Directors like to have fun occasionally with their cast, but then sometimes they want the best out of them too so they’ll go to extra lengths to get the most honest expressions they can out of them. There are those times when this might sound a tad controversial since it’s basically deception for the sake of filming, but it does manage to get the job done. Unfortunately for the actors, it does tend to get the job done while making them a bit uncomfortable and possibly thinking that their director is out to get them somehow. Usually when everything is said and done though things get smoothed over and it becomes understood that the deception was for the sake of the movie, and people go on with their lives. But what might look like exceptionally good acting at times is actually, sometimes, genuine shock and surprise on the part of the actors since they had no idea what was coming or had a very real fear of whatever scene they were filming at that moment. Sometimes the best reactions are those that aren’t planned though.
Here are a few times when the director surprised their actors.
5. The duck scene in A Christmas Story was entirely unknown to Melinda Dillon.
After the dogs ruined the turkey the family had to make their way to one of the only places that were open. Chinese food for Christmas dinner is kind of an odd idea, but hey, it works. The only thing that didn’t work was that Melinda had no idea that the duck would be coming out with its head still on. Her reaction when the guy chops the duck’s head off is genuine but she hid it well with a gale of laughter following the act. Sometimes that’s kind of how things go, the actors don’t know what’s about to happen since the director didn’t clue them in when they needed to, and an honest reaction is what they get.
4. Ridley Scott surprised his actors on Prometheus.
The hammerpede, the snake-like creature vaguely resembled a face-hugger, was a nasty bit of business in the movie, but when the creature attacked one cast member the director replaced him with a dummy so that when the next cast member came along to continue the scene she turned the dummy over and the creature, which had been planted and was attached by a wire, was suddenly yanked upward, thereby terrifying the actor and gaining a solid scream and reaction that the director was wanting. Ridley Scott is known for being something of a trickster on his sets, so it wasn’t that surprising.
3. Every cast member was shocked by the blood spurting in Alien.
The cast knew about the scene with the chest-burster, that wasn’t a surprise. What they didn’t know was how much fake blood was going to be used since the director obviously had it loaded up and ready to go once the scene needed it. So realistically the reactions that are seen from the cat members are completely genuine and not at all rehearsed since they didn’t know how much of an effect to expect. Each one of them had their own take on the kind of crimson explosion that hit them all since the radius of the blood splatter was pretty big within the enclosed space. It’s kind of like expecting to be misted and being hit with a full stream of liquid.
2. Paul Verhoeven stripped down on the set of Starship Troopers.
During the shower scene, Dina Meyer wanted to know why they needed to do a nude scene for the movie, and when she and director Peter Verhoeven continued to argue about this she mentioned that maybe he and his crew should get naked. Peter did just that, showing that he’s not a prude in any way as he stripped completely right then and there. Needless to say, Dina didn’t have much else to add to the conversation, and the nude scene, which was basically just the cast taking a communal shower and conversing with each other, went off without a hitch. To be honest it wasn’t even that big of a deal since it was a naked conversation and nothing really sexual.
1. Alan Rickman had a difficult time ‘falling’ from the tower in Die Hard.
It’s been said more than once, but the late Alan Rickman had a serious fear of heights and wasn’t too enthused about Hans Gruber’s death scene in Die Hard since it involved Hans falling from the Nakatomi tower to his death hundreds of feet below. The actual fall was only about twenty feet onto a padded surface, but his fear was still a big part of this since they were supposed to let him go on three, and those that were holding him up let go on one. So yes, that is actually fear that one can see on Alan’s face as he’s falling down.
Sometimes the directors like to have a little TOO much fun.
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