Pivotal “Whiplash” scene's extras were actually just chairs with white T-shirts, producer says

The Oscar winner is being re-released in theaters to mark its 10th anniversary.

Even superfans of the movie Whiplash might not have noticed one of the 2014 production's onscreen tricks.

"The thing I think about all the time with that film, and I think that one of the main things that I’ve carried with me, throughout my career… the very end of that film, in the giant final sequence, we ran out of time with the extras," producer Helen Estabrook said on Wednesday's episode of the Hollywood Gold podcast. "Obviously, we had no time. And so, if you look closely, you will see that, in the audience, the people are actually white T-shirts on chairs. It's just T-shirts on chairs. That's our audience.”

Estabrook, who's also produced movies such as Young Adult, Labor Day, and Babylon, recalled going home that day and thinking, "Welp, we're screwed."

Whiplash tells the story of Miles Teller's main character, Andrew, a jazz drummer attending an elite music conservatory. Andrew and his classmates are pushed to their limits and beyond by a demanding, abusive conductor, played by J.K. Simmons. An especially big scene has Teller's character playing at Carnegie Hall in an ensemble conducted by Simmons' Fletcher.

Estabrook joked about seeing a poster for the movie's anniversary re-release in theaters, where it was obvious that Teller is not performing in front of a crowd.

"You could very clearly see that it's just Miles and a bunch of T-shirts in seats. And I wanted so badly to be like, 'Please, can that be our poster?'" Estabrook said. "Cause that is this movie. That is what this movie is: It's Miles and J.K. and T-shirts on seats."

It's also a lot of jazz.

"I tell this story," Estabrook said, "because the thing that I carry with me is… it's that old thing that people always say, like, ‘Oh, people won’t notice the continuity if they're in the film.’ They do. They do notice the continuity. But… if you are taking people on an emotional journey, you can forgive a lot."

Related: Miles Teller sets next ‘80s nostalgia project with An Officer and a Gentleman remake

During her interview, Estabrook also spoke about director Damien Chazelle having shot a gruesome version of Teller's character so worried about missing a performance that he rushes away from a car accident, even though he's obviously hurt.

"As written, he breaks his finger," she said. "There is a bone sticking out of his finger, and he's playing with a broken finger. And it's a lot. It's a lot."

Related: Meryl Streep reveals Nicole Kidman's Big Little Lies skinny-dipping routine at AFI Life Achievement Award gala

Estabrook recalled people telling her that it was too much, and they shouldn't include it. If it didn't work, she told them, it wouldn’t be in the final cut. It wasn't.

Whiplash went on to be nominated for five Oscars. It won three, including one for Simmons.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.