Some of cinema’s most memorable moments came from accidents, improvised solutions, and strange events that unfolded beyond the audience’s view. In this sixteenth collection, discover how dawn transformed London into an abandoned city, protected puffins inspired Star Wars creatures, real squirrels performed alongside actors, and malfunctioning props placed performers in genuine danger. From surprising casting alternatives and ingenious practical effects to bitter on-set feuds and remarkable acts of kindness, these 50 stories reveal the unpredictable reality behind iconic films.
Catch up with the previous installments: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15.
1 28 Days Later Dawn Filming
The $8 million production of 28 Days Later created its deserted London scenes by filming shortly after dawn, when the streets were naturally quiet. Rather than paying for conventional road closures, volunteer marshals briefly stopped pedestrians and traffic for only 90 seconds to two minutes at a time. This gave the crew roughly 45 minutes after dawn to film locations such as Westminster Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, Horse Guards Parade, and Oxford Street before the city filled up again.
2. Premature babies are often cast as newborns because their smaller size allows them to portray babies who have just been born, even when they are several weeks old. In many US states, including California, babies must be at least 15 days old to receive a work permit, although the UK has no minimum age. Productions frequently prefer twins or triplets because they tend to be born smaller and multiple babies can share one role, extending filming beyond the strict hours allowed for each child.
3. Filmmaker Kevin Smith shot Clerks at Quick Stop in Leonardo, New Jersey, the convenience store where he worked. Since he could use the store only from 10:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., he worked there during the day and filmed at night for 21 days, while the screenplay explained the closed shutters as having padlocks jammed with gum. Smith frequently slept no more than one hour per day and became so exhausted that he could not stay awake while the final fight was filmed. He raised the initial $27,575 filming budget by selling much of his comic book collection, maxing out eight to ten credit cards, borrowing $3,000 from his parents, and using his wages, college refund, and insurance money.
4. While filming the 2006 comedy Borat, British actor Sacha Baron Cohen travelled around the United States in an ice cream truck, prompting numerous people to report a suspected terrorist. Cohen later said the FBI received so many complaints that it began compiling a file on him and the film crew. Agents eventually visited their hotel, but the crew warned Cohen that the FBI was downstairs and told him to disappear.
5. Porgs were created partly to solve a practical problem while Star Wars: The Last Jedi was filming on Skellig Michael in Ireland. The protected island was home to hundreds of puffins that the filmmakers could neither remove nor prevent from entering shots. Rather than digitally erase every bird, the production transformed their presence into porgs, fictional creatures inspired by the puffins.
6 Lisa Jakub’s Filming Triggered Expulsion
Canadian actress Lisa Jakub, who played Robin Williams’ teenage daughter in Mrs. Doubtfire, was expelled from school after missing several months of classes while filming the movie. Williams wrote to her principal and respectfully urged the school to reconsider, arguing that a student of her talent should be encouraged to learn through her work and later share those experiences with her classmates. The school refused to readmit Jakub but framed Williams’ letter and displayed it in the principal’s office.
7. While filming Live Free or Die Hard, Bruce Willis’ stunt double, Larry Rippenkroeger, fell 25 feet from a fire escape onto the pavement and was knocked unconscious. He suffered facial fractures, broken ribs, two fractured wrists, and a punctured lung, forcing production to shut down temporarily. Willis personally paid the hotel bills for Rippenkroeger’s parents and visited him several times in the hospital during his recovery.
8. While filming Raiders of the Lost Ark in Tunisia, director Steven Spielberg avoided the amoebic dysentery that sickened Harrison Ford and most of the cast and crew. Spielberg had brought canned SpaghettiOs in his luggage and ate those instead of the local food, which he later credited with keeping him healthy throughout the difficult shoot.
9. After filming Who Framed Roger Rabbit, British actor Bob Hoskins’ young son refused to speak to him for two weeks. When finally asked why, his son explained that he could not believe his father had worked with Bugs Bunny without introducing them.
10. For the climactic flood scene in the 1928 film Noah’s Ark, filmmakers released 600,000 gallons of water onto a set crowded with extras. Three extras drowned, one person suffered injuries that required a leg amputation, and numerous others sustained broken limbs and other serious injuries, requiring 35 ambulances to treat the wounded. The disaster led the film industry to introduce stunt-safety regulations the following year.
11 George Clooney Endured Spinal-Fluid Leak
While filming the political thriller Syriana, George Clooney was taped to a chair for a beating scene when the chair was kicked over and he struck his head. The impact tore his dura, allowing spinal fluid to leak and leaving him with severe headaches and memory loss. Clooney said the constant pain became so unbearable that he contemplated suicide. Because several relatives had experienced addiction, he avoided painkillers and underwent pain-management therapy until a neurologist diagnosed the injury and a series of operations relieved his headaches.
