André the Giant and the “truly epic” fart that brought a movie set to a standstill
The very definition of both a larger-than-life character and a gentle giant, André Roussimoff gained fame for his wrestling career and short-lived movie stardom, as well as notoriety for his scarcely believable alcohol consumption.
With one of the most fascinating life stories, the French-born son of a Bulgarian father and Polish mother stood over six feet tall by the age of 12. He held an apprenticeship in woodworking and was occasionally driven to school by playwright and Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett, who owned land near the Roussimoff family.
From there, André would become one of the most famous professional wrestlers of all time, selling out arenas all over the world as crowds flocked to see the man dubbed ‘The Eighth Wonder of the World’ in action. However, his gigantism caused lifelong health problems and pain issues, which he did his best to stem through a preposterous amount of alcohol.
It was regularly noted that he could easily consume over 100 beers in one sitting, with a dozen bottles of wine, another favourite of André’s during his mammoth drinking sessions. The Princess Bride co-star Cary Elwes would tell Vanity Fair that in the hotel the cast stayed in during production, his bar tab went beyond $40,000, although the actor knew it wasn’t necessarily an addiction.
“André didn’t drink for the sake of drinking, André was in a lot of pain, God bless him,” he shared. “His doctor didn’t know what kind of pain medication to give him because of his size, so the only way that he could deal with the pain was to drink alcohol.” Rob Reiner’s fantasy classic marked the apex of the grappler’s on-screen endeavours, but one of the drawbacks for anyone in his proximity was the farts.
An urban legend associated with The Princess Bride states that André once let rip for 18 uninterrupted seconds. While that’s neither been confirmed nor denied, Elwes was happy to admit in his memoirs that the gas emanating from the hard-drinking giant was so nauseous it could grind shooting to a standstill. Is it true? Well, it is hard to believe, but André is perhaps one of the most logic-defying athletes of all time. His ability to crush beers was almost as impressive as the way he destroyed opponents in the ring.
Recalling “one of the most monumental farts any of us had ever heard” coming from his scene partner, Elwes acknowledged that “you wouldn’t expect a man of André’s dimensions to pass gas quietly or unobtrusively”. However, he couldn’t help but describe this one as “truly epic, a veritable symphony of gastric distress that roared for more than several seconds and shook the very foundations of the wood and plaster set we were now grabbing onto out of sheer fear”.
Collapsing into fits of giggles, Elwes repeatedly failed to perform the scene in question because all it took was a “look at André and his big grin and the smoking hairpiece” to cause “the giggles to erupt all over again”. Mandy Patinkin couldn’t compose himself, either, leaving Reiner to step in and try and get his wayward cast on the right track, all because of a single monumental fart.
Now, we’ve all been there, struggling to concentrate on a conversation because an Uber drive has made a sneaky on-road work call now feel like a new form of torture, but to clear out an entire movie production, knowing just how costly such an idea is, is truly impressive in the most disgusting way.
It might be the only time a fart has managed to halt shooting on a major motion picture, with André saying to Elwes in the aftermath, “My farts always make people laugh, that was a big one, wasn’t it?” Funnily enough, he was completely correct.
