There are countless stories of mistakes and spontaneous moments that happen on
movie shoots. Sometimes these surprises give a scene a feeling of authenticity
or a dose of inspiration. And if they're in the final cut,
they definitely made the movie better. Here are some of our favorite unplanned essentials.
More than four decades since hitting theaters, the 1976 boxing drama Rocky is a household name
that's grown into a massive, billion-dollar franchise. Like its protagonist, though,
the film was a bit of an underdog when it was released. The budget for the first installment was
slim relative to the surrounding industry, at just above $1 million. It recouped those expenses 225
times over, but the low-budget production of the first film is still apparent in various places.
Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay in only three and a half days, and the film was shot in
just four weeks. He thought that if nothing else, the movie would show that, in his own words,
"an unknown quantity...can produce a diamond in the rough," no matter how
the circumstances of someone's life are stacked against them.
The humble Italian Stallion and his creator aren't the only "unknown quantities" that
made Rocky a huge hit. Because of the low budget, there wasn't always enough funding to get extras,
additional cameramen, or even permits. So when they shot the popular scene of Rocky
running through the Italian market, they did it "guerrilla style" from the back of a van.
Because of this setup, the stall owners didn't even know there was a movie being filmed.
One of them just happened to toss Stallone an orange, and he managed to catch it — a wholesome
unplanned moment that set the tone and left us rooting for the hero even harder.
Leonardo DiCaprio has subjected himself to all kinds of physical torment for the sake
of various roles, most notably The Revenant in 2015, finally earning his long-overdue
Oscar. The masterful performer really proved his mettle, though, when he powered through an injury
where no reasonable person would've expected him to. As Calvin Candie in 2012's Django Unchained,
DiCaprio played a posh and pampered plantation owner, the total opposite of the rugged
trapper he portrayed in The Revenant. But during an outburst at the dinner table,
DiCaprio's character slammed his hand down, and he actually cut himself on a piece of glass.
Considering that the wound later required medical attention, no one would have blamed the
actor for breaking character, rendering the scene unusable.
But DiCaprio kept acting. This act represented the
perverse, unhinged character so well that it was left in the final cut of the movie, making for an
iconic scene in which DiCaprio not only stayed in character but arguably elevated the moment.
One transgression that often begs forgiveness on a movie set is forgetfulness. The job of an actor
includes a lot of memorization, and every so often, someone forgets their lines. But
occasionally, forgetting one's dialogue is the most true-to-character thing an actor can do.
Of course, this is only the case if you're lucky enough to play a character who's,
well, a bit of an airhead. Derek Zoolander in the 2001's Zoolander
is probably the poster child for this kind of role. In one famous scene,
Ben Stiller forgets one of his lines, so he simply repeats something he said a minute earlier.
At the beginning of the scene, he asks…
"So, why male models?"
Zoolander is wondering why male models are chosen to become assassins. David
Duchovny's character offers him an extensive explanation involving male
models' advantageous physical condition and their ability to penetrate exclusive circles,
not to mention their most important quality — they don't think for themselves.
Stiller forgot what his response was supposed to be, so he improvised the now classic line...
"But why male models?"
"You serious? I just… I just told you that."
The image of an intimidating character casually stroking a cat with unnerving
tenderness has become a bit of a trope but it was completely
unplanned when it occurred in 1972's The Godfather. Not only was it unscripted,
it almost ruined the scene in which Marlon Brando, as Don Vito Corleone,
nonchalantly discusses matters of life and death while caressing the feline in his lap.
The key word, though, is almost. The feline actually ended up lending some extra life to
the scene in a way that movie buffs love. The cat had been running around the studio
earlier in the day, and when it ended up on Marlon Brando's lap during this scene,
the animal lover just went with it, even though the sound crew worried
that the cat's purring would ruin the don's now-iconic lines. Fortunately,
the feline and the Oscar-winning actor were a perfect duo and totally stole the show.
In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the second installment of Peter Jackson's trilogy,
Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn find the slaughtered band of Uruk-hai who captured Merry and Pippin,
and they assume that the young hobbits have also been killed. In his grief,
Aragorn takes out his anger on a near-by helmet.
“ah”
More than rage and defeat, though, Aragorn's outburst is one of pain.
What most audience members don't know is that actor Viggo Mortensen
actually broke his toe on the take that made it into the final movie.
Another mistake also inadvertently takes the same movie to another level. As Eowyn
stares off into the distance, the wind rips a flag from its pole,
a sad commentary on the state of Rohan. Though this was unplanned,
according to behind-the-scenes commentary, it augments the brooding nature of the scene,
and a quick-thinking camera operator tracked the movement to heighten its impact even further.
An upset stomach on the set of 1981's Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
led to a script change that ended up becoming one of the film's most memorable moments.
Harrison Ford revealed in a Reddit A.M.A. that the script called for him to fight an
expert swordsman, but he was "suffering from dysentery" and found it tough to
be out of his trailer for more than a few minutes without having to run back to it.
