10 Actors Who Were Scared Of Other Actors
9. Gunnar Hansen's Performance Made Marilyn Burns Think The Movie Was Real - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was produced on a truly minuscule budget - even by 1974 standards - of around $100,000.
As such, the cast wasn't exactly staying in five-star hotels and enjoying a breezy, luxurious shoot, and for lead actress Marilyn Burns in particular, the production of the movie was a nightmarish experience.
The film's famous dinner scene features Burns' character, Sally, being tortured by a family of cannibals, including Gunnar Hansen's Leatherface. The scene was shot in a farmhouse and the cast had to endure unbearable levels of heat and a putrid smell for hours on end, and things got so bad that people had to take "vomit breaks" every so often.
Even worse, there was actual violence. In one moment, Sally was supposed to have her finger cut by Leatherface, but Hansen grew so frustrated that he sliced her flesh for real. Unsurprisingly, this led to Burns being afraid of Hansen, and decades later, the actress even told him this directly:
“You scared me to death. I didn’t know you really at all, and by this time, you’re not sure if it’s real or a movie. And snuff films were just coming in at this time, and I’m thinking, this is too real. The leering, leering when you started coming at me, that was really scary.”
Considering the extreme circumstances, we can't really blame Burns for feeling this way.