Manny has been a busy dead man about town. Crafted in the likeness of Daniel Radcliffe for the movie Swiss Army Man, the dummy corpse has popped up at press events, on top of a bus, in a lyric video to promote the film, and posing next to Radcliffe himself. Now you can see how he was made in a new featurette for the odd, odd film about a farting corpse.
According to Jason Hamer, who produced the film’s makeup effects, was equal parts surprised and intrigued by the concept behind Swiss Army Man and seemed eager to try something new. “Building a body that can hold another body that’s propelled by farts going across the ocean. Things that have never been done before. That’s what makes it exciting,” he says in the featurette, which tracks the molding, makeup, and costume process for the dummy.
“Do you wanna talk about the dick?” Hamer joked. Watch the video below.
Swiss Army Man, directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (who also want to remake White Chicks as an R-rated drama), stars Paul Dano as a man stranded on a desert island who stumbles across a flatulent corpse, which he then uses to sail to the mainland. Also starring is Mary Elizabeth Winstead, but Manny keeps stealing the spotlight.
As part of the film’s marketing campaign, Radcliffe joined Manny on what was dubbed “Manny About Town.” The pair toured various locations — including New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles — to engage with fans from a tour bus.
Explaining to NPR (edited for clarity), the directors said it all started with a fart.
So the body is kind of like a metaphor for the human experience in general. We all have to fart every day and decide when and where to do it. But that became interesting to us on an academic level, as well, because we have these thoughts and what do we do with our thoughts? And we have these, like, we have to make decisions every day. And that all felt meaty enough to warrant a story.
Swiss Army Man is now playing in theaters. Here’s the official synopsis:
Hank, a hopeless man stranded in the wild, discovers a mysterious dead body. Together the two embark on an epic journey to get home. As Hank realizes the body is the key to his survival, this once-suicidal man is forced to convince a dead body that life is worth living.
