Virginia Madsen may have been surrounded by bees during the production of Candyman, but unlike her co-star Tony Todd, she didn’t get hazard pay for potential bee stings. Speaking with ComicBook.com in support of her new indie film One Day as a Lion, Madsen admitted that she didn’t know until fairly recently that Todd has managed to secure a bonus — but she also didn’t know the magnitude of his bee problems while shooting the film, which spawned a franchise including a 2021 legacy sequel.
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Madsen, whose prolific career also includes Sideways, Swamp Thing, and Frasier, said that she would love to work with Todd again, but that she doesn’t know what they could do. After all, she reasons, the audience would likely look at the pair together and immediately think of their time on Candyman.
“No, and I just found that out the last time I saw Tony,” Madsen admitted when we asked about bee pay. “I was like ‘Wait a minute…I’m the one who had the bee allergy!’ There was no bonus on the table for me, there were just paramedics on the set!”
She said that she is aware, though, that it wasn’t as though Todd wasn’t earning the bonus. It turns out, he got stung quite a bit more than she thought he did.
“Tony took a lot of stings, and I thought he got stung four or five times, but I learned only recently that he got stung a lot,” Madsen said. “Because the bees with him were full-grown bees and when they get trapped, they will sting you, and my bees were all little baby bees, and they can, but they’re unlikely to sting. So Tony had that big coat, but you know, he just really embodied that role. He was so poetic, and the sound of his voice, it was a beautiful performance.”
One Day as a Lion, starring Scott Caan and JK Simmons, arrived in select theaters April 4th, and you can get it today on Digital.
