Inside Hollywood: Exposing 45 More Lesser-Known Facts About Hollywood Actors – Part 5

Steve Martin’s wedding came as a surprise to his guests. The roughly 75 star-studded attendees (including the likes of Tom Hanks, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, and Carl Reiner) said that he had invited them to his house just for a “party.” To their shock, upon their arrival, his wedding began.

2. While filming Pirates of the Caribbean in London, Johnny Depp received a letter from a local 9-year-old girl, who asked for help with “mutiny” against her teachers. Depp turned up with no warning at the school in full Jack Sparrow outfit but advised against mutiny.

3. Keanu Reeves often foregoes some of his paychecks so that producers can bring on other notable actors. On “The Devil’s Advocate”, he reduced his salary by a few million dollars so that they could afford Al Pacino, and he did the same thing on “The Replacements” to be able to work with Gene Hackman.

4. Three months after Robin Williams’ death, they discovered that he had a rare brain disease called Lewy body dementia that was one of the worst cases ever seen.

5. Tom Cruise once had Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Leah Remini, and others over at his house and tried to play hide-and-seek with them, going so far as to run off into 3 acres of land.

Christian Bale saw Tom Cruise on the Late Show with David Letterman while preparing for his role in American Psycho. Cruise’s “intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes” became the inspiration for how Bale would portray the psychopathic murderer.

7. Hugh Jackman started his own coffee brand and foundation called “Laughing Man” after meeting a struggling coffee farmer in Ethiopia. His goal was to provide a marketplace for farmers in developing countries to sell their goods for a fair price. Jackman donates 100% of profits.

8. In his famous scene in ‘The Shining’, the crew made a fake door for Jack Nicholson to break through but had to replace it with a real door as the fake one broke too quickly due to Jack previously being a Fire Marshall.

9. On New Year’s Eve, 1999, Brad Pitt rented a Mexican resort, filled it with his friends and at midnight had the government cut the power and phone lines and send in troops to raid the compound and “arrest” one of his best friends on drug charges. He did this all as a practical joke.

10. Responding as to why he starred in Jaws: The Revenge, Michael Caine said “I have never seen the film, but by all accounts it was terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.”

In 1975 Al Pacino was offered the role of Han Solo in the film Star Wars, but he refused the role because “The script was too confusing.”

12. When Arnold Schwarzenegger turned down the planned sequel to Commando, it was reworked to star Bruce Willis and was retitled Die Hard.

13. Samuel L Jackson wanted a purple lightsaber so he would be noticeable in Attack of the Clones. He still has the prop at home with, “Bad Mother f***er” inscribed in its hilt.

14. All main actors in the movie Saving Private Ryan apart from Matt Damon were required to undergo military training. This was done so that the remaining cast would build up genuine resentment for his character.

15. When asked about his sex life during an interview, Marlon Brando said, “Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences and I am not ashamed. But if there is someone who is convinced that Jack Nicholson and I are lovers, may they continue to do so. I find it amusing.”

Tom Hanks has been gifting the White House press corps with new coffee machines since 2004 after visiting and finding an old decrepit Mr. Coffee machine serving really bad coffee. The latest was a $1700 espresso machine in 2017.

17. In 2009, Leonardo DiCaprio bought an island in Belize and built the world’s first eco-restorative resort that “restores” the island’s over-fished waters, coastline, and forest.

18. Robert Downey Jr. largely credits the martial art Wing Chun for helping to maintain his sobriety, as well as helping to keep him “grounded, well and focused.”

19. Keanu Reeves runs a private charitable foundation to fund cancer research and children’s hospitals. In 2009, he told Ladies Home Journal: “I don’t like to attach my name to it, I just let the foundation do what it does.”

20. Johnny Depp always travels with his Jack Sparrow costume so he can randomly visit children’s hospitals dressed in character.

Tom Cruise is obsessed with sending his co-stars cakes, even ones he worked with decades ago. Louis Theroux, a documentary maker, who went to his grandmother’s 100th Birthday Party to find 100 cupcakes from Tom Cruise, after Tom worked with his cousin.

22. For the interrogation scene in the movie “Safe House”, Denzel Washington volunteered to actually be waterboarded, albeit for a few seconds at a time. Co-star Ryan Reynolds called it “one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen.”

23. To lose 63 pounds for his role in The Machinist, Christian Bale’s daily diet consisted of one can of tuna fish, and/or one apple per day, black coffee, and water.

24. 16-year-old Matt Damon and 14-year-old Ben Affleck created a joint bank account, which held their money from filming commercials in Boston so that they two could pay for trips to audition for roles in New York.

25. Gary Oldman once lost his British accent due to all of his hard preparations for his different roles. He went to a speech therapist to help gain it back.