…won two gold medals in the ’92 Olympics. He ran the 400. We’re doing a Nike OPERA spot and Quincy is the hero who is ‘betrothed’ to an unattractive diva. The commercial ends with him leaping off stage and over the orchestra.
We built an orchestra pit and the leap over the conductor had to be around four feet. Watts refused to do it.
‘I’m not jumping.’
‘It’s only a couple of feet.’
‘I could hurt myself.’
I go over to the set and leap across the area myself.
‘This is no big deal.’
‘My father doesn’t want me to jump.’
I look over to Quincy’s father who is his manager, agent, or something and he shakes his head, ‘no.’
It was the last shot of the day and we didn’t have a double so that meant we had to come back another day to film this.
I think I said something like ‘I always knew track people were pussies’ (or something like that, remembering the trouble I had with Edwin Moses years before).
I did have the satisfaction of kicking his ass on the basketball court at lunch earlier.
The spot won a Gold Lion at Cannes.