When you stop and think about it, film production sets are like little villages at work, with entire teams dedicated to things as “small” as wardrobe, props or even just air conditioning. So it probably shouldn’t be surprising that oftentimes things might not go smoothly and the offscreen drama can be as intense as what’s on screen.
We’ve gathered some of the most interesting and possibly gross behind the scenes stories from the sets of your favorite films and TV shows. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share any you know of that might not have been mentioned here.
#1 Chinatown
Director Roman Polanski was an absolute pain for actress Faye Dunaway to work with on the set of Chinatown—he wouldn’t even let her go to the bathroom in between takes. As a result, out of sheer desperation, Dunaway had to pee in a cup. Furious at the director’s actions, she hurled the cup of pee in his face.
Image credits: Paramount Pictures
#2 Elf
When filming the famous breakfast spaghetti scene in Elf, Will Ferrell, who played Buddy, puked the first time he tried the pasta-candy mash-up. Screen Rant revealed he had to shoot the scene twice and developed a migraine due to all the sugar he ate.
Image credits: New Line Cinema
#3 Psycho
The 1960s film Psycho was the first to violate the Hays Code, according to the Toronto Star. It went against the censorship guidelines for films by being the first to portray a flushing toilet onscreen.
Image credits: Paramount Pictures
#4 Friends
In an unusual twist of fate, Matt LeBlanc swallowed some trifle, which was actually whipped cream and a couple of bananas, that David Schwimmer had spat out while filming a take of the Friends episode "The One Where Ross Got High.” LeBlanc said on The Graham Norton Show, "There was too much on his plate. So he starts to eat it all, and he starts laughing, and we cut. We're cutting, and he spits it back on his plate. I'm sitting right next to him, and I'm looking the other way. I didn't see him spit it back on his plate. So, I take his plate...and I scrape some on my plate... We go again, and now I'm eating it. We finish the take. No one says anything to me."
Image credits: Max
#5 Game Of Thrones
In a 2018 interview with Esquire, English actor Charles Dance, who portrayed Tywin Lannister on Game of Thrones, spoke about his character’s infamous deer skinning scene. He said, “I learned how to skin a deer. I skinned a deer quite well actually. They came to me one day and said 'Charles, are you a vegetarian?' I said, 'No, of course not.' So they got this butcher chap to show me how to skin a whole deer and then I did it, and I did it well... I think. I was hoping for a nice haunch of venison from it, but they didn't even let me keep a hoof!”
Image credits: Max
#6 Matilda
One simply cannot mention chocolate cake without thinking of the famous cake scene involving Bruce Bogtrotter in Matilda. Jim Karz, the actor who portrayed Bruce told Newsweek, "There were a ton of cakes. They had a factory, like, pumping out the cakes… I don't know how much I ate. It was definitely a lot." The film's cinematographer, Stefan Czapsky added, "What was ironic about it was, the actor who played Bruce? He didn't like chocolate cake. They had a spit bucket for him. It worked for the scene because it was kind of like a child torture scene — to force him to eat chocolate cake."
Image credits: Sony Pictures
#7 The Office
When filming kissing scenes in The Office, actress Angela Kinsey said her on-camera love interest Rainn Wilson, "was usually eating something disgusting right beforehand." On an episode of her podcast Office Ladies, Kinsey said, "And I'd be like, 'Rainn, dang it. Do you have to eat a tuna fish sandwich right before we're supposed to kiss? Come on!'"
Image credits: NBC
#8 Rosemary's Baby
In her memoir, What Falls Away, Mia Farrow looked back on the infamous raw liver scene in Rosemary’s Baby. She penned, "When Roman [Polanski, the director] wanted me to eat raw liver, I ate it, take after take, even though, at the time, I was a committed vegetarian."
Image credits: Paramount Pictures
#9 Rescue Dawn
In the stomach-turning maggots scene in Rescue Dawn, where the prisoners were fed worms, Christian Bale actually ate real maggots. Bale informed Collider, "They were very real. I didn't mind eating the maggots, but I just wanted to make sure about where the maggots had come from. Where did they find those maggots?"
Image credits: MGM
#10 The Birds
The Birds was dubbed one of the greatest horror movies of all time. The director of the film, Alfred Hitchcock, took filming so seriously that in the last scene where Tippi Hedren was swarmed by flocks of birds, he insisted real birds be used instead of fake ones.
Image credits: Universal Pictures
#11 The Shawshank Redemption
As stated by Screen Rant, on the set of The Shawshank Redemption, the animal control inspector forbade characters Andy and Brooks from feeding a baby bird a live waxworm for the scene. The cast and crew had to wait for one of the waxworms in the bucket to die so they could film the scene.