12. Rob Lowe played Tommy’s villainous stepbrother, Paul Barish, in Tommy Boy without receiving an onscreen credit. A 2015 retrospective attributed the omission to Lowe’s contractual commitment to the Stephen King television miniseries The Stand and said he joined Tommy Boy because of his friendship with Chris Farley. However, director Peter Segal later said that remaining uncredited was Lowe’s choice and that he did not know the reason.
13. While working as an extra on the 1963 comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Eddie Smith saw a white stuntman being darkened with makeup to double Black actor Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. Smith asked director Stanley Kramer why he had not hired a Black stuntman, and Kramer reportedly replied, “Well, find me one.” The encounter inspired Smith to recruit and train Black performers, and in 1967 he co-founded the Black Stuntmen’s Association.
14. Near the end of Tenet’s production in 2019, actor Robert Pattinson gave director Christopher Nolan a book containing J. Robert Oppenheimer’s speeches. Nolan said they showed the physicist “wrestling with the implications” of what had happened and what he had done, helping shape the intensely personal approach of Oppenheimer. However, the gift did not originate the project, since Nolan had wanted to make an Oppenheimer film for more than 20 years before writing the screenplay after completing Tenet.
15. Macy’s originally agreed to serve as the department store in Elf and even offered its Santaland and Thanksgiving parade, but it demanded that the scene exposing the store Santa as a fake be removed. Director Jon Favreau refused to alter the story, licensed the name of the defunct Gimbels chain, and gained the freedom to create his own fictional store. The Gimbels interior was built inside the cafeteria of a psychiatric hospital near Vancouver.
16 Devil Wears Prada Deterred Designers
During production of The Devil Wears Prada, most fashion designers and industry figures reportedly refused cameo appearances because they feared angering Vogue editor Anna Wintour, widely believed to have inspired Miranda Priestly. Wintour allegedly warned major designers that Vogue would banish them if they participated, although her representatives denied this claim. Valentino Garavani and Heidi Klum still appeared as themselves, while Wintour later said she enjoyed the film and particularly praised Meryl Streep’s performance.
17. To portray Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors, Val Kilmer spent a year studying the singer’s speech and mannerisms and learned 50 Doors songs. His preparation was reportedly so intense that he struggled to leave the character behind after filming and underwent therapy.
18. While filming The Pirates of Blood River, the stunt performers refused to wade through a lake, so the actors playing the pirates entered the water themselves. Christopher Lee later said Michael Ripper nearly drowned and that Lee survived only because he was 6 feet 4 inches tall. Oliver Reed developed an eye infection that required hospitalization.
19. While the 2018 hijacking drama Entebbe was being filmed at Malta International Airport, the real hijacked Afriqiyah Airways Flight 209 landed there on December 23, 2016. After negotiations ended peacefully, the film crew recorded the hostages leaving the aircraft and later edited the footage into the movie. Some of the passengers also appeared as extras, and producer Melvin Rotherberg called the coincidence a “blessing from the sky on a day of bad acting.”
20. While filming Gone with the Wind, American actor Clark Gable discovered that the studio facilities displayed separate “White” and “Colored” signs. According to film extra Lennie Bluett, Gable phoned director Victor Fleming and warned, “If you don’t get those signs down, you won’t get your Rhett Butler.” The signs were removed, and Gable remained in the production.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Katharine Hepburn Reclaimed Stolen Dungarees
During the 1930s, American actress Katharine Hepburn preferred wearing dungarees between takes, but RKO’s publicity department asked her to stop. When she refused, the dungarees disappeared from her dressing room the next day. Hepburn responded by walking around the set in her underwear until they were returned.
22. While filming the flooding of the Grand Staircase for James Cameron’s Titanic (1997), the force of the water tore the replica staircase from its steel-reinforced foundations and sent it floating to the surface. Cameron suggested that the original wooden staircase may have broken free and floated out in the same way during the real sinking, which could explain why it is missing from the wreck.
23. After creating Chucky for Child’s Play (1988), special-effects artist Kevin Yagher reused the doll’s clear blue eyes when building the Crypt Keeper for HBO’s Tales from the Crypt. Six puppeteers were required to operate the finished Crypt Keeper.
24. During the filming of Poltergeist (1982), the mechanical clown doll tightened too firmly around child actor Oliver Robins, who played Robbie Freeling, and began choking him. When Robins protested that he could not breathe, producer Steven Spielberg initially thought he was improvising his struggle. Spielberg recognized the danger when Robins began changing color and rushed in to free him.
25. While Robert Patrick filmed the T-1000’s nude arrival scene for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), a commuter train passed the set. Patrick later called the incident the most embarrassing moment of his career.
