20 Times Actors Went Off-Script To Kiss Their Co-Stars

Veteran British actress Valerie Leon has had the good fortune to work alongside such legends as Richard Harris, Richard Burton, and Roger Moore. She’s shared the screen with the suave James Bond star on no fewer than four occasions, in fact. And the lucky lady has even had the opportunity to get up close and personal with Moore on set — “Moore” than once.

While filming an episode of classic ’60s series The Saint, Leon took part in a three-in-a-bed scene with Moore. That’s not as risqué as it sounds, though. The actress went so far as to describe the moment as “terribly innocent.” And Leon has also spilled the beans about another amorous encounter with the former 007. According to the Islington Tribune, she said in 2017, “I was also in The Persuaders, and Roger gave me an unscripted kiss. I just closed my eyes and enjoyed it. They kept it in.”

One of the most memorable Riverdale episodes has to be season four’s “Wicked Little Town,” when the gang tackle Hedwig and the Angry Inch. And two of the teen drama’s stars certainly got into the spirit. In the cult musical, Hedwig typically wades into the audience to give one lucky spectator a smooch. So, Casey Cott and K.J. Apa decided to uphold the tradition — even if they had to go off-script.

Speaking to TV Insider in April 2020, Cott revealed all, saying, “Halfway through shooting that number, I was like, ‘I should just go kiss K.J.’ So I planted one on his cheek... Then the next take, I went in to do the same thing, and he turned his face and we just kind of laid a big one on each other... After that, we were like ‘This is exactly what it should be.’”

Grey’s Anatomy addicts know that, in the very last episode of the show’s 14th season, Camilla Luddington’s Dr. Jo plants a kiss firmly on Alex’s lips. Then she does exactly the same to Arizona. And while these smooches seem to catch both recipients entirely off guard, that’s for good reason. You guessed it! The whole moment was entirely spontaneous.

Luddington confessed all when she retweeted a clip of the three-way kiss on Twitter. The actress wrote, “Ha!!! It was unscripted, but I thought hello?!!! Who wouldn’t want to also smooch Arizona Robbins?” She’s got a point! And Luddington’s admission was met with nothing but admiration by fans of the long-running medical drama.

The kiss that Joss Carter shares with John Reese just before she dies is arguably one of the most unforgettable moments of Person of Interest. But in a 2013 interview with TV Line, showrunner Jonah Nolan revealed that actors Taraji P. Henson and Jim Caviezel actually smooched on the fly. Shockingly, he also admitted that he initially wasn’t a fan.

Nolan said, “I’ll be honest, Greg [Plageman, executive producer] and I were not terribly interested in seeing that take because the moment on the page was about the enduring friendship between these characters. Yet from the beginning, I was kind of always rooting for that connection, that spark, so finally we sat down and looked at the take like, ‘Aww…’ It’s very earned. It’s very real.”

Helena Bonham Carter has admitted that she didn’t have much kissing experience at all — let alone on camera — when she was cast as Lucy Honeychurch in period drama A Room with a View. Then at just 18 years old, the actress kept everyone waiting to cement her character’s romance with Julian Sands’ George Emerson. But she eventually plucked up the courage on the spur of the moment, as she recalled in a 2015 interview with The Criterion Collection.

Bonham Carter also revealed that she’d had other things on her mind when the “magic moment” finally occurred. The star said, “It's very hard to walk across a plowed field in high heels. I just knew I had to get to [Julian] without falling down — and then not laugh when he kissed me.”

Believe it or not, but Jurassic World’s Claire and Owen were never meant to kiss in the long-awaited reboot of the dinosaur franchise. Yes, really! Take it from Bryce Dallas Howard herself. She told Out magazine that her on-screen smooch with Chris Pratt had never been in the original script before adding, “And then on the last day, that happened…”

Apparently, Howard was left just as surprised by the kiss as the rest of the crew. Well, except for director Colin Treverrow, who had secretly discussed with his leading man the prospect of a spontaneous smooch. In a DVD feature, Treverrow admitted, “The idea was we’re just going to have Chris Pratt surprise [Bryce] in front of 200 people. And that’s the take that’s in the movie.”

