Despite their best efforts, most actors’ unscripted moments don’t make the final cut on the big or small screens. But when they do, many stars reveal the true depth of their talents.
Here are some of the most memorable on-screen moments that weren’t in the original script:
Chris Pratt came up with one of the most memorable “Parks and Recreation” lines on the fly.
When Leslie has the flu on the episode “Flu Season,” Andy shouts from his desk, “Leslie, I typed your symptoms into the thing up here and it says you could have network connectivity problems!”
“He has the best improvisation in a cast full of world-class improvisers,” co-creator Michael Shur told AV Club in 2011. “… He’s so present and in the moment and fully fluent in his character that he can make up perfectly formulated jokes like that on the spot, and it’s incredible. He’s improved every episode he’s ever been in.”
Steve Carell’s surprise kiss on “The Office” wasn’t in the script.
This iconic moment between Michael and Oscar almost didn’t happen. NBC
On the season three episode of the NBC show, “Gay Witch Hunt,” Oscar Martinez’s shocked response to Michael Scott kissing him on the lips is totally authentic.
“… He wasn’t supposed to kiss me, we were just supposed to hug,” actor Oscar Nuñez told AV Club in 2008. “And that particular take he came in really close, and I’m like, ‘Where is he going with this?’ And then I’m just thinking, ‘Oh God, nobody laugh so we can use it.’ And they didn’t, and it worked perfectly. It was a lot of fun.”
The jewelry box gag in “Pretty Woman” wasn’t planned.
Julia Roberts’ laugh was real in the scene. Touchstone Pictures. One of the most delightful scenes in “Pretty Woman” features Richard Gere snapping a jewelry box shut just as Julia Roberts reaches out to touch it. But that wasn’t in the script.
Roberts responded by throwing her head back and laughing at Gere’s unexpected snap, and they ended up leaving that genuine response in the film.
“She laughed so honestly that we left it in the picture,” director Garry Marshall said in a conversation with The American Film Institute.
Tom Felton’s amazing dig in “Harry Potter” almost didn’t happen.
Tom Felton improvised the line in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” Warner Bros.
In the scene in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” where Harry and Ron take Polyjuice Potion to transform into Draco Malfoy’s henchmen, Goyle and Crabbe, Harry (as Goyle) tells Malfoy that he’s wearing glasses because he was reading.
Actor Tom Felton, who played Malfoy, snapped back with, “Reading? I didn’t know you could read.”
While answering fan questions during a 2011 Facebook Live, Felton said that it’s one of his favorite Malfoy lines and that director Chris Columbus actually suggested adding the line on the fly during the shoot.
KJ Apa’s painful ice-punch on “Riverdale” was improvised.
KJ Apa got so in-character for Cheryl Blossom’s rescue scene on The CW’s “Riverdale” that he actually broke his hand.
“That was a gnarly day of shooting, I’ll tell you that much,” he told TVLine in 2017. “… I wasn’t really punching the ice, I just got a little bit too excited, and I was punching a foam mat … sitting on the ice, but I was just kind of going for it, do you know what I mean? And it was cold, so I didn’t really feel it.”
He said didn’t realize his hand was broken until 20 minutes later.
Leonardo DiCaprio also had an accidental injury while filming “Django Unchained.”
Leonardo DiCaprio embodied the rage of his character so well in “Django Unchained” that when he was scripted to slam his hand on a dining-room table, he did so with full force for several takes.
But in the take they ended up using for the film, he accidentally slammed his hand into glass, which cut him. Not only did DiCaprio keep filming, but also he used his bloodied hand (which later needed medical attention) to make the scene more powerful.
“Blood was dripping down his hand. He never broke character. He kept going. He was in such a zone. It was very intense. He required stitches,” producer Stacey Sher told Variety in 2012.
Jason Segel didn’t know his character’s father was going to die on “How I Met Your Mother.”
When Marshall’s (Jason Segel) dad died on CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother,” Lily (Alyson Hannigan) had to deliver the sad news.
However, Segel chose not to read Hannigan’s dialogue ahead of time, according to Entertainment Weekly, so his shock at finding out about the death was a genuine reaction.
Segel also ad-libbed Marshall’s heartbreaking response to the news, “I’m not ready for this.”
The famous tagline from “Jaws” wasn’t actually in the original script.
When the terrifying, gargantuan shark first appears, Roy Scheider’s character memorably responds with, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor ad-libbed the famous line, which was based on something the production team said to each other on set in reference to their “stingy producers.”
Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb told the publication that the actor actually tried to put the line into the film in a few different spots.
“It was so appropriate and so real,” he said. “And it came at the right moment, thanks to Verna Field’s editing.”
Viggo Mortensen broke two of his toes during his big helmet kick in “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.”
When Aragorn kicks his helmet in “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the wails of agony that followed weren’t originally planned.
The actor, Viggo Mortensen, had actually broken two of his toes during the final take.
“Viggo actually feeling that pain, he actually turned that into performance. I mean he stayed in the character of Aragorn. He was letting that pain feed and drive his performance, which is pretty amazing,” director Peter Jackson said in one of the film’s behind-the-scenes DVD extras.
The cat was never in the script of “The Godfather.”
Vito Corleone reciting his opening monologue while petting a cat is one of the most iconic moments in movie history — and it was never even supposed to happen.
According to Time, director Francis Ford Coppola said, “The cat in Marlon’s hands was not planned for. I saw the cat running around the studio, and took it and put it in his hands without a word.”
Although it made for a compelling opening scene, the production crew wasn’t as happy with the decision because the cat’s purring messed with the sound levels for the dialogue.