The director who faked his own death to land a job: “I got my head cut off”
There are only three certainties in this life: death, taxes, and worrying about job interviews. Well, okay, that’s not entirely accurate, but it suits the purposes of this article, so I’m going to go with it. Job interviews, I think we can all agree, are the worst. They’re tense, awkward, artificial situations that interviewers and interviewees alike probably dread, and the stress that comes along with them is often more hassle than it’s worth.
In Hollywood, an actor’s version of a job interview is an audition, but for prospective directors, getting hired for a movie is pretty similar to getting hired for any ‘normal’ job. These days, directors trying to land their big break in the movie business will submit themselves to round after round of interviews with studio personnel and producers, often with full knowledge that, as with any job, there are hundreds of other applicants waiting in the wings.
With that in mind, the real question becomes “How do I separate myself from the pack?” Final Destination Bloodlines helmers Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein took this question very literally when they interviewed over Zoom to direct the beloved franchise’s sixth entry. As in, they separated Stein’s head from his shoulders and gave the New Line executives the scare of a lifetime in the process.
“We were in a small square off to the side, and while screen sharing the images, we switched to a virtual background, which allows you to put a video in the background of your shot,” Stein told Forbes. At this point, Lipovsky, who Stein called “a VFX whiz,” enacted the first stage of their shockingly clever master plan. “He was able to create a virtual background that came to life,” Stein explained, “and we stepped out of the Zoom…and into the background in a way that felt seamless.”
For the rest of the interview, the executives just thought they were looking at Stein and Lipovsky with a virtual background of a roaring fire and mantelpiece. However, as the chat came to a close, the fire burst into life and began burning the mantel. The two directors hurriedly extinguished the flames, leaving the execs unsure if what they had just watched was a stunt or a real accident.
Almost as soon as the tension had passed, though, the execs realised what was happening and began applauding the directors, thinking their little stunt was over. To their shock, though, it was a fake out, and suddenly a ceiling fan that hadn’t previously drawn any attention began to go haywire. After a terrifyingly loud creak, it popped off its mount, and its whirring blades plummeted toward Stein’s head.
“I got my head cut off and fell out of the frame,” a grinning Stein recalled, “and Zach jumped backward, and then switched off the virtual background very quickly so that our live selves could come back into the real background.”
Stein and Lipovsky had used special effects and some pre-recorded footage to facilitate the world’s first mid-interview decapitation, and as soon as that clicked for the executives, they all burst into riotous laughter. “They were incredibly surprised when the ceiling fan fell down and chopped Adam’s head off,” Lipovsky laughed, “and Tarantino-level blood was spurting all over the place.”
The young directors’ stunt was perfectly in keeping with the vibe of the Final Destination series, which is all about the various creatively gruesome and hilarious ways a person can die when Death itself is out to get them. It showed that they had a true affinity for the franchise and sealed the deal that they would be hired for the film instead of the roughly 200 other hopefuls who had been put forward by their talent agencies.
Unfortunately for New Line, the directors’ one-of-a-kind pitch had one negative aspect: the studio didn’t record the interview session, so the footage of their in-the-moment reactions doesn’t exist. “They’ve been kicking themselves ever since,” Stein chuckled.
