What’s in the box? It’s one of the most famous questions asked in cinema, and Seven director David Fincher has answered it for real.
In the dramatic scene, Brad Pitt’s Mills demands to know what’s in a box delivered to him on the orders of Kevin Spacey’s murderous John Doe, which Morgan Freeman’s Somerset opens. Inside is the severed head of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Tracy – we never see it, but it’s obvious that this is the grisly discovery made by Somerset.
Since Seven (one of the best thriller movies of all time) was released, a rumor has abounded that a prosthetic of Paltrow’s head – or whole body – was created, but ultimately didn’t make it into the movie.
“No, it’s entirely ridiculous,” Fincher told Entertainment Weekly. “I think we had a seven- or eight-pound shot bag. We had done the research to figure out, if Gwyneth Paltrow’s body mass index was X, what portion of that would be attributable to her head. And so we had an idea of what that would weigh, and I think there was a weight in it.
“And we did put a wig in there, so that when Morgan rips the box open if there were some of this tape that was used to seal the box – I think it was a shot bag and a wig, and I think the wig had a little bit of blood in it, so some of the hair would stick together,” he continued. “Remember, I think Morgan opened 16 or 17 of those things. But as I always say, you don’t need to see what’s in the box if you have Morgan Freeman.”
Fincher also recently revealed that he met with Warner Bros. to discuss directing a Harry Potter film, but his “creepy” take didn’t align with the studio’s vision for the franchise.
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