Reviewing the script had made it clear that it could take days to finish shooting the scene,
which did not sound appetizing at all to Ford in his condition.
So how did Ford get out of three days of shooting? By bringing a gun to a knife fight.
“Yah!”
The poor stuntman had practiced his swordsmanship for days, only for his
character to be coolly dispatched by Indy without any of the hand-to-hand,
sword-to-whip combat he had been training for.
A few movies throughout the decades stand out as examples of the quintessential and
quotable New York City. One of the most famous of these films is Midnight Cowboy and one line,
in particular, has become a permanent part of pop culture.
"Hey! I'm walking here! I'm walking here!"
As for the origins of that famous line, it was improvised out of necessity because,
as star Dustin Hoffman tells it, a cab driver ran a red light and drove right through the set,
an occurrence that's itself quite a characteristic New York event. However,
higher-ups on the film have questioned whether the moment truly was organic or
whether there was an extra in the cab, and the truth is that it was a little of both.
Allegedly, the team was inspired by the initial, truly unplanned scene and then used an extra to
recreate more takes like it. We don't know if the mistake was the original unscripted scene
or if it was one of the recreations, but we do know that regardless of which version is true,
the mistake, directly or indirectly, helped make the movie unforgettable.
Daniel Craig emerging from the ocean in Casino Royale – it's an iconic scene
that was never meant to happen. It certainly wasn't the plan to, with one lingering shot,
reinvent the classic Bond character as a beefcake for a new generation of audiences, but that's
exactly what it did. A moment from the scene was featured in the trailer, and a still photo was
used as promotional material. Fans even assumed the shot was a nod to Ursula Andress emerging from
the sea in the original Bond movie, Dr. No from 1962. If only all mistakes turned out this well.
So how does something this great happen by accident? The original story Craig gave was
that he was supposed to be swimming, but the water there was unexpectedly
shallow due to the presence of a sand shelf in the area, so he stood up and walked off.
In a later interview, he added that it was because he thought that he looked stupid,
quote, "pretending to be cool by swimming." Instead, he just stood up and walked off.
So one of the most memorable shots of Craig's James Bond ended up not only being an accident
but a result of him "throwing in the beach towel" on a particular acting choice.
Amelia Renaldi, also known as Mia, initially has a great deal of trouble believing she's a princess.
It just doesn't add up. At school, the protagonist of 2001's The Princess Diaries is clumsy, awkward,
and unpopular, admiring "it boys" from afar but never really talking to anyone other than her best
friend, who is also on the relative fringes of high school society. Even after she receives
the royal treatment following the revelation of her identity and her crush begins to give her
attention, their kiss is marred by the fact that her foot gets stuck in a fishing net.
No amount of makeovers or royal shoe-fittings can change the fact that Mia has two left
feet. So when she and her friend Lilly are walking on the bleachers in one scene and
Mia slips and takes a dive, audiences are no more likely to bat an eye than
Mia herself. This just seems like something that the often graceless heiress would do.
Anne Hathaway, however, later said that she slipped and fell completely by accident,
but despite bursting out laughing, she kept on acting. She never expected to see that moment
again, much less that millions of people around the world would witness it. However,
director Garry Marshall decided to use the take of Hathaway slipping above all the others.
"He kept it. He kept it because it was a charming moment."
A good soldier fights through peril and injury, and apparently, so does a good actor. You've
probably heard of a number of performers who do their own stunts, but George MacKay never expected
one particular scene from the 2019 war film 1917 to put him on that list. While his character
Schofield's grueling sprint at the end of the film was undoubtedly an intense climax to his mission,
the actor wasn't meant to take any hits as he ran across the battlefield. He had come out of
rehearsal for the scene unscathed, but there are no guarantees of timing in such a complex scene.
On the actual day of shooting, he found himself taking multiple blows from a slew
of oncoming soldiers. But an actor keeps going until the director calls for a cut,
and for such an important moment in the film, he knew he couldn't throw in the towel himself.
So he kept moving, and director Sam Mendes never halted the take. He must've realized
that, despite deviating from rehearsal, something even more intense was happening.
MacKay spoke to Jimmy Fallon about the take…
"And again, we'd rehearsed it for weeks. And with rehearsal you didn't get knocked into and then on
the day, you know, you take some hits. But the rule is you don't stop unless they say 'stop.'"
The shot that was never meant to happen
ended up being one of the greatest triumphs of MacKay's performance.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
There are some moments that have widely been regarded as accidents,
even by those who directed them, only for the actors involved to
later allege the bungles were actually intentional moments of improvisation.
One such moment, featuring Gandalf,
from the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, immediately comes to mind.
“ohhh!”
Peter Jackson's commentary on the DVD states that this moment was an accident,
that Ian McKellen truly did bonk his head and that his acting remained so superb that Jackson
decided to use the take anyway. It works to humanize the great wizard, and it cements
the genuineness of the friendship between the mystical being and the hobbit. On his own website,
however, McKellen states that the clumsy move was his idea, and Jackson simply didn't know.
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