The Cast of ‘Les Misérables’ Only Had 15 Minutes to Build the Barricade Used in the Film
The cast of 2012’s Les Misérables had a short stint as set designers when they were instructed to build a barricade for the award-winning movie. The trick was that they only had 15 minutes to do it and the cameras would be rolling.
Behind the scenes: Building the barricade for ‘Les Misérables’
It turns out that the most believable way to build a war barricade in the movies is to literally build a war barricade in the movie. Les Misérables takes place in Paris in the 19th century and shows the June rebellion of 1832 when the people rebelled against King Louis-Phillippe.
When it came time to build the barricade for the film, producer Debra Hayward says they based their idea on “ … a fantastic old photograph of one of the barricades being sort of constructed and in it you could see people actually throwing furniture out the window.”
Eve Stewart, a production designer on Les Misérables, says “people would literally run down the streets of Paris and make barricades in 15 minutes flat and that’s the kind of energy and revolutionary spirit we were trying to capture.”
Director Tom Hooper says that when it came time to film, they tasked the cast to build a barricade just before calling “action!” This led to the cast ripping doors from their hinges and piling chairs and tables in a haphazard fashion to build a barricade for the scene.
Hooper says, that the plan was to have the cast build part of the barricade and that the rest would be assembled by the production team, however, the structure was so good that they used the one the cast built, only pausing to bolt down parts of the barricade for safety.
Fantastic Beast’s Eddie Redmayne, who plays Marius in Les Misérables, recalls:
“They just [took] our barricade and pinned it together. And so the barricade itself—as would have been the case—remained like an extraordinary booby trap.”
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Adding to the realism, Buzzfeed reports that the cameras were hidden while the barricade was being built so the cast was unaware from which direction they were being filmed.
Critical response to ‘Les Misérables’
After being nominated for eight academy awards in 2013 and winning three, it is no secret that Les Misérables was loved by critics. The film’s wins included Oscars in categories for sound mixing as well as makeup and hairstyling, but the most memorable win for Les Misérables was undoubtedly Anne Hathaway’s Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Lead Actor Hugh Jackman was also nominated. Other nominations included Best Picture, Best Costume Design, Best Original Song, and Best Production Design.
‘Les Misérables’ was loved by audiences too
Les Misérables was not only the darling of critics upon its release but won the hearts of audiences as well. The film has a 79 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes with over 250,000 ratings. The film was also among Marie Claire’s list of “the 51 best musical movies to get you singing.”
However, while the film is still considered one of the best film adaptations and musicals of the 21st century, not all have been so quick to praise it. In 2012, Time released a list of the “Top 10 Les Mizzes Better Than the New Les Miz.” Among Time’s contenders were the 1952 version of the film, the 1978 TV Movie version, and—surprisingly—the Simpsons parodies of the classic.
