Actor Tony Todd said the pain he endured from his insect costars while on the set of Candyman wasn’t in vain because he ended up receiving a hefty bonus check in return.
When the horror flick debuted in 1992, it not only terrified viewers but shed light on how marginalized people are treated in America.
In the film, Todd played Daniel Robitaille, the ghost of a Black man that was murdered in the 19th century for falling in love with the daughter of a wealthy white man. Robitaille was the son of an enslaved man, and upon finding out that he had impregnated the white woman, a lynch mob sought him out, cut off his hand and tortured him by smearing him with honey until bees stung him to death. Robitaille’s body was then burned and hung where the public housing projects of Cabrini-Green Homes were built. It’s there that the urban legend, Candyman, continued to haunt the community.
Todd, who played Robitaille in each of the film’s haunting sequels outside of the 2021 Nia DaCosta adaptation, recently shared a few details about his time on set in an interview with Entertainment Tonight to commemorate the original film’s 30th anniversary. During his sit-down, the actor revealed that his pockets grew fatter each time he was stung by a bee during filming.
For every time Todd was stung by a bee, filmmakers had to cough up $1,000, according to a 2019 interview Todd did with The Guardian. In total, Todd earned an extra $27,000 for his troubles on top of his payment for the role. According to the 67-year-old, he arranged the deal when he noticed how significant the bees were to his character — especially when it came to his character’s gruesome death in the movie.
According to Todd, there were close to a million bees on set.
“I had a great lawyer at the time,” he told ET host Kevin Frazier. “So I didn’t mind it, I’m going like, ‘Bring it on!’ And it only totaled to 27.”
“Everything that’s worth making has to involve some sort of pain,” he told The Guardian. “Once I realized it was an important part of who Candyman was, I embraced it. It was like putting on a beautiful coat.”
In multiple scenes, Todd’s character’s body is covered with bees, including in his mouth.
The production team went through several measures to keep him protected throughout the filming process. For example, the scene where bees came out of his mouth was made possible through the placement of a barrier that ensured the creepy crawlers wouldn’t go down his throat.
“We had a dental dam so they couldn’t go further down,” he revealed to ET. “Actors are trained to be fearless, so it was a fearless moment.”
According to iHorror, the bees used in Candyman were newborn bees bred specifically for the film. Although they looked fully grown, they were only 12 hours old and their stingers weren’t fully mature or nearly as painful.
Would you endure some pain for a movie role if it came with a nice bonus?