After learning that one of his employees is gay, The Office’s Michael Scott does everything he can to prove that he’s not homophobic. And, yes, in one particularly cringeworthy scene, that includes kissing said employee squarely on the lips. But Steve Carell’s hilariously awkward smacker with Oscar Nuñez only occurred on the spur of the moment, as the recipient of that kiss went on to explain.

Nuñez told The A.V. Club, “We were just supposed to hug, and [Steve] kept hugging me. And that particular take, he came in really close, and I’m like, ‘Where is he going with this?’ Oh, dear, yes, here we go.” The actor revealed that he was also concerned the moment would be ruined by a guffawing cast or crew member. Luckily, though, everyone on set managed to stifle their laughs long enough for the shot to survive.

It’s fair to say that Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth had one of the most high-profile on/off relationships in recent Hollywood history. And it began in unusual circumstances, too, as on the same day they met, the pair shared their very first kiss on camera. Hemsworth and Cyrus were filming the 2010 Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Last Song at the time.

Yet this intimate moment only came by way of a last-minute instruction from director Julie Anne Robinson. Initially, the Australian actor and the former Hannah Montana star were simply supposed to frolic in the sea for a montage scene. But Hemsworth approved! During a 2010 press junket, he explained, “It was kinda good because I hadn’t had any time to think about or get nervous about, you know, the kiss.”

Will Smith will do anything to protect his wife — even getting himself banned from the Oscars for ten years! What many people don't know, however, is that he almost ended up in a similar situation once before. Jada Pinkett Smith and Tommy Davidson had agreed to mix things up during the finale of the 1998 romantic comedy Woo by busting some moves together. Then things eventually went off a little too off-script with an impromptu kiss. On learning what happened, Will very nearly came to blows with the actor.

In his autobiography, Davidson recalled how he had first leaned in for a smooch — much to Jada’s surprise. He went on, “I didn’t know this: you have to rehearse a kiss. You can’t just spring it on your co-star… And I didn’t think it was all that big of a deal.” Will certainly felt differently, however, and “went all gangsta” on Davidson. But, thankfully, the situation never turned physical. The trio are now good friends, too. All’s well that ends well, eh?

When fans of The Good Wife watched the famous elevator scene unravel, little excited screeches could probably be heard all over the country. It was the moment everyone had waited two long seasons for: Alicia and Will's passionate kiss. Before this, there had been a lot of long, intense stares. But as it turned out, actors Juliana Marguiles and Josh Charles seemed to play a big part in how the kiss played out.

Apparently, the script simply put Alicia and Will in an elevator together, and the scene was theirs to do with what they wanted. We know many fans would agree they did the right thing! In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2010, Charles said, “I’m just always blown away by the attention to subtlety and to nuance and at times, ambiguity. I feel like they write in a way that lends us, when we play the scenes, to bring a lot of subtextual interaction to it.”

As a star of many a Judd Apatow comedy, Jonah Hill no doubt has plenty of experience improvising. The same could be said of former Saturday Night Live writer and Eastbound and Down star Jillian Bell. And the pair put their skills to hilarious use for a memorable scene in 22 Jump Street — one that goes from confrontational to passionate and back again within seconds.

In the hit sequel, Hill’s hapless cop Schmidt and Bell’s college student Mercedes are constantly warring. But when they get into a physical fight, their relationship takes an unexpected turn. Before the cameras started rolling, both actors had agreed that their characters should go to share a kiss in between hitting each other. And we’re glad they made this decision, as it’s undoubtedly one of the most side-splittingly ridiculous parts of the movie.

Although their friendship was never anything more than a platonic bromance, New Girl’s Nick and Schmidt couldn’t stop kissing each other in the quirky sitcom. During a 2013 appearance on On Air with Ryan Seacrest, Jake Johnson even joked that he’d locked lips more with Max Greenfield than with any of his girlfriends. Still, he took some time getting used to his co-star’s amorous ways.

