Movies have been an integral part of modern culture, entertaining and captivating audiences around the world for over a century. Behind the scenes of these cinematic masterpieces, there lie intriguing stories, unexpected happenings, and groundbreaking achievements that have shaped the film industry.
55 Behind the Scene Facts About Famous Movies
1. James Franco got a “D” in his acting class at NYU. This was actually happened fairly recently, while he was filming “127 Hours.” This is actually attributed to him missing most of his classes. – Source
2. While filming Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Shia LaBeouf invested $20,000 in the stock market, and ended up making more than $400,000. – Source
3. The filming of The Godfather was disrupted by actual Mafia member, Joe Colombo. Producer Al Ruddy met with him and reviewed the script, striking the word “Mafia” completely from the movie. Colombo and his pals also managed to elbow their way into casting and ended up as extras in the film. – Source
4. FBI assigned a team to Sacha Baron Cohen during the filming of Borat due to reports of a “Middle eastern man traveling in an ice cream truck.” – Source
5. Sir Ian McKellen became so frustrated filming in front of green screen scenes for The Hobbit that he burst into tears on set. – Source
6. During the filming of Star Trek (2009), Zachary Quinto could not manage to properly do the Vulcan salute. Eventually, JJ Abrams had to glue his fingers together in order for Quinto to do it correctly. – Source
7. In the movie ‘The Hangover’, no effects or prosthetics were created for Stu’s missing tooth. Actor Ed Helms never had an adult incisor grow, and his fake incisor was taken out for the parts of filming where Stu’s tooth is missing. – Source
8. Woody Harrelson had an altercation with a photographer just after he finished filming Zombieland and his excuse was that he was still in character and thought the paparazzo was a zombie – Source
9. Bolaji Badejo, the 7’2″ Nigerian design student cast as the titular creature in Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ disappeared shortly after filming and fans have not since been able to confirm if he is living or dead. – Source
10. Robin Williams decided to test out the believability of his Mrs. Doubtfire character by going as ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ into an adult bookstore and making a purchase. He was able to do so without being recognized. – Source
11. During the filming of The Grinch, Jim Carrey took counseling from a Navy SEAL to learn torture-resistance techniques to handle the extensive makeup. – Source
12. During filming of Batman Begins, someone crashed into the Batmobile in a state of panic thinking it was an invading alien spacecraft. – Source
13. Charles Bronson, Britain’s most violent prisoner actually shaved his trademark mustache off so Tom Hardy could wear it during the filming of “Bronson”, which was based on his life in prison – Source
14. while filming “The African Queen”(1951) in the Congo, everyone on the crew became very ill with dysentery from drinking the water; everyone except Humphrey Bogart, who only drank whiskey – Source
15. After filming the freeway scenes for The Matrix: Reloaded, the film makers, instead of disposing of the set, chose to donate it, in pieces, to charity in Mexico to be turned into low-cost housing. – Source
16. While filming Zodiac, Robert Downey Jr. used to discreetly pee into jars and leave them in corners of the set as protest for not getting enough break time. – Source
17. The scar over Sean Bean’s left eye was given to him by Harrison Ford, who accidentally struck him with a meat hook whilst filming a scene in ‘Patriot Games’ – Source
18. During breaks while filming Planet of the Apes (1968), the actors playing chimpanzees would usually only consort with other chimp actors and gorillas with other gorilla actors, etc. They were not instructed to do this, it just sort of happened. – Source
19. During the filming of ‘Cabin Fever,’ Rider Strong decided to explore the forest alone after a shoot, still in his gruesome makeup. He came across a group of schoolgirls on a field trip, who were horrified, but then recognized him from ‘Boy Meets World,’ and he had to escape from the fangirls. – Source
20. Sylvester Stallone broke his neck while filming a fight scene for The Expendables, which required the insertion of a metal plate – Source
21. Thora Birch was 16 at the time she shot her topless scene in American Beauty. Being classified as a minor, her parents had to approve her brief topless scene in the movie. They and child labor representatives were on the set for the shooting of the scene. – Source
22. While filming “The Machinist,” Christian Bale only ate an apple and a can of tuna a day. His goal was to weigh 100 pounds before producers stopped him. – Source
23. While filming a fight scene for Sherlock Holmes, Robert Maillet (Dredger) accidentally knocked out Robert Downey Jr. – Source
24. Stanley Kubrick used lenses commissioned by NASA for the Apollo moon landings while filming his Victorian masterpiece, Barry Lyndon, allowing him to capture scenes lit only by candlelight. – Source
25. Stanley Kubrick duped George C. Scott into playing General Turgidson in Dr. Strangelove absurdly by telling him they were filming “practice takes”. Scott swore never to work with Kubrick again after that. – Source
26. In the middle of filming the village attack in ‘Apocalypse Now’ the helicopters provided by the Phillipine Air Force suddenly veered away and disappeared. They had been called off the filming to attack a real-life rebel force in the hills. – Source
27. To keep Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker’s relationship a secret while filming “The Empire Strikes Back”, cast and crew were given a fake script in which Vader tells Luke, “Obi-Wan killed your father.” – Source
28. While filming the Princess Bride, Andre the Giant used to cover Robin Wright’s head with his huge hand to keep her warm when it got particularly cold. – Source
29. During the filming of The Exorcist, many actors were injured, the set burned down, a priest was brought in many times to bless the set, and the actor who played Burke, Jack MacGowran, died from influenza. – Source
