we all did. We all knew we were part of something incredibly special.”
As far as working with director/writer Tarentino, Leigh said he was “so enlivening and enthusiastic — it was infectious.”
“The Hateful Eight” takes place in post-Civil War era Wyoming, mostly during a blizzard, inside of a cabin serving as a haberdashery. It’s also Tarentino’s eighth film, and there are eight main characters. Leigh is the only female. Other actors in the film besides Leigh and Russell include Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins and Bruce Dern.
Filming started in Telluride, Colorado.
“When it wasn’t snowing outside, they used mini sets,” Leigh explained. Since Tarentino wanted the actors to constantly experience the coldness of being in a blizzard, she said, “The set was kept consistently freezing, with seven air conditioners going all the time. A lot of time, you were cold and uncomfortable, so the costume designer would sneak us electric socks and pocket warmers.”
Leigh has an impressive list of 91 film and TV credits, as well as major roles on Broadway, and has worked steadily since the ’70s. Her first major film was “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (1982) and she received critical acclaim for her work in “Miami Blues” (1990), “Last Exit to Brooklyn” (1990), “Backdraft” (1991), “Single White Female” (1992) and “The Hudsucker Proxy” (1994). She was nominated for a Golden Globe for “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle” (1994).