One of the weirdest scenes in Batman Returns (and there are PLENTY) was where Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer) fell from the Shreck office window to her assumed death, only to be “revived” by a group of alley cats. Their method of revival? Finger chewing. But did those cats really chew Michelle Pfeiffer fingers?
Of course not!
But the question remains—what were they actually chewing? IMDB claims the following:
In order to get the cats to surround Selina when she’s knocked out, the filmmakers put tuna on a dummy version of Selina and tuna on Selina’s suit.
It’s certainly more plausible than this wild claim (which I assume is a joke; please say it’s a joke)
Apparently the actor Blake Hudson (1944-1988) donated his body to Hollywood which was subsequently frozen before parts of it were used, as appropriate, for various films, including his hand for Batman Returns’ ‘finger chewing sequence’. I also understand various parts of his body were used for the bravura Normandy Beach landing sequence in Saving Private Ryan.
Please say sike, johnnygobbs
I guess that kinda answers a secondary question I always had: why were the cats chewing her fingers to the point of bleeding? Cats chewing an owner’s fingers can be a sign of affection but, if the person is conscious, they tend to pull away if the biting pierces the skin. Selina wasn’t in a position to stop them while she was “dead” so… they kept on going. That and it’s a Tim Burton film so of course there’s an element of the macabre (and, again, there’s PLENTY more in the movie).
Fish eating in Batman Returns related: Did Danny DeVito eat a real fish in Batman Returns?