Greenfield told Seacrest, “We’ll do a lot of improv on the show, and I’ll just go in and kiss [Johnson] sometimes. [The New Girl producers] usually don’t put it in. And, finally, they put it in after about the seventh time I’d done it.” The actor added that Johnson had initially responded aggressively to being kissed without warning. Over time, though, he apparently became more relaxed about it.

One of the most eagerly awaited moments of “Stormborn,” the second ep of Game of Thrones’ seventh season, was the kiss between Indira Varma’s Ellaria Sand and Gemma Whelan’s Yara Greyjoy. You’ve probably guessed by now, though, that the pair weren’t originally supposed to lock lips at all. In 2017 Whelan told Entertainment Weekly, “It just seemed like something we should do. It was meant to be a suggestion [of flirting], and then it became more sexual than we expected because it seemed right.”

But the pair’s spontaneity also affected an unsuspecting stunt double. You see, as Whelan injured her back during filming of the pivotal scene, her stand-in had to take part in that on-screen kiss, too. And the prospect was something the woman appeared to find terrifying, according to Varma. The actress said, “I don’t think [the stuntwoman had] ever been put in that situation before. She’s used to falling over and being attacked and all the stunts, but to be kissed by an actress was a bit beyond her.”

While appearing at Madrid’s Showtime Con 2 event in 2017, Holland Roden revealed a secret that shocked Teen Wolf fans to their very cores. The kiss that started everything between her character Lydia and Dylan O’Brien’s Stiles hadn’t been scripted. In fact, she had no idea that her co-star was even going to plant a kiss on her cheek.

And that one innocent peck snowballed into one of the show’s key romances. Yes, as audiences started to “ship” the couple online, producers realized that there could be something in the idea. Much to fans’ delight, then, “Stydia” soon became a genuine storyline in the hit teen drama. The moral of the story: always listen to the fans!

Woody Harrelson certainly wasn’t afraid to reveal his true feelings for one of his Hunger Games co-stars in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. In 2016 the star admitted, “I have a crush on Elizabeth Banks. I’m not going to lie. I think she’s a beautiful woman, I think she’s a marvelous actress, and I just love her as a person.” Little surprise, then, that Harrelson decided to steal a kiss from the actress in the sequel.

Harrelson later said of that smooch, “[Elizabeth] didn’t know I was even going to do it. I just kissed her.” And apparently, Banks had few qualms about the actor’s opportunism. According to a reporter from the Associated Press, the star deliberately kept forgetting her lines during the scene in question so that she got to enjoy even more kissing time with Harrelson.

Of course, not all spontaneous on-screen kisses are moments of pure passion. In The Last Jedi, for example, Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker tenderly plants a peck on Princess Leia’s forehead after telling her, “No one’s ever really gone.” It was an improvised scene that went on to pack an emotional punch with audiences everywhere. As Star Wars aficionados know, the film was only released in theaters after Fisher’s untimely death, making the beautiful display of affection even more poignant.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight in 2018, Hamill revealed that he had felt the unscripted kiss was the right thing to do at the time. He said, too, that the scene would always be “really momentous… because Luke was saying goodbye to his sister forever.” Owing to Fisher’s death, though, Hamill has never been able to bring himself to watch this farewell.

In American Hustle, Jennifer Lawrence’s Rosalyn Rosenfeld starts arguing with Amy Adams’ Sydney, the mistress of her conman husband. But their bathroom altercation goes up a level when Rosalyn kisses Sydney wildly before laughing cruelly. And no one was more surprised at this impromptu moment than the film’s director, David O. Russell.

Yes, in 2013 Russell told Vanity Fair that while he’d been pitched about the idea of a kiss between the two women, he had had no idea exactly when it would occur. Then, at a press conference for the movie, Adams explained that she’d been behind the spontaneous act. She was keen to praise Lawrence, though, for her commitment. In Adams’ eyes, the smooch “didn’t just feel like a moment where two girls are going to kiss on screen — it felt emotional.”

