1.
In Zoolander, Ben Stiller had actually forgotten his line after JP Prewitt explained why he was using male models, so he just repeated his last line again. The actor playing Prewitt, David Duchovny, ad-libbed a reply, and the exchange ended up in the film.
2.
Matthew McConaughey really was high in Dazed and Confused when his character says “watch the leather, man” and starts cracking up because he’s high. Also, it’s a real joint — just for that take.
3.
In the Anchorman scene where Ron wanders the streets, drinking milk, Will Ferrell improvised the “milk was a bad choice” — because it was exactly what he was thinking. “He’s sitting there with a carton of milk — we’re shooting in San Pedro and it’s hotter than hell — and Will just said it for real. It’s perfect, because it was an honest moment from the human Will Ferrell speaking through Ron Burgundy,” David Koechner revealed.
4.
In Free Guy, star Ryan Reynolds suggested the scene and line where two little girls are playing Free City 2 in Free Guy and say of Guy, ‘He’s just an NPC — waste that motherf—.” Director Shawn Levy shot it with his two daughters in their bedroom after the rest of the shoot was complete.
5.
In Trainwreck, it was Daniel Radcliffe’s idea for his character to walk dogs using a leash that attached to his waist — he’d seen someone doing the same on the West Side Highway and thought it was funny. This, of course, spurred those famous paparazzi photos of Radcliffe with a million dogs.
7.
In Wedding Crashers, the painting Todd gives Jeremy was originally supposed to be “mutilated genitalia” — it was Owen Wilson’s last-minute idea to change it to Vince as Eve in the garden of Eden. Everyone thought it was hilarious, so the props department painted it overnight…and it ended up becoming one of the most iconic parts of the film.
8.
One of the classic gags in Monty Python and the Holy Grail is that the characters aren’t actually on horses, but bang coconuts together to make it sound as if they are. This idea came from Michael Palin, who thought of it because they genuinely couldn’t afford horses for the film
10.
In The 40-Year-Old Virgin, they really were waxing Steve Carrel’s chest in the famous waxing scene. Everyone’s reactions were genuine — including Carrel’s. Also, Paul Rudd suspects the person waxing Steve had never done it before.
12.
If you look closely in Napoleon Dynamite during the classic “chatting with babes online” scene, you’ll see that Jon Heder is wearing a wedding ring. Heder realized this right after the wide shot and quickly told director Jared Hess…who didn’t care at all.
13.
One of the most iconic lines in When Harry Met Sally… is when a woman who overhears Sally faking an orgasm says, “I’ll have what she’s having!” The woman was none other than director Rob Reiner’s mom!
In fact, to get Ryan to make the right noises, Reiner also demonstrated a bunch of orgasm noises…in front of his mom.
14.
Also in When Harry Met Sally…, the scene with the pecan pie line in the Metropolitan Museum of Art was improvised, which is why Meg Ryan looks to the side (at director Rob Reiner) — however, she ends up going with it.
15.
The scene in Mrs. Doubtfire where Daniel sticks his face in a cake to avoid being recognized was planned — but the crew didn’t realize the heat from the lighting would melt the frosting, causing it to fall into Mrs. Sellner’s tea.
16.
In the beginning scene of 22 Jump Street, when Schmidt is attacked by a bird, Jonah Hill’s reaction was authentic — he really is terrified of birds.
17.
A classic She’s the Man scene is when Viola pretends her tampons are for nosebleeds — then sticks one in her nose. And then later in the film, Duke actually does use it for his nose bleeding. Well, for Channing Tatum’s She’s the Man audition, when he stuck a tampon up his nose for the scene, he stuck it up there plastic applicator and all, as he didn’t know that part came off.
18.
Costar Hank Azaria revealed that Robin Williams’ fall in The Birdcage was accidental. “If you watch that little piece of film again, you’ll see me laughing and Robin laughing. It’s one of those things that happens that you never really think they’re going to use, but I was so emotionally upset in the scene — I was supposed to be crying — that I just pretended that he was making me cry even more. But I was actually laughing.”
19.
In the Bridesmaids scene where Melissa McCarthy’s character won’t stop flirting with a guy she suspects to be an air marshal, the guy was played by McCarthy’s actual husband, Ben Falcone.
20.
In Clueless, Alicia Silverstone actually thought “Haitians” was pronounced that way, and the director, Amy Heckerling, thought it was so funny that she declined to correct her.
21.
In Clerks, Jeff Anderson refused to list pornographic titles in front of child actor Ashley Pereira and the actor playing her mother. This is why you can’t see them in the shot — however, the two of them were later read the lines by someone else for reaction shots.
22.
The “Old Time Rock & Roll” dance scene in Risky Business was also largely improvised by Tom Cruise — the script originally just said “Joel dances in underwear through the house.”
23.
Jon Heder didn’t have a choreographer for Napoleon’s famous dance scene — he “winged it” and then they cut together three different versions of his dance.
24.
Matt Damon was genuinely so unrecognizable in his funny Deadpool 2 cameo that no one on set even knew it was him, even the crew filming.
25.
Similarly, in Coming to America, people on the set didn’t recognize Eddie Murphy when he had the old Jewish man makeup on. Once, while walking around on the lot to test out the makeup, he actually got the number of an old lady who thought he was really the character.
26.
In Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke, the dog that eats Chong’s burrito was a real stray that just wandered up and ate the burrito. It wasn’t in the script.
27.
In The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Nicolas Cage improvised screaming, “Nick f—iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing-ow-wow Cage!”
28.
It was also Nicolas Cage’s suggestion to have the two versions of himself make out. The script just featured Nicky kissing Nicolas on the cheek. He also came up with the line, “You tell ’em Nic Cage smooches good.”
What’s your favorite behind-the-scenes fact about a funny movie scene? Let us know in the comments!
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