Why Stanley Kubrick threw tennis balls at the cast of ‘Full Metal Jacket’
Given the filmmaker’s famously hyper-focused approach, improvisation isn’t a term typically associated with a Stanley Kubrick production, which only serves to make R. Lee Ermey’s involvement in Full Metal Jacket all the more memorable as a result.
He wasn’t even supposed to be part of the cast, either, having been hired solely as a technical advisor based on his background as a drill instructor for the United States Marines. Rewarded with one of the most memorable character introduction scenes ever, it’s impossible to imagine the film without his signature foul-mouthed tirades.
Landing a Golden Globe nomination in the ‘Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role’ category, Ermey would take up acting full-time from Full Metal Jacket onwards, where he seemed very happy to be typecast as various military veterans with a penchant for doling out withering put-downs that were hardly a million miles away from Gunnery Sergeant Hartman.
Sensing an opportunity in the air, Ermey was originally dismissed by Kubrick when he asked if he could audition for the part, with a previous on-screen appearance in The Boys in Company C convincing the director he didn’t have what it takes to be the vicious presence the role required, something that reads as patently ludicrous looking at what transpired.
For his audition tape, Ermey decided to be filmed hurling ad-libbed insults in the direction of soldiers being considered for background roles in Full Metal Jacket, which still wasn’t enough to convince Kubrick. Instead, he demanded a test of his own, one designed to ensure the prospective cast member that he’d be able to replicate the feat under heightened scrutiny.
To that end, Kubrick drafted in his assistant Leon Vitali to launch tennis balls and oranges in Ermey’s direction while he rehearsed his lines, with the difficulty being increased by the fact he had to catch as many as possible and throw them back while reciting his dialogue as fast as possible. If he missed a beat, slipped up, or slowed down, he finally mastered it on the 20th attempt, which proved to be such an exacting process that he ironically referred to Vitali as “my drill instructor”.
For somebody as meticulous as Kubrick, allowing any performer – never mind a relative newcomer like Ermey – to improvise so many of his lines was basically unheard of, but nobody can deny its effectiveness. Having proven himself under pressure while being assaulted with fruit, doing it on set would have been a walk in the park by comparison.
Hartman is the single most memorable character from the entire movie, and that’s down almost entirely to Emery’s unique way with words. Had he failed the orange test, though, then there are no guarantees he would have even been hired.