Image credits: Columbia Pictures
#12 Suicide Squad
The chemical bath scene between Harley Quinn and Joker was one of many thrilling scenes in the film Suicide Squad. Margot Robbie, who played Harley Quinn, mentioned to the Washington Post, "That chemical [scene] was the most unpleasant thing I've ever done in my entire life. So that was definitely my least favorite. It was, like, this gluggy paint stuff that was so far in my ears and up my nose, and I was choking on it underwater, and I couldn't breathe, and I tried to open my eyes, and it would glaze over my eyeballs, and I could only see white. It was horrible."
Image credits: Warner Bros
#13 Star Wars: A New Hope
Mark Hamil recalled the blue milk he drank while filming Star Wars: A New Hope. Comparing it to the version sold in Disney Parks, Hamil remarked to a fan on Twitter, “Honestly though: the warm, oily, sickly-sweet milk dyed blue from the movie was gag-inducing [puke-emoji]-while this frosty non-dairy drink tasted like a yummy fruit smoothie.”
Image credits: Lucasfilm
#14 Interview With The Vampire
From hanging upside down for 30 minutes to constantly filming on winter nights, these grueling conditions were just the tip of the iceberg for the main cast members of Interview With The Vampire. In an Entertainment Weekly interview, Brad Pitt confessed he was miserable while filming due to being in the dark all the time on a windowless stage as well as the uncomfortable contact lenses and makeup he had to wear.
Image credits: Warner Bros.
#15 Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom
Kate Capshaw was absolutely terrified on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom due to the fact that she had to have tons of bugs poured all over her in one scene. So much so, she had to take a calming tablet before filming. Interviewed for a behind-the-scenes featurette, she expressed, "I was really asking people. 'Is there a pill? There must be something I can take to keep myself from freaking out.' Because I don't want everyone to look at the movie going, 'She's on drugs!"
Image credits: Paramount Pictures
#16 American Pie
Stifler actually drank egg whites in the infamous “pale ale” scene in American Pie. Seann William Scott, who plays the character, revealed on DVD Talk, "I really tried not to think about what it was supposed to be. Every time we did [a] take, I just drank it and pretended it was beer."
Image credits: Universal Pictures
#17 Pitch Perfect
Using a mic that was once covered in fake puke doesn’t sound like a pleasant experience. Shelley Regner, who played the role of Ashley Jones in Pitch Perfect, tweeted to fans, "Fun fact: we used [Anna Camp's] puke mic in all the performance numbers. It wasn't hard to figure out who had the puke mic by the smell."
Image credits: Universal Pictures
#18 The Sandlot
While beef jerky and black licorice are an unusual pairing, both were ingredients of the chewing tobacco seen in The Sandlot carnival scene. Grant Gelt, child actor who played Bertram Grover in the 1993 film, told The Arrow, "They didn't tell us about the licorice, which, looking back, I think was intended to actually make us feel nauseous." Terry Haskell, the film’s prop master and mastermind behind the tobacco, commented, "That was a real tobacco brand, and yep, the black jerky and licorice was me. I absolutely wanted them to feel revolted." The carnival ride the child actors took after the tobacco scene made a few of them feel ill. Tom Guiry, who played Scotty Smalls, remarked to TIME, "We had to go on that ride about 15 times, and I think me, Ham [played by Patrick Renna], and Chauncey [Leopardi] all threw up a few times.
Image credits: 20th Century Fox
#19 Alien: Resurrection
In Alien: Resurrection, Winona Ryder had to conquer her fear of drowning when filming the underwater scene. She showed her determination by completing scuba training before filming. But during filming, she almost drowned due to other complications on the set.
Image credits: 20th Century Fox
#20 Jungle Fever
Actress Halle Berry was truly committed to her role as Vivian in Jungle Fever, so much so, she admitted she “didn’t shower or take a bath for like two weeks.” When Berry appeared on The Rosie O’Donnel show, she remarked, "Nobody said anything to me, but everybody sort of started to keep their distance. It was an experience. That was my attempt at method acting."
Image credits: Universal Pictures
#21 Oldboy
According to Screen Rant, despite being a vegetarian, Choi Min-sik, who played the role of Oh Dae-su, had to stomach a live octopus for a scene in Oldboy. It is reported that he ate four of them while filming.
Image credits: Show East
#22 I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
Do spiders really pee? That’s what we all thought when Jaqueline Jossa, a Season 19 contestant on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!, told Lorraine that a spider urinated in her mouth during the final episode. She mentioned, "It was awful. It was literally dripping in my mouth. Honestly, awful. I couldn't even speak — I wanted to be like, 'Ohh it's weeing in my mouth.”
Image credits: ITV
#23 The Mad Men
Alison Brie, who guest-starred on The Mad Men, was given underwear that resembled biker shorts, sporting a tiny hole for using the toilet. She confessed on the Life is Short podcast, "I didn't know for the first season that you weren't supposed to wear underwear under them because they are underwear...So I'm peeing and not hearing it hit the bowl, and then I just feel warmth. It was full pee... I just dabbed it with a bunch of toilet paper. Because they're waiting on me! I'm not allowed to be that person here... I'm a recurring guest star, I don't want to lose my job."
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Image credits: AMC
