16 times directors caught actors off guard in the name of art (17 photos + 13 videos)

Art, like beauty, requires sacrifice, and directors are often willing to go to great lengths to elicit the desired reaction from actors. Some are guided by this principle to such an extent that they are ready, if not to cripple the stars of their film, then at least to traumatize their psyche. Here are a few times when actors were caught off guard on set.





1. In the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the actors were not warned about the famous scene with the boat, the creepy tunnel and the dark Gene Wilder song - hence the frightened faces of the children.



And that wasn't the only surprise on set - Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie, had no idea that Gene would get so angry in Wonka's office, which is why he looks so depressed in this scene.

 

2. All the Titanic actors knew that the water would be cold, but they had no idea how cold it would be. The water was so freezing that Kate Winslet couldn't stop shaking during the ax scene.





Despite filming in extreme conditions and even experiencing hypothermia, Kate said she didn't want the water to be warm because then she wouldn't know what it was really like to be in those conditions.

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry secretly told his actors to do things their co-stars didn't expect. In some scenes, he told Kate Winslet to play comedy and asked Jim Carrey to be serious.



According to Michel Gondry, although the actor eventually warmed to the process, such games seriously stressed Jim - everyone except him was encouraged to improvise, and at some points in the film he seems really discouraged.



4. In Mary Poppins, the children who played Jane and Michael had no idea that Mary's bag had any "magical" properties, so when the nanny pulled out an entire hanger from it, the surprise and disbelief on their faces was completely genuine .





5. And in “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” none of the children had seen the doll before filming. The film was shot in chronological order, so their initial reaction was genuine.





6. The creators of It had a similar thought process - the child Atkers were kept away from Bill Skarsgård so that their first reaction to the clown could be captured on camera.



 

7. In Mockingjay Part 1, the director filmed and edited a raw version of the interview with Pete to play during the filming of Jennifer Lawrence's scenes. Jennifer missed working with Josh Hutcherson, so the director knew that seeing the actor on screen would trigger an emotional reaction in her.



According to Francis Lawrence, he filmed the interview scenes in just a few hours, and although it was difficult for Jennifer to see Josh on screen, it helped her feel real emotions.



8. The actors in The Blair Witch Project were given a script of only 35 pages, told to improvise, and sent into the woods. As you yourself know, the result was truly terrible.



The film was advertised as a "found footage" of three guys who disappeared after going looking for the Blair Witch. For eight days, the actors worked almost around the clock and seven days a week, they were even limited in food. The realistic acting and extreme marketing led many viewers to believe that the people in the film were actually dead.

9. To capture the spirit of the revolution, the cast of Les Misérables was told to build a barricade in 10 minutes. They were filmed the entire time, and what the actors built ended up being used in the film.



The actors didn't know where exactly the cameras were placed and the whole scene looked like pure chaos, but the structure ended up being quite realistic and only needed to be drilled in a couple of places to keep it from falling apart during filming.



10. Before filming Saving Private Ryan, all the leading actors were sent to boot camp for a brutal 10-day training, with only Matt Damon staying home. Matt's character was meant to piss everyone off, so he was deliberately left out to make the on-screen hostility look as believable as possible.



The preparation was really hard, and the fact that Matt was at home relaxing during this time definitely affected the relationship between the actors. The training was so exhausting that after the fourth day the actors wanted to quit, but Tom Hanks convinced them to finish what they started. Matt said that when he eventually showed up on set, he was met with hostility from his co-stars, and it showed on screen.

11. When Alan Rickman was filming the ending of Die Hard, the director told him that he would start counting from three and Hans would fall AFTER the word “one.” But he told the film crew to let the actor go a little earlier, ON the word “alone.”



The actor was dropped just a second earlier than he expected, but the horror in his eyes is obvious. Alan (obviously) wasn't too pleased with the director's stunt, but the result was great.



12. During the filming of The Exorcist, director William Friedkin fired a gun on set to create a believable fear in the actors.



Friedkin made the excuse that he only shot blanks, and did this because otherwise it was difficult for him to get certain emotions from the actors without them looking banal or implausible.



13. Jay Baruchel was so afraid of roller coasters that he made a deal with Knocked Up director Judd Apatow to appear completely naked in the earthquake scene if he didn't have to ride the rides. However, if you've seen the movie, you know that Judd broke his word.



Jay believed that he and Judd had an agreement (Jay warned the director that he would have a panic attack if he sat on the ride), but on the day of filming, Jonah Hill, who was supposed to star in this scene, suddenly did not show up, and Judd persuaded Jay to replace him. So the screams in the film are as real as they come.



14. Steven Spielberg hired a stuntwoman to play the first victim in Jaws. Special cables were tied to her, and the diver was ready to pull her under water. After a couple of unsuccessful takes, the director gave the command to drag the actress under water when she did not expect it - the shark was fake, but the victim was drowning for real.



The scene turned out to be so believable that many viewers thought that the actress had really suffered. There were rumors that she had broken ribs and a broken hip, but other than being caught off guard, she was fine.



15. The Yule Ball's first dance is one of Harry's most awkward scenes in Goblet of Fire, and it's no coincidence that Daniel Radcliffe was given much less time to learn the choreography than the rest of the cast.



In the book, Harry is a bad dancer, and Daniel's busy filming schedule helped bring that fact to the big screen. While he was busy filming the tournament scenes, the rest of the cast spent weeks practicing choreography. They trained together for a long time, while Daniel only had four days to prepare for the stage.



16. Avoiding spoilers and leaks in Marvel films is essentially an extreme sport, so the creators took the issue seriously in Endgame. When it came to filming Tony's funeral, most of the actors were convinced that they would now be playing wedding guests.



When the film “Avengers: Endgame” was released, Tom Holland and Mark Ruffalo, famous for their inability to keep secrets, published footage from the filming, adding that on that day on the set everyone was strictly forbidden to take out their phones and film what was happening (that’s them, of course , ignored). It's amazing how well the actors managed to rebuild themselves and portray deep sorrow after being played like that.