Back in 2014, Edge of Tomorrow screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie told Film School Rejects that he had found it difficult to find a natural place in the movie for the two leads to kiss. He continued, “[It] always felt false. It always felt like they weren’t focused on what was really important.” And so the idea was almost junked completely until Emily Blunt stepped in.

Just as her character, Rita, is about to bid farewell to Tom Cruise’s Cage, Blunt plants a kiss on the A-lister’s lips. McQuarrie revealed that this came totally on the fly, saying, “It was not in the script. It was not even discussed.” But Blunt had a good explanation for her sneaky smacker. McQuarrie claimed he’d asked Blunt why she’d chosen such a moment, and the star replied, “It just felt right. It felt right, and I did it.”

Tom Cruise has a reputation for being such a complete professional that it’s hard to imagine him ever forgetting a line. But although he’s super-famous, he’s still human. And, fortunately, the star had a novel method for disguising his sudden memory loss while filming a scene for 1986 classic Top Gun. He simply kissed his co-star instead.

Yep, the first smooch between Cruise’s Maverick and Kelly McGillis’ Charlie was never in the original script. But when the leading man failed to remember his next line during the streetside showdown, he decided to turn their argument into something more passionate. And the rest, as some people say, is blockbuster history. The movie wouldn’t be the same without it now!

The kiss that Burt Reynolds planted on a young Neil Patrick Harris back in the 1980s had quite the effect. It turned the Doogie Howser actor gay! Well, not really, even if Harris does make a joke to that effect in his 2014 memoir. The peck in question came while filming an episode of Reynolds’ short-lived detective series B.L. Stryker.

In Choose Your Own Autobiography, Harris explains, “As a joke at the end of one take, Burt leans over and kisses you square on the mouth. The crew thinks this is very funny, but it makes you uncomfortable. Uncomfortable and, it will ultimately turn out, gay. Burt Reynolds’ kiss makes you gay.”

It’s one of the most talked-about movie moments of the 2000s. Bill Murray’s Bob whispers into the ears of Scarlett Johansson’s Charlotte in the final scene of 2003 rom-com Lost in Translation. Then the pair share a kiss. And while, sadly, we never learn the words Bob utters, we do now know that this climactic smooch was entirely unscripted.

In a 2013 chat with The Daily Beast, director Sofia Coppola said, “I remember sometimes [Murray] would spring things on [Johansson], and it was fun to get her reaction.” That wasn’t the only time Murray flexed his improv skills in the acclaimed movie, either. Apparently, he also came up with all the dialog in the sushi bar scene — where his only direction was to make Johansson laugh.

In Pretty Woman, it's not a kiss that's unscripted, but a very memorable scene. When Richard Gere’s character Edward presents a box containing a lavish necklace to Julia Roberts' character Vivian. Just as she is about to take the gift, Gere whams the box closed. Neither Roberts nor anyone else on set expected that — it was entirely Gere’s own work. So Roberts’ laughing reaction is completely authentic.

Perhaps in large part because Air Marshall John is played by Melissa McCarthy's actual husband, Ben Falcone, the actress’ filthy, funny flirtations were totally improvised. Falcone claims that he laughed so much that he ruined several takes.

During a memorable scene in which psychologist Sean Maguire tells the titular Will (Matt Damon) stories to help him open up, Williams improvised the entire story about his wife's farting. Damon's laughter and reaction are genuine, and after just one take, it was kept in the film.

Ben Stiller’s hilarious performance as the title character in Zoolander was actually enhanced at one point simply because he’d genuinely forgotten his lines. Stiller asks why the killer in Zoolander murders male models. A detailed explanation follows. Then Stiller, who couldn’t remember his next line, simply repeated his previous one, “But why male models?” This was actually an excellent gag from the witless Zoolander and was kept in the final cut.

