Lucille Ball thought she was going to die while filming the iconic 'I Love Lucy' grape-vat fight: 'I was drowning in these grapes'

• In a resurfaced interview, Lucille Ball said she thought she might die while filming "I Love Lucy."
• Ball said costar Teresa Tirelli was "beating the hell" out of her in the grape-vat scene.
• The Hollywood Reporter recalled this anecdote as people were celebrating the late actress' birthday.

People are remembering the greatest moments of the late legendary actress Lucille Ball on her birthday, including a scene on "I Love Lucy" that at the time she thought would "kill her."

The Hollywood Reporter resurfaced a 1974 interview Ball did with "The Dick Cavett Show." She was asked about one of her favorite episodes, to which she said "grapes" - referencing the beloved moment from the "Lucy's Italian Movie" episode.

However, she revealed that she thought she was going to be killed. Ball was joined by Teresa Tirelli D'Amico for the grape-stomping scene - but a language barrier kept the two from understanding one another.

Tirelli, who only spoke Italian, took an accident to heart.

"[Tirelli] was told that there would be a fight, and it was also explained to her that there were times when my legs had to come up in this huge vat of real grapes," Ball said. "I slipped and when I slipped, I hit her, accidentally. And she took offense. So, she hauled off and let me have it. This was supposed to happen, that she got right! But when she hit me ... took all the wind out of me."

"She kept me down by the throat," Ball continued. "I had grapes up my nose, in my ears, and she was choking me."

"I was drowning in these grapes," Ball said before describing how she was eventually able to push the woman off and yell for help.

Ball, who died in 1989 at the age of 77, would have been 110 years old today.

The Los Angeles Times reported this week that Ball will be the focus of a posthumous podcast on Sirius XM titled "Let's Talk to Lucy." It will feature "ancient tapes" from Ball's 1960s CBS Radio show of the same name.