The veteran actor made headlines when it was revealed that a Martin guitar from the 1860s was destroyed during the filming of a scene in the Quentin Tarantino movie.
The item, which was on loan from the Martin Guitar Museum, was supposed to have been switched with a copy for a scene between Russell and Leigh, but Tarantino wanted to film it without a cut, so the instruments were not exchanged.
“I thought we were going to trade out the guitars,” Leigh tells Billboard.com. “You’re never going to cut a scene until Quentin says cut. And Kurt thought it must be a dummy guitar. I don’t think Quentin knew that it was the (vintage instrument), either.
“The scene was going exactly the way he wanted it to go, and he wanted to play one scene in the movie in real time without a cut, in one long take.”
The actress, who has been nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for her role as outlaw Daisy Domergue in the Western, added that Russell “felt terrible” after finding out what he had done, and she was heartbroken herself.
“He had no idea. When he found out, his eyes literally welled up. It ended up being great for the scene, but very sad for the guitar, and for my guitar teacher, and for me,” she said.
“I was heartbroken about the guitar, because I was quite in love with it. I got to actually take it home with me, and I played it every day. It had the most beautiful, warm tone. But Kurt knew how much I loved that guitar. Then Quentin gave me another Martin guitar from the 1880s as my wrap present, which was kind of extraordinary.”
Leigh revealed bosses at the Martin Guitar Museum were understanding about the incident, and even offered to send out another guitar to the set. However, the museum’s director spoke to Reverb.com, and called the guitar smashing “distressing”.
“We want to make sure that people know that the incident was very distressing to us… We didn’t know anything about the script or Kurt Russell not being told that it was a priceless, irreplaceable artifact from the Martin Museum.
“We’ve been remunerated for the insurance value, but it’s not about the money. It’s about the preservation of American musical history and heritage,” he said.
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