In rogue-shark classic Jaws, Roy Scheider’s character Brody sees the massive fish for the first time while aboard the boat hunting for the beast. He tells the skipper, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Apparently, the line originated as an inside joke among the film crew because the support boat on the movie wasn’t big enough. But Scheider ad-libbed it to exemplary dramatic effect at just the right time.

Ah, the infamous hitchhiker scene. Almost every single line of dialogue in this scene was improvised by stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, with Mike Star playing along amicably as henchman Joe "Mental" Mentalino.

Playing Roman in Fast and Furious 6, Tyrese Gibson aims a jibe at Hobbs played by Dwayne Johnson, saying they’d better hide the baby oil from him. Hobbs responds with an ad-libbed line, “You better hide that big forehead.” Not the height of wit perhaps, but it made Chris “Ludacris” Bridges spit out his drink with laughter, apparently ruining the barbecue the actors were standing around.

In his terrifying portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, Anthony Hopkins had one particularly spine-chilling mannerism. That was the bizarre hissing noise he made when he first met Clarice, played by Jodie Foster. It came after he described eating someone’s liver with “fava beans and a nice Chianti.” And that horrible noise was all Hopkins’ own work — not in the script at all.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter downs a magic draught called polyjuice potion. It helps him disguise himself as Crabbe, one of the villainous Malfoy's henchmen. But Potter forgets to take off his glasses — an accessory Crabbe doesn't wear. Malfoy remarks on the eyewear. "Crabbe" claims that he needs them for reading. So far, so scripted. But Tom Felton playing Malfoy had forgotten his next line. So he came up with “I didn't know you could read.”

James Stewart as George Bailey is undoubtedly the star of It’s a Wonderful Life, but bumbling Uncle Billy played by Tommy Mitchell adds a welcome helping of humor. At one point, the tipsy Uncle Billy leaves the Bailey home, and just as he disappears off screen, there’s a huge crash. The noise actually came from a dropped prop, which caused Mitchell to cry out. Quickly improvising, the actor came up with “I’m all right! I’m all right!,” and that stayed in the movie.

The truth is, it wasn’t Leonardo DiCaprio who went off script to deliver the line “I’m king of the world” as he stood on Titanic’s prow playing the part of Jack Dawson. It was the director, James Cameron. Speaking on BBC’s Radio 1 in 2019, Cameron revealed that he’d come up with the line as they were filming. Apparently, DiCaprio wasn’t too keen on it. But he played along with his director, and it became one of the most memorable moments in the movie.

In Midnight Cowboy there’s a scene where Dustin Hoffman, as Ratso, and Jon Voight, playing Joe Buck, are crossing a busy Manhattan street. A taxi driver sounds his horn and stops inches from Hoffman. The actor reacts angrily, yelling, “Hey, I’m walkin’ here!” In fact, it was a genuine incident. The scene was being filmed without street clearance, and it was a real New York moment. Much too good to leave out of the movie.

When Princess Leia, played by Carrie Fisher, declares her love for Harrison Ford’s character, Han Solo, you might expect a huge response from him. But no, all he offers Leia as Darth Vader’s henchmen haul him off is a rather casual “I know.” Originally, the script gave Ford more to say. But he came up with the two-word line, believing that the minimalism was more in keeping with his character.

It wasn’t a box office hit when it was released in 1993, but Dazed and Confused went on to become a cult movie. Matthew McConaughey played David Woodson in the film and his character utters the immortal words, “All right, all right, all right” as he pulls up outside of a bar. And that was entirely improvised. The simple words have since become an iconic movie moment.

Jim Carrey plays the evil Count Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events, the man who takes control of the three bereaved children in the tale. There’s a scene where the count is introduced to the children. At that point, Carrey said, “Wait, let me do that one more time,” actually addressing director Brad Silberling. But the cast carried on, repeating the introductions. Silberling loved the result and kept it in the movie.

