Actor Tony Todd, who died last November at age 69, makes his last screen appearance in Final Destination Bloodlines wherein the horror icon reprises his franchise role as the enigmatic William Bludworth. IGN has an exclusive clip from Todd’s scene in the new film, which can be viewed via the player above or the embed below.
“It’s actually a really special moment in the movie. A lot of people who’ve seen the film talk about how surprised they are, the level of emotion they feel during that scene,” Zach Lipovsky, who directed Final Destination Bloodlines with Adam Stein, told IGN last week.
Tony Todd made his first appearance as the mysterious undertaker and later coroner William Bludworth in the original Final Destination in 2000. He reprised the role in Final Destination 2 and Final Destination 5 (only Todd’s voice is heard in Final Destination 3). Bloodlines will reveal new information about Bludworth’s past.
Bludworth’s function in the series has been to explain the rules of death and the consequences of trying to cheat it to the doomed protagonists, and it’s what he does for the characters in this exclusive clip from Final Destination Bloodlines. But this time there’s a poignancy to Bludworth’s inclusion as the ailing Todd appears visibly frail and thin. Working with the filmmakers, Todd helped craft what would be his farewell to the franchise and his fans.
“We’re really grateful that we had the ability to, from the beginning, design that experience for the audience with Tony and with all the writers and everybody. We knew he was ill for quite a while and he was extremely excited to be in the movie,” said Lipovsky.
“He was very grateful for the ability to participate in the film and he was so joyful on set when he was there and he was cracking jokes and really excited to just have his ability to be in the film and give his character a lot more backstory. We give a lot of answers to who Bludworth is in the film, which is something that during the franchise, people have been clamoring for for a really long time. But we also knew, like you said, that this was also going to be a goodbye of the character. And that’s something that we worked very closely with him to figure out really the best way of doing that because these films are about death and his mortality was very present as we were working with him.”
Lipovsky continued: “One of the unique opportunities that came up was as he is at near the end of that scene, we asked him to actually throw away the script for a moment and just speak from the heart as to everything that he was thinking about as far as what the movie was about, what the franchise has been about, but also just what life’s about and what is it all about in the end.
And the take that’s in the film where he says, ‘Life is precious. Cherish every second because you never know when.’ And the earnestness that he says that with [it] all came in the moment from him. And I think you really feel that when you watch the movie that he’s obviously speaking as a character who knows that their death is coming, but he’s also speaking as an actor who’s speaking to the audience as far as what’s important in life. And that was a really powerful moment on set when we filmed that with him.”
(L-R) Owen Patrick Joyner as “Bobby”, Kaitlyn Santa Juana as “Stefanie”, Director Adam Stein, Tony Todd as “William Bludworth”, Teo Briones as “Charlie”, Director Zach Lipovsky, Rya Kihlstedt as “Darlene”, and Richard Harmon as “Erik” in New Line Cinema’s “Final Destination Bloodlines,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. (Photo By Eric Milner)
Fellow director Adam Stein said that Todd “relished” the chance to inject some dark wit into the scene and that those on set that day were moved to tears watching the terminally ill actor deliver what everyone knew would be his final big screen performance.
“A lot of the actors, ourselves, the crew, everyone was tearing up in that moment, except for him,” Stein recalled. “He sort of relished it. He had this sort of mischievous smile and even when he delivers that line and then says, ‘Good luck’ in the way that he has, that sort of dark, mischievous way as he goes out the door. He knew exactly what he was doing and he relished the opportunity to kind of have that goodbye and have that bit of a wink and have that message work on multiple levels. And it was a lot of fun. But I think he also really was excited about the opportunity to have a platform to say goodbye to his fans.”
Final Destination Bloodlines opens in theaters on May 16th.
