How Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell Filmed ‘Cannibal’ Scenes in Bones & All

With so many TV shows and films dabbling in cannibalism stories these days, the effects departments in Hollywood have had to come up with some creative solutions. Luca Guadagino’s new film Bones and All tells the tale of two cannibals in love, and food is their love language. Food also, obviously, happens to be other people. Actress Taylor Russell who co-stars with Timothée Chalamet, recently explained to Slash Film how the faux- body parts and viscera were made edible for them both.

“On a very practical note, Luca said that we were eating corn syrup,” Russell said. “But I know that I wasn’t, because I remember the incredible effects team and the team who were handling all of that sort of stuff told me that it was maraschino cherries, dark chocolate, and Fruit Roll-Ups.”

Russell added, “If that sounds good to you, cool. If it doesn’t, fair enough. But it was very sweet and [tastier] than anything else maybe you could imagine.”

The pair must have eaten a whole lot of sweets on that set, because Guadagnino told IndieWire that he ended up cutting a lot of the gorier bits from the final edit.

“We had way more,” he said. “I shot so much more, but in the editing process, my editor and I were always clear that we should never be selfish about our capacity to portray horror. There was a lot of pain that was happening to the characters, a kind of sacred reverence. It was quite beautiful, humbling, reverential.”

But he’s not worried about upsetting his audience.

“I believe in the intelligence of people,” he said. “I don’t want to put an audience in a passive situation. I love the audience to be active with the movie. If that comes across, I have the possibility to express complexities that might seem intolerable.”

Russell also spoke with IndieWire, saying she saw the cannibalism as a symbol of love as “very punk.”

“At the end of the day, all of Luca’s movies are about that — love of people on the outside,” Russell said. “This is an extreme version of that, but because it’s an extreme version, you really sink into it. I wasn’t worried about the cannibalism.”