Daryl Hannah’s portrayal of Madison the mermaid in the 1984 film Splash was a defining role of her career and a pop culture phenomenon. Her performance was praised for its balance of ethereal innocence, natural swimming grace, and playful wit, helping to make the film a romantic comedy classic.
The fully functional, custom-made mermaid tail worn by Hannah weighed 35 pounds and took approximately three hours to put on. Hannah, who had a childhood fascination with The Little Mermaid and often swam with her legs bound, performed all her own underwater stunts. She swam so quickly in the tail that the underwater safety team often struggled to keep up with her.
In the film, Tom Hanks’ character, Allen Bauer, names the mermaid Madison after a street sign (Madison Avenue) in New York City. This is widely credited with the name's surge in popularity as a girl’s name in the following decades.
Despite the on-screen magic, filming was physically demanding. The long hours in the water and the heavy, restrictive tail meant Hannah often had to be lifted by crane during lunch breaks and was fed by cast members while remaining wet.
Splash, directed by Ron Howard, was the first film released under the Touchstone Pictures label, a Disney subsidiary created to produce content with more mature themes for an adult audience. The film was critically and commercially successful, earning over $69 million on an $11 million budget, making it the tenth-highest-grossing film of 1984, and received praise for the acting, humor, and chemistry between Hanks and Hannah.
0 comments:
Post a Comment