In A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick’s haunting vision of a future dystopia, Malcolm McDowell starred as ultra-violent Alex. Alex and his gang perpetrate a horrifyingly depraved home invasion. As the brutality builds, McDowell started to sing “Singin’ in the Rain,” an off-the-cuff decision by the actor. The contrast between the light-hearted ditty and the appalling carnage is deeply disturbing — and it really works in the film.

In a memorable scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Johnny Depp’s character, Captain Jack Sparrow, bursts into song. He’s taunting some rival pirates by brandishing a jar of dirt and singing some doggerel. In fact, Depp’s silly song was ad-libbed, so the astonished reactions of his fellow actors are entirely genuine.

Jack Nicholson finally goes completely off the rails as Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, embarking on a murderous rampage. As he hacks through the bathroom door with an axe, he exclaims two words: “Heeere’s Johnny!” The phrase quickly entered the almanac of immortal movie catchphrases, but the words were untouched by the pen of a scriptwriter — Nicholson came up with them himself, inspired by the opening of The Tonight Show.

When Anchorman’s Channel six news team are discussing the meaning of love, Carrell’s simple weatherman chips in with the things that he loves. “I love carpet," he says, followed by “I love desk” and then finally, “I love lamp.” And guess what? These hilarious contributions were completely improvised. “The ‘I love lamp’ thing was just me at the end of a scene staring at a lamp and I said ‘I love lamp,’ Carrell told Vulture in 2018. And it clearly worked.

Robert de Niro’s Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is remembered as an acting tour de force. One of the most powerful scenes features Bickle, armed with several pistols and clearly with a screw loose, staring into a mirror and repeating “You talkin’ to me?” again and again. But De Niro had been given no lines for the scene and came up with the words himself. It was a gift for Scorsese and millions of movie fans.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, with Will Ferrell in the lead, is a hilarious view of an American TV newsroom. The scene is set for Ferrell’s brilliant improvisation when Burgundy flings a burrito from his car window, inadvertently hitting a motorcyclist. The biker then chucks the newsman’s dog off a bridge. Burgundy, seeking solace, calls a pal from a payphone booth. Describing his misery he says, “I’m in a glass case of emotion.” All Ferrell’s own work.

At the heart of the evergreen Hollywood classic Casablanca is the on-off love affair between Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa Lund. Ultimately, their romance is doomed to failure. But in a tear-jerking finale, Bogart delivers his immortal line to Bergman: “Here’s looking at you, kid.” Apparently, Bogart originally came up with the phrase while teaching Bergman poker.

When it comes to priceless inanities, the script of This Is Spinal Tap has few equals. The heavy metal band’s everyday conversation is peppered with moronic phrases, many of which were improvised by the actors. It was Michael McKean playing David St. Hubbins who came up with the memorable words, “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.”

Playing the demented Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola’s seminal Apocalypse Now, Marlon Brando is said to have improvised many lines. Certainly one of the best was Kurtz’s response to the arrival at his encampment of Captain Benjamin L. Willard, played by Martin Sheen. Willard had been sent to eliminate the wayward colonel. Kurtz gives him a withering putdown: “You’re an errand boy sent by a grocery clerk.”

In perhaps When Harry Met Sally’s most hilarious scene, Meg Ryan simulates an orgasm as she sits opposite Billy Crystal in a diner. But it was the killer line that Estelle Reiner, the director’s mom, delivers once Ryan has finished that topped it off — “I’ll have what she’s having.” Cinema audiences around the world roared with laughter. But we bet you don’t know that Crystal came up with the line.

In Mel Brooks’ laugh-a-minute take on the Frankenstein tale, Marty Feldman, playing Igor, gets one of the funniest gags. And he improvised it on set. Gene Wilder’s Dr. Frederick Frankenstein meets Igor for the first time. Noticing Igor’s pronounced hump, the young doctor says he might be able to offer medical help for the prominent deformity. Feldman’s response is absurd in its simplicity. “What hump?”

