Posted in: Movies | Tagged: film, flatliners

They Lit Nina Dobrev On Fire For Flatliners

Published Fri, 18 Aug 2017 16:11:23 -0500

When it comes to fire in movies you would think in the age of computer graphics it would be easier to just CGI fire on your actor. It turns out that isn't the case on the set of Flatliners where actress Nina Dobrev got lit on fire for a scene. In Entertainment Weekly she detailed what it was like have someone set you on fire.

"Well, first of all, your wardrobe gets fireproofed, which is a certain chemical that can't really burn. They dip your clothes in it and let that dry. And then they put this jelly stuff all over your skin and underneath," she explains. "They put gas on your arm — well, they did on my arm — and then they come at me with a blowtorch, right before they call 'Action.' They call 'Action,' they light my arm on fire, I have to act like I'm on fire — which I am — and react to the scariness of it, which wasn't too hard," she laughs. "And then, after a few seconds, as it moves up my arm, they call cut, and they run in with fire extinguishers. So it goes from hot to cold very, very quickly. … We did that…five or six times at least? You also have to get it from different angles."

Dobrev also detailed how they got medical training so her and her co-stars could be more believable as medical students. There were little details they needed to learn such as how a body being shocked by paddles actually reacts.

"When you get shocked by the paddles, you have to lift your chest, but the rest of your body has to stay limp, so it was pretty tricky to stay as still as possible, and breathe as little as possible, keep your eyes open, and still have a limp body whilst your chest moves."

For a movie where you play a corpse the set sounded like a surprising physical thing especially when it came to chest compressions.

You have a tube in your mouth, you're hooked up to an IV, and somebody is performing CPR on you — the chest compressions. And we [were] faking them, but you still have to put a lot of energy into when you're faking it. So I remember leaving set and my whole chest was bruised underneath my bra, from the chest compressions. And the hours [were] so long, and you're doing it for so long, but it's still really, really fun. Definitely a full-body workout."

A movie about dying from a full body workout. Who would have thought?

Five medical students, obsessed by what lies beyond the confines of life, embark on a daring experiment: by stopping their hearts for short periods, each triggers a near-death experience – giving them a firsthand account of the afterlife.

Flatliners, directed by Niels Arden Oplev, stars Charlotte McKinney, Nina Dobrev, Ellen Page, Kiersey Clemons, and Diego Luna. It will be released September 29th.

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