18 Times Directors Didn’t Tell Actors Things So They Would Have Authentic Reactions
If I saw an alien burst out of someone's chest without warning, I would faint too.
Most of the stuff we see from actors in movies is, obviously, acting. But sometimes it's their actual genuine reactions to things they didn't know were going to happen.
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1.
Like in Rocky Horror Picture Show, when the actors weren't told there was a body underneath the table.
2.
Alan Rickman was dropped early in his character's death fall in Die Hard.
*Correction: The stuntmen let him go after one, not two.
3.
In The Goonies, Josh Brolin actually ruined the take with his authentic reaction to the pirate ship by swearing.
In The Goonies (1985) The cast was not allowed to see the pirate ship before the scene was shot, Director Richard Donner wanted to catch their genuine reactions at the size and scope of it. When they did see it, Josh Brolin was so surprised that he exclaimed "Holy shit!" The scene had to be re-shot. from MovieDetails
4.
The child actors really were seeing the inside of the chocolate factory for the first time in this Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory scene.
5.
And the same thing was done with Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes (who played Lucy and Edmund, respectively) in The Chronicles of Narnia.
6.
The cast's reactions to the chestburster scene in Alien were genuine, as they didn't know what was going to come out of Kane's chest. This actually caused actor Veronica Cartwright to faint.
7.
Jon Favreau controlled the jack-in-the-boxes from offscreen in this _Elf _scene so that Ferrell's surprise would be genuine.
8.
The actors' reactions to gunfire in_ Boyz N the Hood_ were real, as they didn't know there'd be real gunfire.
9.
In Monty Python's Life of Brian, the extras playing soldiers were told not to laugh, so their stifled laughter is genuine.
10.
Allen Danziger's scream when he first sees Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre is real — it was the first time he'd seen Leatherface.
11.
According to DVD commentary, in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the cast thought it would be Zoe Saldana's character Anamaria walking down the stairs, so their surprise at seeing Barbossa was genuine.
12.
At the end of The Graduate, director Mike Nichols just kept the camera rolling without telling the actors beforehand.
In The Graduate (1967) final scene, the director got the actors expression for the scene by just not telling them when he was going to cut. There was nothing in the script that would imply their facial expressions changing, he just had the camera running to feel their energy naturally dissipate. from MovieDetails
13.
John C. McGinley's shock at the "Sloth" victim being alive was real in_ Se7en_.
14.
In_ Super Troopers_, Kevin Heffernan's real-life parents were used in the traffic stop scene, and they had no idea he was going to curse.
In Super Troopers (2001), the couple who Farva (Kevin Heffernan) calls “chicken-fucker” and squawks at during a traffic stop were played by Heffernan’s real-life parents. Their reactions during the scene are genuine as they had no idea what he was going to say prior to it being filmed. from MovieDetails
15.
Tricky wasn't told how big the explosion in The Fifth Element would be — it ended up being so big that it melted part of Gary Oldman's costume.
16.
The other actors in_ Scream_ weren't allowed to meet the actor playing Ghostface — however, Barrymore really was speaking to him on the phone.
In Scream (1996) Drew Barrymore and Neve Campbell did not meet Roger Jackson, the actor who played The Voice. Whenever they are talking on the phone to the killer, they are actually talking to him. Craven thought that it would be better to bring out the shock reactions when they heard his voice. from MovieDetails
17.
Steven Speilberg used toys and crew members in scary costumes to get genuine reactions from the 3-year-old Cary Guffey in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
18.
And finally, according to DVD commentary, Harrison Ford didn't know what questions would be asked in the interrogation scene in The Fugitive so that his frustration and responses would be real.

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