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Monday, September 23, 2024
'This is Matt Smith’s fault': 'House of the Dragon' star worried he'd be fired after on-set accident
The Mary Sue: House of the Dragon’s Criston Cole may be a horrible person, but he has one big redeeming feature: He’s played by Fabien Frankel, who is absolutely lovely and very humble. So humble in fact that he genuinely worried he’d get fired after an onscreen mishap.
3 comments:
Carly Tamborello
said...
Personally, if I accidentally hit Matt Smith in the face with a sword, I would fire myself. Okay, okay, I’m just kidding, it sounds like everything was fine and it was a simple mistake, but it is kind of amusing. This is why prop safety and being attuned to fight choreography are so important, and why using prop weapons during rehearsal is an absolute must. I’m glad Matt Smith was a good sport about it and didn’t artificially blame Frankel, because obviously it’s not his fault. Smith seems like a nice guy from what I’ve read about him during and about his time on Doctor Who. I wonder if he was injured at all and if there was an incident report, or if this was just a simple bop that makes for a good story at a fan convention but didn’t have any physical fallout.
Lots of times whenever an accident happens with any sort of prop weapon the general public and media want to know the story right away. Thankfully this one seems pretty harmless compared to others in the past, however still frightening. As we know, even though we don’t use real prop weapons in rehearsal, actors can still get injured from rehearsal weapons just as easily as they could with other props in the show. It’s lucky for Matt Smith that during this fight scene during rehearsal there was no actual ax to the face of his fellow actor and that they could all have a good laugh about it. I hope that after Matt Smith told the story at Comic-Con that Frankel was hopefully not judged too poorly by the public as it was an accident in rehearsal where no one got hurt. If anything, I hope the people at Comic-Con got a good laugh out of it, much like the actors did. After all, rehearsal helps actors learn about the boundaries of themselves, the show and their fellow actors.
I absolutely love House of the Dragon - and the miniseries about how they’ve made the show, too! This article recounts Fabien’s own recounting of a workplace incident in which he hit Matt Smith with a sword in rehearsal. Although humorous in nature, a couple of things came to mind immediately. Fabien mentions this is an early rehearsal - was it the first for a particular fight scene, or was it a general fight call? Was there a fight coordinator? (There must have been!) How bad was this hit? With what false weapons did the hit occur? Fabien comedically and sarcastically deflects the blame onto Smith himself. It reminded me of the importance of personal responsibility in a rehearsal space, in the theatrical world, and in workspaces in general. Fabien clearly was responsible about this workplace incident, but I wonder what practices were in place to protect Smith and others if otherwise.
3 comments:
Personally, if I accidentally hit Matt Smith in the face with a sword, I would fire myself. Okay, okay, I’m just kidding, it sounds like everything was fine and it was a simple mistake, but it is kind of amusing. This is why prop safety and being attuned to fight choreography are so important, and why using prop weapons during rehearsal is an absolute must. I’m glad Matt Smith was a good sport about it and didn’t artificially blame Frankel, because obviously it’s not his fault. Smith seems like a nice guy from what I’ve read about him during and about his time on Doctor Who. I wonder if he was injured at all and if there was an incident report, or if this was just a simple bop that makes for a good story at a fan convention but didn’t have any physical fallout.
Lots of times whenever an accident happens with any sort of prop weapon the general public and media want to know the story right away. Thankfully this one seems pretty harmless compared to others in the past, however still frightening. As we know, even though we don’t use real prop weapons in rehearsal, actors can still get injured from rehearsal weapons just as easily as they could with other props in the show. It’s lucky for Matt Smith that during this fight scene during rehearsal there was no actual ax to the face of his fellow actor and that they could all have a good laugh about it. I hope that after Matt Smith told the story at Comic-Con that Frankel was hopefully not judged too poorly by the public as it was an accident in rehearsal where no one got hurt. If anything, I hope the people at Comic-Con got a good laugh out of it, much like the actors did. After all, rehearsal helps actors learn about the boundaries of themselves, the show and their fellow actors.
I absolutely love House of the Dragon - and the miniseries about how they’ve made the show, too! This article recounts Fabien’s own recounting of a workplace incident in which he hit Matt Smith with a sword in rehearsal. Although humorous in nature, a couple of things came to mind immediately. Fabien mentions this is an early rehearsal - was it the first for a particular fight scene, or was it a general fight call? Was there a fight coordinator? (There must have been!) How bad was this hit? With what false weapons did the hit occur? Fabien comedically and sarcastically deflects the blame onto Smith himself. It reminded me of the importance of personal responsibility in a rehearsal space, in the theatrical world, and in workspaces in general. Fabien clearly was responsible about this workplace incident, but I wonder what practices were in place to protect Smith and others if otherwise.
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