Shove a giant bomb through Rome in the footsteps of “Rocket League” and lay half the city in ruins? No problem. But when he showed villain Dante (Jason Momoa) painting his dead henchmen’s toenails, those behind Fast & Furious 10 became concerned. Director Louis Leterrier now explains why the scene came about in the first place and then almost never made it into the film.
The scene was shot to show that Dante is really crazy and it’s not just a show he puts on for others. There’s the scene where the criminal mastermind is all alone and not only talks to the dead, but also paints their feet in an almost lovingly romantic way.
We thought: this is just going to be a DVD extra!
Leterrier confesses that in conversation that at the time he did not expect the scene to actually be shown in theaters: “We thought it would be a DVD extra at best, or part of a director’s cut sometime later.”
The first test screenings then took place without the scene, but then a few were also done with the scene “and the audience went crazy,” Leterrier said, adding, “Some were angry, others loved the scene.”
In the end, Universal Pictures director Donna Langley decided that the scene would be in the movie. She saw it and immediately loved the craziness of that scene. Therefore, according to the director, she gave surprisingly well.
So the moment with Dante is here in Fast & Furious 10, and it seems to continue to have a similar impact to when the test audience split. Arguably no discussion of the movie can do without the question of hating or loving the scene. Who would have thought: A scene about nail polish on feet sparks more conversation in the Fast & Furious series than any action series.