Since its inception, filmmaking has been a space of potential danger.
In fact, it's often the films with seemingly the least amount of risk
that pose the greatest danger to the actors. From beloved kids' movies to classic '90s comedies,
these are the surprising scenes that were actually dangerous to film.
Children and adults alike have loved "The Wizard of Oz" since its release in 1939, but
beyond the bright technicolor world was a land of danger, accidents, and poison. The production of
"The Wizard of Oz" has become as legendary as the film itself, due to its many unfortunate mishaps.
The Wicked Witch of the West was accidentally set on fire when a trap door malfunctioned during a
scene; the Tin Man got poisoned by his aluminum heavy makeup; even Terry, the dog playing Toto,
wasn't exempt as one of the Winkie Guards accidentally stepped on her paw and broke it.
But, surprisingly, one of the most dangerous moments of all was the poppy field scene.
The Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow stand above Dorothy, who lies unconscious among the
poppies as snow starts falling around them. It turns out, things weren't so gentle — the fake
snow was made of asbestos, a toxic carcinogen. The dangers of asbestos were known by the early 1900s,
but that didn't stop producers from dousing Judy Garland and her co-stars with it.
"Now my beauties, something with poison in it, I think, with poison in it."
In spite of its name, "Grease" didn't run quite as smoothly as producers had hoped.
The film's climactic racing scene called for John Travolta and Dennis Stewart to splash
through water that was stagnant and filled with bacteria. Also, Jeff Conaway slipped and fell
while doing a take of "Grease Lightning," leading to lifelong back pain and an addiction to opioids.
Ultimately, it was the prom sequence, however, that proved most dangerous to film. On screen,
viewers can enjoy a vibrant scene of bright colors, a dance off,
and even John Travolta doing the splits — but off screen, things weren't quite so fun. The
Los Angeles gymnasium where the dance was filmed didn't have any air conditioning, and doors were
closed to control lighting. The location got so hot — a cool and casual 116 degrees — that
several members of the cast had to be helped off the set due to heat-related illnesses.
While the standard for filming on location in the middle of a city is to close down the street,
that isn't always available when you're working on a limited budget.
Such was the case for John Schlesinger, director of "Midnight Cowboy." In the film, Jon Voight
plays a sex worker who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Dustin Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo.
The most famous scene of the film was an accidental one that almost
injured Hoffman. Since production didn't have the money to shut down the streets, they filmed
Voight and Hoffman walking and talking in the middle of real New York City traffic.
As they're exchanging dialogue, a cab driver tried to run through a red light,
nearly hitting Hoffman. This led to a genuine outburst and a classic moment of film dialogue.
"Hey, I'm walkin' here! I'm walking here!"
1976's "Carrie" continues to terrify viewers today,
with its Stephen King-conceived tale of a bullied young woman pushed to her breaking
point. The shoot was intense as Sissy Spacek was so committed to staying in character
that she isolated herself from her cast mates, slept in her bloody dress
and even insisted on being buried alive so she could push her own hand out of the grave.
In spite of all this, it was the climactic prom scene when Carrie
goes after her tormentors that proved to be most dangerous. With scenes like this,
filmmakers have to plan carefully to avoid mishaps but still, things can happen, especially when a
fireman refuses to operate the firehose because it's too strong and a stuntman does it instead.
PJ Soles, who plays the bully Norma, discovered this danger first hand when she got sprayed in
the ear with a fire hose. The power was so intense that she suffered from a ruptured
ear drum for six months and the painful moment is even included in the final cut of the film.
For "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," Steve Carell decided to go full Method. Not only did he
write the chest waxing scene for himself, but he also decided to get his chest waxed for real.
While normally this isn't so dangerous, the stakes were unknowingly raised with the hiring
of Miki Mia, who lied to the casting directors about her waxing proficiency.
So, while Carell perhaps anticipated some level of pain, what he didn't expect was
nearly getting his nipples ripped off as Mia didn't take the important step of putting
Vaseline around that area. The scene proved so painstaking to film that actor Romany Malco
had to leave while Carell gritted his teeth and followed through with the process.
The film's director, Judd Apatow, loves to keep things real, and Carell's agony was extremely
real. In the end, it was definitely worth it, at least for the audience.
"Do you know what, guys? This is not a good look for me."
"The Exorcist" has become as famous for its terrifying set as for its horror on screen.
It got to the point that people working on the film actually believed it was cursed.
Ellen Burstyn suffered a permanent back injury while being yanked by a harness,
several deaths have been linked to the movie, including cast members and members of their
families, an entire set burned down, and a priest had to be brought in to bless the set.
Such a physically demanding film, understandably, has risks but one of the more dangerous moments
came as a result of the director's head-turning scare tactics. In order to elicit the most
authentic reactions on screen, William Friedkin would randomly shoot guns on set. Jason Miller,
who played Father Karras, got into an altercation with Friedkin after he fired a gun next to his
ear to get a surprise reaction. Miller noted that as an actor, he doesn't exactly need a gun
to be surprised or startled. Friedkin never denied the claims of using a gun to get a rise
out of the actors; in fact, he dismissed them because after all, he was only firing blanks.
