Children of the ‘80s and beyond are no doubt familiar with The Princess Bride, the 1987 film directed by Rob Reiner about a princess and her stable boy who go on the adventure of a lifetime. The film, considered a cult classic and one of the best love stories of all time, has garnered many fans over the years, and even its stars continue to acknowledge the impact the fairy tale story has had on pop culture and movies at large.
Though Mandy Patinkin has had a number of iconic roles over the years, most remember him fondly as Inigo Montoya, the swashbuckling sidekick to Cary Elwes’ Wesley, out on a quest to kill the Six-Fingered Man who killed his father. His iconic speech — “hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die” — is one of the most oft-quoted lines of the eighties, one of many to come out of Reiner’s string of hits, and Inigo’s desperation to avenge his father strikes a chord for many, especially those who have lost their own fathers.
To celebrate the film’s thirty-fifth anniversary this month, Patinkin posted a number of videos to Twitter detailing stories from his time on the set of the 1987 classic. He shares the same love for the film as fans, detailing stories from his time on set and giving fans an insight into the making of one of the most iconic films of a decade.
He teared up talking about filming Inigo and Wesley’s iconic fight — where Inigo says “you seem a decent fellow, I hate to kill you,” to which Wesley responds, “you seem a decent fellow, I hate to die” — and his response to Reiner calling “cut and print” on the scene, meaning they’d finished filming for good. “I’m such a f**kin’ crybaby,” he said, “But it was so incredible to work on it with everyone, so when you’d hear him say ‘cut, print,’ my heart would drop because that would mean that’s it. No more.”
Patinkin also revealed that he kept a number of the swords made for Inigo — a sword that has been replicated and sold at countless renaissance fairs and specialty shops since — and that he gave two to his sons, Isaac and Gideon. The star noted that the real metal blades in the pieces were not used for filming, but were instead replaced with carbon blades that would shine like the real thing, both for safety and because, according to Patinkin, even the hilts alone were massively heavy, so having a lighter blade reduced the risk of developing muscle issues from holding and fighting with the swords for hours on end every day.
He also spoke, as many other cast members have, of the kindness and talent of André the Giant, the wrestler-turned-movie star who played the lovable Fezzik, Inigo’s partner in crime. As much of a fan-favorite part of the film as any of Inigo’s scenes, Patinkin described his co-star — who passed away in 1993 — as “beyond a gentle giant,” calling him the “spirit of the movie.” Amongst his stories, he shared a number about André, including one about filming the iconic “Cliffs of Insanity” sequence from the beginning of the film:
“The most special moment was, we were climbing up the Cliffs of Insanity…We were in the studio and they had the mountain built, and the mountain had a rubber…seam down the middle, and in that seam was a forklift on the other side [that] you didn’t see, and a metal shaft that came in the middle of it. And so [Wallace Shawn] and Robin [Wright] and I were on bicycle seats sitting there to keep all of our weight off of André, ‘cause he had issues with his back…and Wally, there was a double there that morning for Wally, ‘cause Wally had a fear of heights…But we get on the thing and the forklift starts to go up, and Wally starts to clearly have issues with being lifted off the ground and the height. And André just puts his arms around him like a baby, and he says to Wally, “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.” And I’ll just never forget it.”
The Princess Bride is streaming now on Disney+. Check out Patinkin’s videos below: