"We Were Show-Tunes-Singing Drunk While Having Fake Sex" — 16 Times Actors Had To Get Drunk To Film Iconic Scenes

I'll never look at The Wolf Of Wall Street the same way again.

1. Margot Robbie was so nervous to film a nude scene in The Wolf of Wall Street, she downed three tequila shots at 9 AM.

Paramount Pictures

"I’d come to work that morning and I was shaking, so scared, like, ‘I can’t do this,'" the actor told the New York Times. "I did three shots and then took my clothes off and did the scene and I was fine. It really helped stop my hands shaking, and gave me a little boost of confidence.”  

2. And Jennifer Lawrence got "really, really drunk" before she filmed a sex scene with Chris Pratt in Passengers.

Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing

When asked how she prepared for the scene, Lawrence told the Hollywood Reporter, "You drink."

"I got really, really drunk. But then that led to more anxiety when I got home because I was like, 'What have I done? I don’t know.' And he was married. And it was going to be my first time kissing a married man, and guilt is the worst feeling in your stomach. And I knew it was my job, but I couldn’t tell my stomach that," she added.

3. Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo were more or less constantly drunk while getting through Super Mario Bros. ' filming.

Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

The critically-slated movie felt like a flop to the actors during filming, according to Leguizamo's autobiography. So, the pair allegedly drank a lot on set to get through the experience — in fact, they drank so often that Leguizamo accidentally shut a van door on Hoskin's finger. Ouch.

The movie led Nintendo to withhold movie rights for decades.

4. Billy Bob Thornton wasn't acting drunk in a particularly tipsy Bad Santa scene.

Miramax / Dimension Films / Columbia Pictures

The actor said that he does have a "Method actor aspect", adding that his real-life drunkenness on Bad Santa really helped one particular scene. "I was supposed to be standing up on the escalator," he said. "It dumps me out up there on the floor, at the top of the escalator, and it literally woke me up. And that's what's in the movie."

5. Nicolas Cage thought getting drunk off-set would improve his performance as an alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / United Artists

"I never drink when I act, but I wanted to incorporate in some scenes actual drinking. So that scene in the casino when I'm freaking out, I'm really drunk," the actor told Inside the Actor’s Studio. Talk about method...

6. Luke Evans and Haley Bennett had some booze to "take the edge off" before their sex scene in The Girl on the Train.

Universal Pictures / Mister Smith Entertainment

Luke Evans shared with E! Online that "When we were having sex, we were drunk— boy and girl drunk. I thought we should have a little drink just to take the edge off... We were tipsy. We were show-tunes-singing drunk while having fake sex. We sang Lion King." What a time.

7. Peter O'Toole thought the best way to take the fear out of riding a camel in Lawrence of Arabia was to get a little tipsy.

Columbia Pictures / Park Circus

The actors had to mount camels and lead a 400-strong charge for the movie,  which terrified Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole. So, O'Toole decided that a little Dutch courage would help the scene; Sharif agreed.

Later, Time magazine praised O’Toole’s “messianic fury” in the scene. When O'Toole was asked about the compliment later, he said, “‘Messianic fury’? I was pissed as a pillow!”

8. Denise Richards, Neve Campbell, and Matt Dillon all got tipsy before their threesome scene in Wild Things.

Columbia Pictures

"Neve and I went into her trailer and shared a pitcher of margaritas before we did the scene. Neither of us had ever kissed another girl … Everyone has a first time," Denise Richards shared in her memoir. Well, then.

9. Robert Pattinson was told to drink vodka to maintain his Southern accent in The Rover.

A24

The movie, which was shot in the arid Australian outback, required Pattinson to keep up a Southern twang — so his co-star Guy Pearce advised he drink a little vodka to make it easier.  "He drank more vodka than I advised him to drink," the actor later told The Daily Mail.

"This is going to be the only thing that comes out of this now," Pattinson joked. "My 'drinking problem'."

10. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton ~enhanced~ the drunken golf scene in Fight Club.

20th Century Studios

The scene wasn't even scripted — director David Fincher slyly filmed the pair actually playing golf while tipsy. So I guess you can't say they felt they had to drink to film it — but it could never have happened without some off-set drinking.

11. Shia LeBeouf took method acting to its boozy extremes in Lawless.

The Weinstein Company / FilmNation Entertainment / Alliance Communications

The actor actually boozed up before his drunken scenes in the movie to add authenticity and achieve a realistic drunk bloat. 

Speaking to NY Daily News, the actor admitted that co-star Mia Wasikowska almost left the movie thanks to the drinking. “Mia was ready to walk away from the movie. I was really pretty aggressive about it, and not in any kind of weird, strange way, but I don’t think she had ever experienced anything like that," he said.

12. Fred Astaire took two shots of bourbon before the first take of the drunken dance scene in Holiday Inn and one shot before the rest. It was re-shot seven times.

Paramount Pictures

The actor was a good few shots deep in the shot that eventually made the film, so I guess the approach worked for the actor.

13. Robert Shaw SAID he got drunk on the set of Jaws to give his USS Indianapolis speech an added dimension. Said.

Universal Pictures

The actor, who was often drunk on set, allegedly convinced director Steven Spielberg that a bit of booze would add to the speech. “We shot it twice. The first time we attempted to shoot it Robert came over to me and said, ‘You know, Steven, all three of these characters have been drinking and I think I could do a much better job in this speech if you actually let me have a few drinks before I do the speech.’ And I unwisely gave him permission,” the director told Entertainment Weekly. 

"I guess he had more than a few drinks because two crew members actually had to carry him onto the Orca and help him into his chair. I had two cameras on the scene and we never got through the scene, he was just too far gone. So I wrapped…” Spielberg added. Shaw later apologised.

14. Dakota Johnson got drunk before her sex scenes in Fifty Shades of Grey (while Jamie Dornan did push-ups, apparently).

Universal Pictures

When asked how she prepared for the ~passionate~ scenes in the movie, Johnson told Entertainment Tonight that she sipped "Shot of whiskey [and] mints," adding, "[Jamie Dornan] does pushups and I just lay there and drink whiskey."

By the time Fifty Shades Darker was shot, though, Dornan says there was less awkwardness. "We're great friends and I think that makes it easier, you know? So it's definitely more comfortable," he said in the same interview.

15. Lizzy Caplan said she had to get "hammered" to film nude scenes in True Blood.

True Blood

The actor was feeling a little nervous about baring all for the camera (we would too), so she told  "It was like 7AM in the morning and I was chugging vodka completely naked while a make-up artist I had just met was on her knees in front of me sponging my ass," she shared. Ah, showbiz.

16. Anna Kendrick got drunk on the set of Drinking Buddies... but she didn't realise until it was too late.

Magnolia Pictures

The movie, which was based in a Chicago brewery, required Kendrick to drink some beer for a shot. She didn't realise it was ACTUAL booze until she got tipsy, she says. "During a scene where I’m playing cards with Jake (Johnson), they gave me real beer, and I didn’t realise it! And so every time I lost, I was pounding beer, and I didn’t realize it was real until halfway through the take. I was like, ‘I’m super drunk right now!’", she said. 

She also called the experience "uncomfortable"; "For some of the movie, it was fine, and it worked in the scene, and so it was helpful for them. But I mostly found it really unnerving."

Co-star Olivia Wilde said "'She was like, 'What's happening? What are you guys doing?' and we were like, 'Oh, we forgot to tell you — the beer's all real and everyone's drunk. It's 10 AM — welcome to Drinking Buddies'."

Can you think of any other examples? Let us know in the comments below!