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Bat Man: Care was taken to ensure that Eric Martsolf (Brady, l.) wasn’t injured when Paul Telfer’s Xander attacked his character.
Xander’s decision to even the score with Brady for crippling Sarah by breaking his legs with a baseball bat provided for some intense scenes between Paul Telfer (Xander) and Eric Martsolf (Brady) — partly because of the heavy nature of the Days of our Lives story material and also because, according to Martsolf, Telfer “had a Louisville Slugger in his hands,” referring to the heavy all-wood bat.
League Of His Own
Marvels Martsolf, “He was throwing that thing around, and the interesting dynamic about it was that Brady just stood there willing to take it. He didn’t say, ‘Don’t do this! You don’t know what you’re doing!’ He just accepted his fate. The only reason Xander didn’t cripple Brady is the fact that Fiona interrupted them.”
Before filming, the confrontation was carefully planned out with a choreographer who orchestrated every move. “We take great care with those kind of dangerous situations, and there was no plastic bat either,” says Martsolf, explaining that a weaker substitute wasn’t used during blocking and rehearsal. “It was the real thing.”
After nailing down the choreography, Telfer and Martsolf got down to filming the actual scene. “I remember the prop department being very nervous about what Paul was going to destroy in that office, because with a Louisville Slugger and with primarily Ikea furniture you could do some serious damage!” notes Martsolf. “You could take out pretty much everything in there. So there was a lot of caution.”
And not just regarding the set’s props, but also Martsolf himself. “There was also a lot of caution with the bat-wielding around my face and making sure that there was a good amount of distance if [Telfer] is going to swing or not,” says Martsolf. “But I think he took most of the effort out on the office instead of my legs or my face. There was some [furniture] crushing going on.”
Sums up Martsolf, “Of course, we had a good chuckle after it was over, but it was actually a very intense scene. Nine times out of 10 you’re going to run away from that scenario, but the fact that Brady just stood there and said, ‘Go ahead, do it’ — that’s intense.”
