Valdez really gave us the time and their confidence to do it right. We were never really rushed, which is so important. We were able to do every one of the major shots in one take: the car out of the building, the carrier turning over and the planes colliding. That says something. These guys respect the crew and every job being done. It makes a big difference." In an interview with Orange Coast Magazine, co-star Braga confessed she had "never done action before" in film, while also stating, "I had to learn running and kicking and hitting." Under Eastwood's direction, Braga commented, "When you act with the director, you don't have any barriers because you're giving and taking at the same time." On a separate note, author Marc Eliot described the graphic rape scene in the film that gained much publicity as being, "an explosive sequence, and the only one in the film that people talked about. As obviously provocative and exploitative as it was, ars gratia artis the scene may also be read as conveying Clint's feeling victimized at the hands of a beautiful but bad woman." Offering another take on the scene, author John H. Foote noticed, "Braga looks somewhat embarrassed during the rape sequence, leaving us to wonder why Eastwood the director did not handle the sequence in a different manner. Was he hoping that the film would offer audiences something new?" Author Douglas Thompson bluntly referred to the rape scene as "sadomasochistic" and Braga as a "kinky nymphomaniac" while adding, "before she rapes Eastwood she plays around his chest with a razor blade, then gets into torrid action." Author Howard Hughes indicated that the event was one of Eastwood's "most distasteful scenes in [his] entire career". (Ironically, while the rape scene attracted considerable attention, little apparent notice was paid to the scene in which protagonist Pulovski commits murder by summarily executing Strom. Stunts The major stunt scenes were executed before the camera with no miniatures, no blue screens, while mostly being shot at night. Completed during May 1990, the centerpiece stunt of the film involved a Mercedes-Benz convertible driving through the fourth-floor window of an exploding warehouse. For the scene, a 1,500 pound Mercedes auto mock-up was connected by 150 feet of quarter-inch pulleyed cable to a Ford 4×4 pickup on the ground. The truck would drive straight ahead and pull the Mercedes through the