Kevin Hart recalls near-death experience shooting Lift's Venice scene
The comedian leads a high-profile international cast for the new Netflix heist flick.
As Tom Cruise will attest, there's always an element of danger involved when shooting a high-octane action film – and Kevin Hart had a brush with death during production of his new Netflix heist flick Lift.
The comedian leads a high-profile international cast for the movie, and speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com just before the film's release he revealed that one sequence on the canals of Venice left him fearing for his life.
Asked about some of the challenges of filming, he immediately responded: "I'm gonna go to the scene where we almost died!"
He added: "We wanted to get some shots of, like, reactions during a chase scene. So we got on the boat and on this particular day the water was really choppy in Venice. So we were going against the chop, so the boat's getting a little air. And he's like, 'Let's pick up the speed a little bit.'"
His co-star Gugu Mbatha-Raw – who says she "luckily" wasn't on the boat when the incident happened – then pointed out that there was something of a language barrier between the stunt driver of the boat and the cast.
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"There's a little anxiety in there," Hart continued. "Like a little anxiety with F Gary [Gray, director]. And he's like, 'OK, we're gonna go... does he understand me?'
"Like, we go, and he picks up some speed. And we hit a wave a little high, and the boat came down and, like, yanked real quick – you see the camera guy go to the side, F almost went outside of the boat. I remember specifically saying to myself, 'Well, this is it, this is death – this is how we're all gonna do it.'
"Úrsula [Corberó, co-star] was like, 'I'm shaken up' – she needed a second. That's probably the craziest thing!"
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Mbatha-Raw went on to explain how she joined up with the rest of the cast for another scene shortly after the incident and almost instantly noticed that they were still a little shaken.
"I still remember then I had the next scene with you guys after," she said. "And I was on the boat, and I was like [enthusiastically], 'Hi everyone' and then everyone's like... looking green."
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