After a brutal gangland slaying carried out in an automobile, Richard Castellano, playing Peter Clemenza, spotted an opportunity for some improvisation. In the scene, Clemenza leaves the car to relieve himself while a sidekick shoots the victim. Returning to the auto, Clemenza casually says to the gunman, “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.” After all, it really wouldn’t do to abandon the delicious pastries.

At the movie’s climax, a failing Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) tells Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) about the things he’s seen in his violent life. “All those moments will be lost in time,” he manages to say before going off script and uttering, “Like tears in rain.” It’s a great moment that imbibes the android with a glimmer of humanity.

Brad Pitt didn’t know what was coming when Ed Norton landed that first punch in Fight Club. Director David Fincher told Norton to hit Pitt for real without his costar knowing, and his awkward swipe resulted in the legendary reaction, “You hit me in the ear!”

The sinister scene where Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) reacts badly to Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) calling him “a funny guy” was heavily improvised. It was inspired by a real-life experience from Pesci’s youth. Indeed, as a young man he praised an apparently connected man’s sense of humor – only to get a threatening reaction.

The dark campiness of this dystopian classic is captured in the scene where Luther (David Patrick Kelly) tries to goad the good-guy Warriors into battle. Clinking three bottles together, he chants, “Warriors, come out to play” in an increasingly high-pitched tone. Few people know, however, that this was Kelly’s own creative touch.

It was an action by Leonardo DiCaprio rather than a line that stole one particular scene in Django Unchained, despite not being scripted. Playing Calvin Candie, DiCaprio angrily confronts Django, played by Jamie Foxx. Slamming his hand into a table, DiCaprio actually sliced his mitt on broken glass, and the bleeding seen on screen is real. But the imperturbable actor carried on with the scene, which was included in the film.

You’ll remember the scene from Caddyshack, known as the Cinderella Story, when Bill Murray destroys a row of flowers with a golf club. Actually, according to the script, Murray was meant to decapitate the flowers with a grass whip. But he grabbed a golf club instead, making it much funnier. Murray actually ad-libbed much of his part in the movie, including the Cinderella segment, giving us one of the comic actor’s most accomplished performances.

In the strangely disorientating but intriguing movie Being John Malkovich, the title character is taken over by a puppeteer played by John Cusack. At one bizarre moment in the film, a hurled beer can hits Malkovich on the head. You’d suppose that incident was staged. But it wasn’t, and yet Malkovich improvises his way out of the situation masterfully. A crew member had thrown the can as a prank, and director Spike Jonze liked the result so much he kept it in the film.

In the 1953 Hollywood classic Roman Holiday, Gregory Peck confirmed his reputation as an on-set prankster with a trick he played on co-star Audrey Hepburn. Standing before a large and ancient stone face, Peck tells Hepburn about a legend. Apparently, a liar putting a hand in the statue’s gaping mouth will have it bitten off. Peck puts in his hand, yells, and pulls out his arm with his hand tucked in his sleeve. That wasn’t in the script, and Hepburn’s momentary shock was real!

Stephen Marcus gave an entertaining acting performance as Nick the Greek in Guy Ritchie’s 1998 London gangster romp Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. But there’s one scene in the movie where he’s definitely not acting. Putting his drink down on a table, he smashes its glass top. Not in the script, but Ritchie decided to use it.

In Scent of a Woman Al Pacino plays a retired military man who is blind. Known for his method acting, Pacino was determined to play the part convincingly. That meant he flitted his eyes around, not focusing properly. At one point, that meant he walked straight into a trash can, completely unintentionally. Perhaps that bit of “acting” helped him to win a Best Actor Oscar for the role.

At one point in Raiders of the Lost Ark, a fly very nearly steals the show. Apart from the pesky fly, two other principals were in the scene: Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Paul Freeman as Rene Belloq. The fly landed on Freeman’s face, but like a true trooper, he acted on without flinching. The fly actually flew off, but clever post-production made it look as though Freeman swallowed the insect.

