Keith David Had To Be Sent To The Hospital On His First Of Day Shooting The Thing
If you're unlucky enough to find yourself stationed at U.S. Outpost 31, there's a good chance you won't make it home in the same body you arrived there in. There's also a good chance you won't make it home at all. That's because U.S. Outpost 31 is home to the creepy, body-stealing alien that terrorized a group of American researchers in John Carpenter's 1982 "The Thing." The film — which is a remake of the 1951 movie "The Thing from Another World" and based on the 1938 novella "Who Goes There?" — initially bombed in theaters, but has gone on to become a beloved sci-fi horror classic, now largely praised for its paranoid atmosphere, awesome special effects, and character-driven plot.
At the start of the movie, there are 12 men living at the Antarctic research station, but by the end, only two remain: R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Childs who is played by Keith David. It's fitting that these two would be the last left alive at the film's heavily debated ending though, since Childs exists as the natural opposition to MacReady's manic-but-thorough self-proposed leader of the group. Contrary to MacReady, he boasts a stoic demeanor, and though he is a man of few words, that doesn't mean he's lacking in presence. Even when MacReady threatens him at gunpoint during the extremely tense blood testing scene, Childs still maintains his composure while staring down the barrel of the gun. But Childs' tranquility no doubt comes from David, as well, who, after getting into a car crash right before filming was supposed to start, decided to forgo going to the hospital in favor of showing up on set the next morning, ready to work.
Not in much shape to do anything about it
In a brief oral history about "The Thing" for LA Weekly, Keith David explained how the car crash complicated the initial filming. "I got into a car accident right before my first day of shooting, and I broke my hand," he explained. "By the time I had to be at work in the morning, my hand had swollen up to the size of a boxing glove." Obviously, Childs is not supposed to have a severely swollen hand while battling aliens at Outpost 31, so naturally, David was nervous about showing his real-life injury to director John Carpenter the next day. David said:
"I could see John Carpenter and [producer] Larry Franco on the set, so I tried to hide my hand behind my back. But I couldn't function because it hurt so bad. So, as I walked very slowly towards them, I let my hand drop to my side. Their eyes grew to the size of saucers when they saw my hand. "What happened to you?!" They immediately sent me to the hospital, where they put two pins in my hand."
The injury didn't prevent David from filming, but they did have to come up with clever ways of disguising his hand on set. "I put on a surgical glove to cover my stitches, and put on a black glove over it that was painted to match my skin." David also said that because of his broken hand, "you never see [his] left hand in the first part of the movie." But just like how Childs disappears for a long time in the film's second half, if we're unable to keep an eye on his' left hand from the start, how can we be sure it hasn't been infected by ... the Thing?