with Norman, his mother, and the shovel? I've watched it many times and it looks real to me.
It was obviously a fake shovel but apparently what they did was put some sort of a helmet over her wig so that Anthony Perkins could actually hit her but her head would be protected. If you look closely there's one quick shot in there where you can clearly see that it's a dummy.
We all go a little mad sometimes...
IT DID look real! Great scene! They keep pointing towards Norman poisoning her tea and then WHAM!! Beautiful!
We've met before, haven't we?
I remember reading somewhere that for one of the shots they had an air-hose blow her hair to look like the shovel hit with full force. from another angle it appears to be a dummy. Love how great this effect is in the film.
"This is the 80's, nobody likes reality anymore!"
i read somewhere that an interviewer asked hopkins in an interview how they did the shot and he got angry[i can't understand why though as it's hardly an inappropriate or insulting question]
shareTalk about method acting! I remember seeing that one with my Mother (ha ha) in the theater and I was shocked on how real the shovel spot looked.
shareWhy would someone named Hopkins have been angry??
shareLol the person obviously meant Perkins but his or her info was interesting. There is other info somewhere on the board where he reacted badly to an inappropriate comment by the female lead and wanted her fired. And I think someone said there were rumors that Perkins was a difficult person which would be a shame if true. I guess it would be a shame because the character of Norman seems so kind when not in psycho mode.
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed.
It isn't that Perkins was difficult, he was a highly intelligent man who wanted to be involved in all aspects of film making, so he asked lots of questions and also he knew what Norman would or wouldn't do, and tried (unsuccessfully) to get a few things changed in the script. When he worked with Hitchcock and Orson Welles he was allowed to ask questions and he did this on all film sets because he wanted that level of involvement. Some saw it as argumentative and time-wasting and others saw it as professionalism.
Meg Tilly had no idea who he was because she had a strict upbringing and wasn't allowed to watch TV. She wanted to be a dancer but went into acting after an injury. She didn't know why Tony was getting all the attention. She might have called him a name, 'old man' or something like that. He overheard. And got angry.
But he and Meg worked very well in front of the camera, no matter what went on behind the scenes.
I think I must have one of those faces you just can't help believing - Norman, Psycho
On the audio commentary Tom Holland (the writer) explained that Claudia Bryar wore a helmet covered with a wig. If you look closely her hair does look different than how it was back in Statler's cafe. She needed to lean forward before she was hit for safety reasons. So Anthony really hit her with the shovel. Then came a quick cut to the same scene from a different angle where a dummy was used. Then cut to the shot top-down.
Anyway, quite courageous of both Bryar and Perkins to do such a scene.
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