{"id":510650,"date":"2026-03-03T02:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T02:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/510650\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T02:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T02:18:12","slug":"the-story-and-making-of-the-hairy-leg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/510650\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story and Making of the Hairy Leg"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a tangle of peculiar storylines on the periphery of Kleber Mendon\u00e7a Filho\u2019s \u201cThe Secret Agent,\u201d<\/a> but maybe none as strange as the disembodied hairy leg that pops up throughout, eventually coming to life to stalk the streets of Recife. It\u2019s an odd, fantastical moment in what\u2019s otherwise a very grounded film<\/a>, but for Mendon\u00e7a, it\u2019s also deeply connected to his own childhood.<\/p>\n

Explaining the origins of the leg in a new featurette that IndieWire exclusively premieres, Mendon\u00e7a said he remembered reading stories about hairy, disembodied legs while growing up in fascist Brazil during the 1970s. Years later, he would discover that these stories were an urban legend created by a journalist to talk about police brutality and homophobia.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/a> \"Delroy<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look back to the newspapers in the archives, you can find the original articles about the hairy leg, and they were written with a straight face,\u201d Mendon\u00e7a said. \u201cSo it was almost like a police article, but the hairy leg would be the perpetrator of violent acts, and that became a sensation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the featurette, Mendon\u00e7a spoke with \u201cFrankenstein\u201d director Guillermo del Toro<\/a> about creating the leg in the film, and creating a movie that used the tools of international cinema while remaining heavily rooted in a Brazilian context.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I see your movies, I see this absolutely beautiful mixing of imaginations,\u201d del Toro told Mendon\u00e7a. \u201cIt very much is cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n

To create the leg seen in \u201cThe Secret Agent<\/a>,\u201d Mendon\u00e7a contracted the Dutch stop motion animation studio Holy Motion to work on the film. The studio sent several tests before they nailed Mendon\u00e7a\u2019s desired look \u2014 for the leg to be slimy, disgusting, and very hairy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really love the way it moves, because the first thing many people suggested was \u2018do it in CGI,’\u201d Mendon\u00e7a said. \u201cIt was a great experience. I really love when films depart reality, and they go into some new mode. Just because it\u2019s the state of our minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Secret Agent\u201d received four nominations at the 2026 Oscars, where it will compete for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Casting, and Best International Feature Film. <\/p>\n

Watch the full conversation between Mendon\u00e7a and del Toro, an IndieWire exclusive, below.<\/p>\n

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