16 Delightfully Wholesome Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Otherwise Not-So-Wholesome Movies
As it turns out, sometimes the darkest, saddest, and/or most violent movies are actually the ones with the most fun going on behind-the-scenes!
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So, with this in mind, we've rounded up 16 wholesome fun facts about the making of some not-so-wholesome movies:
1.Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski became life-long friends and collaborators while on the set of The Matrix.
Stahelski worked as Reeves's stunt double on The Matrix. After a long day of shooting, Reeves surprised Stahelski with a box of wine in the lobby of Stahelski's hotel. Reeves told him, "Man, congratulations on your first big day. Here you go. I really appreciate it."
Stahelski went on to direct all four movies in the John Wick series, each of which starred Reeves in the titular role. The newest installment, John Wick: Chapter 4, has been a critical and commercial success!
2.Despite playing rivals, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis became good friends on the set of Black Swan.
Director Darren Aronofsky attempted to enhance their performances by creating a real rivalry between them.
However, Portman stated, "Mila and I had had ‘sweatpants nights’ watching Top Chef, and suddenly, we were on set together in tutus, emaciated and tired."
3.The legacy cast of Scream was very welcoming to the new cast in the 2022 reboot.
Actor Jasmin Savoy Brown, who plays Mindy Meeks-Martin in the film, opened up about how the original film's cast welcomed the younger generation onboard.
She said, "...David Arquette taught us all how to paint in the style of Bob Ross. ... Courteney [Cox] had us over to her place in LA for karaoke night. Neve [Campbell] had us over to her place in Wilmington to play cards. So, they were very lovely and very welcoming. I genuinely love every single member of this cast."
4.There is a "deleted scene" in It which features a much happier ending for poor Georgie.
Although the final film features Georgie getting devoured in the sewer by Pennywise, the filmmakers made an alternative scene just for kicks where Georgie successfully gets his boat back and runs away.
The best part of the deleted scene is easily when a defeated Pennywise says, "Ah, shit," as he misses out on his kill:
5.You can't make a wholesome list without multiple mentions of Keanu Reeves! He has a charitable history dating back years, with one of his kindest gifts happening on The Matrix Reloaded (2003).
After filming one of the most complex fight scenes in the movie, which featured Neo battling many Agent Smith clones, Reeves bought the 12 stunt doubles who played the clones Harley-Davidson motorcycles as a reward.
Each bike cost the actor $15,000.
6.While filming American Hustle, they filmed a scene where Mayor Carmine Polito (played by Jeremy Renner) kissed a baby while greeting people on the street.
Adorably, the baby is played by Ava Renner, Jeremy's real-life child.
"They brought the baby, and they were hanging around with (Renner's) mother," said Director David O. Russell. "I couldn't get his mother to be in the scene. But I said, 'Why don't you put the baby in the scene right now?'" And they did!
7.The cat that Vito Corleone strokes in The Godfather is played by a stray cat.
Director Francis Ford Coppola found the cat in the studio and gave it to Marlon Brando to hold right before they got the shot.
The cat loved Brando so much that it purred loudly the whole time, and the crew on-set worried the purring might overlap the dialogue.
8.Another fun animal fact, Will Smith grew very attached to his canine co-star in I Am Legend.
The German Shepherd's name was Abbey, and Will wanted to adopt her after filming ended after their shared time filming the movie.
However, the dog's trainer kept her, with Smith joking: "I was begging him. I was like, 'Please let me have Abbey. Please, please, please let me have her.' But you know, she has her own family now, so it was just another one of those fleeting Hollywood romances."
9.Steven Spielberg needed Robin Williams's help to brighten his spirits while filming Schindler's List.
Spielberg had previously directed Williams in Hook, saying, "Robin knew what I was going through, and once a week, Robin would call me on schedule, and he would do 15 minutes of stand-up on the phone."
"I would laugh hysterically because I had to release so much," he concluded. "The way Robin is on the telephone, he'd always hang up on the loudest, best laugh you'd give him. He'd never say goodbye, just hang up on the biggest laugh."
10.Jennifer Lawrence had a special tent she would visit to recover from her emotional scenes while filming Mother!
The crew made Lawrence a tent filled with all of her favorite things where she would retreat to find comfort.
“It was a tent that had pictures of the Kardashians and Keeping Up with the Kardashians playing on a loop — and gum balls,” Lawrence said. “My happy place.”
11.Danny Lloyd from The Shining was unaware that he was filming a horror movie.
Instead, he was led to believe that he was merely in a drama about a family living in a hotel.
Lloyd only realized the movie was a horror movie years later when he watched the film as a teenager.
12.The lineup scene in The Usual Suspects was originally supposed to be played completely serious.
However, actor Benicio del Toro farted 12 takes in a row, leading to everyone breaking character and having more fun with the scene.
Director Bryan Singer would later cut together the funniest parts, and that's what we see in the final film.
13.The iconic "You're gonna need a bigger boat" line from Jaws was ad-libbed by Roy Scheider based on an inside joke on set.
Co-writer Carl Gottlieb recalled, "[Richard] Zanuck and [David] Brown were very stingy producers, so everyone kept telling them, 'You’re gonna need a bigger boat.'"
"It became a catchphrase for anytime anything went wrong," he concluded. "If lunch was late or the swells were rocking the camera, someone would say, 'You’re gonna need a bigger boat!'” So, Scheider ad-libbed the line at the perfect moment, and the rest is history!
14.Sigourney Weaver made the no-look basketball shot in Alien: Resurrection.
20th Century Studios / Via reddit.com
The shot was originally meant to simply show her throwing the ball behind her, with the hoop shot to be added in post-production. The second she made the shot, the crew began to cheer...because, of course, it's incredible.
Ron Perlman, who was on camera at the time, also accidentally broke character, which ended up getting edited out in the final film.
15.Drew Barrymore kept accidentally calling 911 for real while filming the opening scene of Scream.
The prop master forgot to unplug the phone before filming, leading to a 911 operator receiving multiple calls with Barrymore screaming into the phone.
This resulted in the police calling back in the middle of a take, as they were worried about the situation.
16.And finally, Arnold Schwarzenegger helped out his co-star Michael Ironside while filming Total Recall.
Ironside's sister was battling cancer while the film was shot. Arnold would talk to her and connect them, providing them with comfort.
In an AMA on Reddit, Ironside wrote: "I had been calling her on a daily basis to see how she was doing, because I'm the oldest of five, she's the second oldest, and she's my oldest and dearest friend. Arnold noticed me calling every day at lunch, and he said, 'Who is it you're calling?' And I told him about my sister, and he said 'C'mon, let's go to my trailer.' And he had one of these conference phones set up, and he called my sister, and we talked to my sister, in Peterborough, Ontario, for an hour."