30. During filming of Schindler’s List, a survivor of the concentration camp in Płaszów Poland met actor Ralph Fiennes, who played Nazi captain Amon Goeth. She began to shake uncontrollably at the sight of him because he was so convincing. Goeth was responsible for tens of thousands of deaths – Source
31. Harrison Ford was only at Star Wars auditions to read lines with other actors, not to actually audition for any part. He was eventually cast as Han Solo, however, because all of his line-readings were better than the actors who were actually auditioning for the role. – Source
32. Though it was written in the script for X-Men: Days of Future Past that Wolverine was to wake up in 1973 in his underwear, Hugh Jackman had this changed by claiming that if he were to wake up next to a “really good looking girl” he wouldn’t be wearing anything. – Source
33. Director Christopher Nolan initially had no idea how the Joker’s pencil trick could be performed practically while shooting The Dark Knight. Though CGI was considered, in the end the stuntman just pulled the pencil away before his head hit the desk. – Source
34. Scenes featuring Peeves the Poltergeist, played by the late Rik Mayall, were filmed for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, but were deleted from the final cut. After that, the character was never written into another Harry Potter script again. – Source
35. Director David Ayer initially wanted to add King Shark to line-up of the Suicide Squad movie, but replaced the character with Killer Croc when he realized it would take a lot of CG work to bring his original choice to film. – Source
36. The double bladed lightsaber Darth Maul debuted in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace isn’t actually one complete unit, but two lightsabers welded together at the pommel. This explains why one blade still worked after it was sliced in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi. – Source
37. Robert Rodriguez was paid one dollar to score Kill Bill Vol. 2 for his friend Quentin Tarantino. In turn, Tarantino was paid one dollar to direct a scene in Rodriguez’s film Sin City. – Source
38. At the end of the Deadpool movie, the title character fights Ajax on top of a partially disassembled helicarrier visually similar to the ones used by S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is a direct nod to the MCU, though FOX Studios requested that flying aircraft look different enough to prevent a lawsuit from Disney. – Source
39. Since George Lucas was originally planning on making 11 more Star Wars movies after the success of the first film, Boba Fett was created with the intention of becoming the central villain of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. However, shortly after production on the second film began, Lucas decided to end the series with Episode VI, and Fett’s role was heavily reduced. – Source
40. Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson was not intended to reappear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe past the first Iron Man film. It wasn’t until a contract dispute with Samuel L. Jackson caused Nick Fury’s role in Thor to be dropped, and Clark Gregg was asked to reappear in a larger role. – Source
41. Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the original Star Wars trilogy, had been wheelchair-bound since 2011 due to his old age and height. However, when he found out Chewbacca would appear in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the actor underwent double knee surgery in 2013 in order to reprise the role. – Source
42. Marc Webb, the director of the ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ film series, hinted that a third film would have introduced Venom as the villain and featured a formula that could regenerate dead characters, like Captain Stacey and possibly even Gwen. – Source
43. Shortly after he was cast in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as Bruce Wayne, Ben Affleck ran into Christian Bale by accident in a costume shop, where they were each buying a Batman costume for their kids. When Affleck asked for any advice he could give about playing Batman, Bale told him to “make sure you can piss in that suit.” – Source
44. Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors of Captain America: Civil War, said that they crafted the cinematic language of the film as if it were a “love story” between Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. – Source
45. Gene Roddenberry’s original story treatment for Star Trek: The Motion Picture involved Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew tracking down and battling a shapeshifting alien that took on the appearance of Jesus Christ – Source
46. Bill Murray improvised nearly all his lines in the movie ‘KINGPIN’ and bowled the necessary 3 strikes to win the tournament at the end. – Source
47. Due to alleged contract disputes and the claim of a mild back injury, Tobey Maguire was nearly fired from Spider-Man 2 and replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal. – Source
48. When asked after its release what he would rate the Green Lantern film on a scale of 1-10, star Ryan Reynolds gave it a one. – Source
49. Since the movie “Beasts of No Nation” was released online the same time it was theatrically, AMC, Regal, Carmike, and Cinemark completely boycotted the movie, effectively downgrading the movie to a limited-release movie with a box office return of $90,777. – Source
50. Frodo had the ring for 17 years before going on his quest instead of the handful of days the movie shows. – Source
51. Actor Vincent D’Onofrio holds the record for most weight gained for a movie role. He gained 70 pounds to play the role of Private Leonard Lawrence (aka Private Pyle) in Full Metal Jacket. – Source
52. Ashton Kutcher tried Steve Jobs’ fruitarian diet when getting into character for the JOBS movie and ended up in the hospital because it messed up his pancreatic enzyme levels. – Source
53. Straight Outta Compton was never played in Compton because the city has no movie theaters. – Source
54. M. Night Shyamalan chose not to work on the ‘Life of Pi’ movie because he didn’t want audiences to suspect a twist. – Source
55. Billy Crystal’s character, Miracle Max, in the Princess Bride was so funny that it nearly stopped the production of the movie. One actor bruised a rib from clenching to try not to laugh. – Source
