We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about what singers have to do if they need to pee on stage, as well as what actors are really snorting when filming drug scenes.
But what about when they have to fake throwing up ― especially if it’s a closeup?
Sure, there’s the tried and tested ”‘puking’ into a bag” method. But for those full-throated, chum-bucket scenes that make us feel queasy ourselves ― yeah, for that you’re going to need some disgusting goop and a way to, err, expel it.
Speaking to Movie Insider, special effects artists at NYSPFX revealed their recipe for vomit changes according to the scene ― thicker, gloopier vomit “used a combination of potato leek and split pea soup.”
But you can also add things like noodles for “squiggly” bits as well as frozen berries and tomato paste.
These are then “thrown up” via a pump ― and because the pumps are “made for liquid, not vomit, thick, pasty, substances,″ the Movie Insider interview revealed.
So, they place the thicker substances at the top of the tube ― so that the thinner liquid acts as a “propellant” to push it out.
You might have noticed that the goriest on-screen vomit scenes are usually shot in profile.
That’s because the end of the tube is sometimes taped to one side of an actor’s face for added realism ― other scenes sneak the tube up an actor’s sleeve and tape it to their wrist, so they can fake vomit while pretending to cover their mouths.
For true puke purists, though, it can get gorier.
Speaking on Hot Ones, Sydney Sweeney revealed that during her Euphoria hot tub throw-up scene, “They had to get a pump, and they had this pipe that they just taped and hid on my body. And then they CGI’d it out up my neck and then there was a horse bit that I had to put in my mouth. So during that scene, they’re filling my mouth with throw up.”
She added, “And then I opened my mouth, and it just started shooting out my mouth. It was the most disgusting thing I ever experienced.”
I believe that, TBF...
