There are a handful of moments in Ti West’s wonderfully-received horror throwback film X that stick with me, but Jenna Ortega’s sudden, chaotic exit is easily one of the biggest. It’s the kind of scene that feels like it had to hurt to pull off, like someone really took a risk to sell it. But as it turns out, the magic of that moment comes down to timing and a classic Hollywood trick known as a “cowboy switch.”
Speaking on The Big Boy with Kid Cudi Podcast, Ortega breaks down how the scene actually comes together, revealing that what we’re seeing on screen, as her character sprints out the barn door and gets blasted down, is the result of a “cowboy switch,” also known as a “Texas switch,” a practical filmmaking technique that’s been around for decades. She explains:
