Madsen played the iconic villain in 'Reservoir Dogs', but hated filming the movie
Madsen, who had just become a father, struggled to execute the torture, especially when Baltz improvised the line "I have kids at home." According to WhatCulture, the line, which was not in the script, hit the actor hard. "The idea of killing a guy who could have been me, a family man, almost paralyzed me," Madsen revealed in later interviews.
The now iconic moment almost didn't make it into the film. Harvey Weinstein, the film's producer, pushed for the sequence to be cut, but Quentin Tarantino insisted on keeping it.
Mr. Blonde (also called Vic Vega, brother of John Travolta's character in "Pulp Fiction") is the central antagonist of the film.
While the film avoided excessively gory scenes, the psychological violence — especially in the torture of the police officer — was enough to shock audiences and critics. For Madsen, however, the legacy of the role came at a personal cost: "Fame is a double-edged sword. There are a lot of blessings, but there are also a lot of heavy things that come with it. I think it has a lot to do with the characters I played. I think I was more believable than I should have been. I think people really fear me. They see me and they're like, 'Holy shit, that's that guy! '" he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018.
But I'm not that guy. I'm just an actor. I'm a father, I have seven children. I'm married, I've been married for 20 years. When I'm not making a movie, I'm at home, in my pajamas, watching The Rifleman on TV, hopefully with my 12-year-old son making me a cheeseburger. Michael Madsen in 2018
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