‘A Clockwork Orange’: Malcolm McDowell Sliced His Cornea and Went Temporarily Blind While Filming the ‘Horribly Painful’ Eye Clamp Scene
Some movies make such a cultural impact that fans and critics discuss them for decades. This is the case with A Clockwork Orange, a dystopian crime film originally released in 1971. Directed by the renowned Stanley Kubrick, the film became notorious for its outrageous violence but also the alleged conditions the cast and crew experienced in order to achieve Kubrick’s vision.
Over the years, Malcolm McDowell has opened up several times about what he experienced while filming. The Clockwork Orange star admitted that one particular scene was horribly painful, resulting in temporary blindness.
What did Malcolm McDowell say about the infamous eye clamp scene?
McDowell’s character Alex commits atrocious acts of violence throughout the early part of A Clockwork Orange. However, in one scene, Alex is subjected to a type of aversion therapy called the Ludovico Technique. The intense form of therapy required him to be strapped in a chair. His eyes were clamped open as he’s forced to watch a virtual horrorshow. As it turns out, filming the scene was just as shocking.
As McDowell recalled in a 2019 essay, he had to wear actual eye clamps to film the scene. He explained, according to The AV Club:
“During our preparation, Stanley showed me a picture of an eye-operation patient with lid-locks on and asked me if I could have that done to me: “Hell, no!” I said. So he brought in a doctor to anesthetize my eyes. But most eye operations are done with the patient lying on their back, not sitting up watching videos.”
McDowell went on to describe the pain he experienced, noting “When we shot it, the lid-locks kept sliding off my eyelids and scratching my cornea.” As the painkiller wore off, the Halloween star experienced so much discomfort that he repeatedly slammed his head against the wall. Despite the trauma, “Stanley was mainly concerned about when he would be able to get his next shot,” McDowell admitted.
Stanley Kubrick was notorious for creating extreme conditions on his movie sets
McDowell isn’t the only star to detail their intense experiences with Stanley Kubrick. The Shining, another of his iconic films, reportedly caused star Shelley Duvall to “resent” Kubrick, with the director pushing her to the brink during the making of the horror film.
The director allegedly diminished her acting abilities and even told other actors on the film to stay away from her. Duvall recalled that she experienced extreme emotional highs and lows when making The Shining, and the experience changed her forever.
What does Malcolm McDowell think about ‘A Clockwork Orange’ these days?
McDowell has stated that he believes A Clockwork Orange is a great film: making “cinema history,” in fact. But he doesn’t plan on watching it anytime soon, possibly because of the traumatic memories of filming it. In his 2019 essay, McDowell said, at one point during the Ludovico Technique scene, Kubrick asked for other actors to spit on the young actor in the “totally humiliating” experience.
The hits kept coming even after filming wrapped. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, McDowell said Kubrick “cheated” him out of his portion of the film’s profits. The director negotiated directly with the film studio and reported to McDowell that they “refused” to pay him 2.5% of the profits of A Clockwork Orange. In fact, Kubrick had gamed the system, bypassing McDowell in the process.
McDowell admitted the experience hurt so much that he could never really talk to Kubrick again. Ultimately, although McDowell’s experience on A Clockwork Orange was traumatic, he considers the movie to be a true original.