Steve Carell having his chest waxed is a prime example of suffering for one’s art – especially when it’s entirely real. So those colorful profanities pouring from Carell’s mouth as a million hairs are simultaneously torn from his character Andy’s body? Yep, completely unscripted.

Jim Carrey’s bravura performance in the title role brought The Grinch to glorious life. One of the funniest scenes is the moment he tears a tablecloth from beneath a motley crowd of objects without moving them. But then he violently sweeps everything off the table. Actually, everything was meant to tumble down when he first grabbed the tablecloth. But when that didn’t happen, Carrey improvised by hurling everything to the floor. Definitely funnier than what was scripted.

When Bubba Blue, played by Mykelti Williamson, introduces himself to Gump, Gump responds with his famous lines: “My name’s Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump.” And those words weren’t from the script — Tom Hanks improvised them on the spot. If ever two sentences summed up a title character and even the whole ethos of a movie, it's those two lines!

The original script of The Godfather contained no mention of a cat. But director Francis Ford Coppola had apparently adopted a stray that he had found wandering around the Paramount lot. He then directed the feline to sit on Marlon Brando’s lap. The cuddly kitty supplied a stark contrast to the gangster supremo’s ruthless rule. In fact, the cat purred so loudly that some of Brando’s lines had to be redubbed later.

One scene in The Hobbit shows Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn hearing the tragic news that two of his hobbit buddies, Pippin and Merry, are now ex-hobbits. The script called for Aragorn to express his grief and anger by kicking a battle helmet. But when Mortensen lashed out, he actually fractured his toe. That made him yell and fall to his knees. The reaction was so genuine, it had to stay in the movie.

Tom Cruise, playing Ethan Hunt, was shaping up for a fight scene with a stuntman in Mission: Impossible 2. The stunt guy suggested that during the fight Cruise should really kick him in the face. Cruise and director John Woo weren’t too keen on this idea. But the stuntman was adamant, and the scene went ahead on his terms. The result was a very convincing fight sequence.

Trigger warning: grotesquerie ahead. John Belushi, Bluto in Animal House, says to his fellow diners, “See if you can guess what I am now.” Then he stuffs an unfeasible amount of mashed potato into his mouth. Next, he thumps both his cheeks with his fists. The mashed mush shoots out of his mouth, spraying everyone. “I’m a zit. Get it!” Chaos erupts. Belushi came up with the gag, and neither cast nor crew knew what was coming.

Forget about Johnny Depp’s remake — the true Willy Wonka was the late Gene Wilder in the original 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. And Wilder used some nifty improvisation to make the role his own. When we meet Wonka for the first time, he appears as a frail-looking fellow with a pronounced limp. But suddenly he performs an astonishingly accomplished forward roll. And Wilder came up with that striking visual gag all on his own.

The actors in this iconic police lineup were only scripted to say, “Give me the keys,” followed by a couple of expletives. Not only was the eccentric delivery of the lines improvised, but the actors’ sniggering fit was down to Benicio Del Toro incessantly breaking wind while the cameras were rolling.

In a particularly memorable scene, Lieutenant Gordon is promoted to commissioner while the Joker looks on from his cell. All the cops clap to congratulate Gordon, but when they see the Joker is unsettlingly clapping along – something that was improvised by Heath Ledger – they stop.

When Alvy sneezed while sniffing — not snorting — cocaine in Annie Hall, the pricey powder pretty much went over everyone. However, the sneeze was entirely genuine, which explains why the other cast members laughed so much. Preview audiences loved it, so the sneeze made the final cut.

According to co-screenwriter Katie Dippold, Kevin's glasses were so reflective on camera that the lenses had to be removed. He didn't seem to realize what he was doing when he rubbed his face while filming, though, which led Melissa McCarthy to point it out to him. After, he claims that he took them out so he wouldn't have to clean them.

Star Paul Rudd didn't mean to pass gas in one scene, but ultimately, he felt that it was something his character would do. The cast and crew, including co-star Leslie Mann, weren't happy, but it remained in the final cut.