Daniel Day Lewis is arguably one of the most Method actors of all time. Whether
it's spending an entire shoot in a wheelchair for "My Left Foot,"
learning to track and skin animals for "Last of the Mohicans," or staying in a solitary
prison cell for two nights for "In the Name of the Father," the man commits to a role.
It's no surprise, then, that he got fully into character to play one of his most
unforgettable characters — violent, angry oilman Daniel Plainview in 2007's critically acclaimed
"There Will Be Blood." Many remember the moment of Day Lewis lecturing Paul Dano's character…
"I drink your milkshake!"
[slurping sound]
But what viewers may not realize is that this climactic scene was
actually quite dangerous to film. Ever the realist,
Day Lewis insisted on throwing actual bowling balls at Dano, who just barely got out of the way.
The realism certainly added to the moment, helping create an authentic and iconic film moment.
An action series like "The Hunger Games" requires a lot of safety planning due to all the stunts,
but the most dangerous, and unpleasant, scene to film may surprise you. While Jennifer Lawrence
made headlines after accidentally kicking Josh Hutcherson in the head and Liam Hemsworth hurt his
ankle while filming "Mockingjay Part II," it was the sewer scene that really put people in danger.
In spite of having a sewer built on a soundstage, director Francis Lawrence decided
to do the scene on location in a real sewer. The water was heated, the ceilings were low,
which wasn't ideal for the 6'3” Liam Hemsworth, and costumes got water-logged, adding at least
20 extra pounds on top of the actors. Plus, being in an actual sewer isn't exactly sanitary,
which led to a quite miserable three-week shoot for everyone. But in the end, they got the
footage — and in the unique realm of Hollywood, sometimes that need transcends everything else.
Since its 1971 release, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" has inspired the dreams
of countless kids and grown-ups alike. Willy Wonka's iconic chocolate river in particular
stands out as a place of fun and fantasy. But filming in
this candy wonderland wasn't quite as wondrous as viewers might think.
According to Michael Bollner, who played Augustus Gloop,
this dream was a bit of a nightmare. It was "stinky water," made of 150,000 gallons of water,
cream, chocolate — and leftover coffee dumped by folks on set. The stench of
the river only got worse over time, as the cream spoiled during the course of the shoot.
Bollner had to do multiple takes, spending the day soaked in his smelly clothes. Each
take required him to go back up into the tube, where he was stuck with water up to his mouth.
The filming of this scene was so problematic that Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie Bucket,
noted that OSHA likely had not approved such working conditions.
It's not just action films that can prove dangerous for actors and extras.
The physical nature of some comedies can also create opportunities galore for people
to get injured, which was the case for Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in "Wayne's World."
Who can hear Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" without thinking of the classic scene from
the first "Wayne's World" movie? Myers fought to have that song included in the movie,
instead of the original pick of Guns n' Roses,
and it paid off by becoming one of the most iconic music scenes of all time.
According to Myers, though, it wasn't all fun and games. The guys in The Mirthmobile got
very into the moment, and director Penelope Spheeris needed many takes to get proper
coverage for all the various angles you see in the scene. As a result, that scene took
almost an entire night to shoot, leading to some serious neck pain. As Carvey told Rolling
Stone in 2015, he was 36 at the time and needed more than a few Advil to get through the night.
Filming this sequence might have been a headache for the actors,
but fans everywhere had the same reaction to the final scene.
"Excellent."
"Ishtar" has gone down in film history as one of Hollywood's greatest bombs,
and trouble plagued it from production to release. The 1987 adventure comedy stars
Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman and Isabel Adjani, and was filmed on location in
Morocco. What could go wrong with a handful of warring egos, intense climate conditions,
and high political tensions in North Africa? Actually, a lot could go wrong — and it did.
The film became infamous for its extravagant over-spending and director Elaine May's high
number of takes. Perhaps the most dangerous scene was the one where Hoffman lies in the desert,
surrounded by vultures. In order to get the large, frightening birds to fly down around
him, production placed raw pieces of meat on Hoffman's body, just out of frame. Hoffman asked…
"Are these vultures going to know where the raw meat ends and I start?"
Unfortunately for him, he had to do 50 takes to find out.
"The Conqueror," a 1956 John Wayne film, may be one of the most surprisingly dangerous films in
history, although you wouldn't know it to see it. In the early years of the Cold War,
the US created the Nevada Test Site and in 1951 started testing its nuclear weapons. Due
to the winds, the brunt of the nuclear fallout was felt in St. George, Utah.
When producers of "The Conqueror" decided to film in St. George, they did so with the assurance of
the federal government that the nuclear test site posed no hazard to public health. Ultimately,
every scene of the film that was shot in St. George proved to be incredibly dangerous.
By 1963, director Dick Powell died of cancer and by 1980, 91 people from the production,
41 percent, developed the disease. Some say that Wayne got cancer from this production,
although The Duke believed it was from his six-pack-a-day cigarette habit.
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