Full Metal Jacket Anecdote from Wikipedia
Former U.S. Marine Drill Instructor R. Lee Ermey was originally hired as a technical adviser and asked Kubrick if he could audition for the role of Hartman. However the Kubrick [sic], having seen his portrayal as Drill Instructor SSgt Loyce in The Boys in Company C, told him that he wasn’t vicious enough to play the character.[2] In response, Ermey made a videotape of himself improvising insulting dialogue towards a group of Royal Marines while being pelted by people off-camera with oranges and tennis balls. Ermey, in spite of the distractions, rattled off an unbroken string of insults for 15 minutes, and he did not flinch, duck, or repeat himself while being hit with the oranges or tennis balls.[2] Upon viewing it, Kubrick gave him the role, realizing that Ermey “was a genius for this part,”[4] and estimates that Ermey came up with 150 pages of insults, much of it being improvised on the spot, a noted rarity for a Kubrick film.
2 years ago