Recalling the making of “Sicario,” producer Basil Iwanyk spoke to The Hollywood Reporter, where he remembered accompanying Denis Villeneuve, producer Ed McDonnell, and stunt coordinator J.J. Perry on a research trip to Juarez, Mexico. As Iwanyk remembers it, the trip became incredibly tense after Perry noticed that the group’s SUV was being followed, despite the presence of two machine gun-toting federal agents. Of course, everyone remained unharmed, but this moment did make it into the movie in the form of the bridge scene in which Kate Mercer, Matt Graver, and Alejandro Gillick realize they’re being tailed on their way out of Mexico and quickly launch a full-on assault on their pursuers.
But it wasn’t just perilous research trips that made “Sicario” a tough film to make. Shooting her fight scene with Jon Bernthal’s dirty cop, Ted, had quite an impact on Emily Blunt. After shooting this scene, the THR piece states, the actress had “trouble sleeping.” Blunt herself previously spoke to The Guardian about the scene in question, in which Ted starts physically assaulting Mercer after realizing she knows he’s working with the cartel. The actress said:
“We wanted it to be very authentic, to not feel too choreographed, because she thinks she’s going to die, and that’s what it has to look like. It had quite a lasting effect on me – and I’m not someone who takes my work home with me. But I couldn’t sleep after that scene, because it was the embodiment of what would happen naturally: someone of my size would inevitably be overpowered by a person Jon’s size. So when you physically put yourself in that position and you shoot it all day, it has a jarring effect. I felt like my skin was on fire.”