# Keeping it real in the movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2002, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266 "2002-09-30T16:31:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/21 "2002-10-01T16:09:52Z")
Did Catherine Breillat’s “Romance” (1999) feature actual sex between two of the principals? Rocco Siffredi was in it but that doesn’t necessarily mean for-real ugly-bumping. ---
**Author:** ![yanx4ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/85e7bf/32.png) [@yanx4ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanx4ever)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/22 "2002-10-01T16:36:33Z")
In Gone With the Wind, Olivia DeHavilland really was completely nude for the scene in which they had to clean up the blood of the dead Union soldier with her clothes. Quite daring for 1939. I believe it was in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane that Bette Davis actually had to carry Joan Crawford, who played an invalid (no stuntwoman for Bette). Since the two despised each other, Joan secreted lead weights under her clothes to make it more difficult for Bette. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/23 "2002-10-01T16:42:37Z")
Did I really say Little Nell? Apparently I did. My memory used to be a more reliable database. Thanks, **Walloon** , for correcting me at such length. I’m usually on the other end of such posts; now I know how annoying it is to be on the receiving end. I should mention the Japanese movie _In the Realm of the Senses_, which I just got on DVD. This includes, definitely, actual coitus and fellatio, not to mention a close-up of an egg being inserted into the lead actress’ vagina. Rather amazing, given that (as I understand it) in Japan even the movies meant to be porn don’t show genitals. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/24 "2002-10-01T16:59:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yanx4ever \* > \*\*In Gone With the Wind, Olivia DeHavilland really was completely nude for the scene in which they had to clean up the blood of the dead Union soldier with her clothes. Quite daring for 1939. \*\* No. You can see the swimsuit that Olivia de Havilland is wearing, even without freezing the frames. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/25 "2002-10-01T17:04:34Z")
John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara…I can’t remember the movie. She was talking about it on AFI’s countdown of the top 100 romantic movies. Anyway, in the scene, Maureen’s character is supposed to slap John Wayne’s face. Well, she was pissed off at the Duke about something, and really went to slug him. She said he saw something in her eyes, and went to block her hand. She ended up breaking a bone in her finger. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/26 "2002-10-01T18:06:09Z")
I heard that John de Lancie as Q was nude in the ST:NG episode where he loses his powers. They couldn’t figure out how to get the shot right with him wearing a thong or whatever, so he did it nude. ---
**Author:** ![Gundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Gundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gundy)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/27 "2002-10-01T18:58:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ivylass \* > \*\*Anyway, in the scene, Maureen’s character is supposed to slap John Wayne’s face. Well, she was pissed off at the Duke about something, and really went to slug him. She said he saw something in her eyes, and went to block her hand. She ended up breaking a bone in her finger. \*\* Mighta been _The Quiet Man_ or _McClintock!_. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/28 "2002-10-01T19:00:58Z")
Rather than continue to hijack **Beelrix** ’s thread, I’ve opened a new thread about having sex on camera [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=137584). ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/29 "2002-10-01T20:23:19Z")
The Quiet Man sounds right. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/30 "2002-10-02T12:57:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\* > > No. You can see the swimsuit that Olivia de Havilland is wearing, even without freezing the frames. \*\* In those days, that _was_ nude! ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/31 "2002-10-02T19:34:48Z")
Stay Tuned(I think that was the title)- John Ritter is a couch potato sucked into Satan’s cable system and pursued by a Diabolical network executive(Jeffrey Jones). ``` One of the scenes occurs in a cowboy film. Ritter opens a saloon door, and it falls off in his hand. He looks embarrassed, checks to see if anybody saw it happen, and gingerly props the door up against the wall. Ritter himself said that it was not in the script. The door wasn't supposed to fall off. But comedy is comedy. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/32 "2002-10-02T20:12:49Z")
A classic: In _It’s a Wonderful Life_, when George is crying in Martini’s bar. It was shot as a wide field, but the crying was so good that they went through it frame by frame to blow it up into a closeup. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/33 "2002-10-03T07:23:19Z")
In _1941_ there was a scene where John Belushi, as Wild Bill Kelso, starts ranting at a bunch of paranoid soldiers while standing on the wing of his P-40. Belushi walked towards the front of the wing, and his foot slipped over the front and he did a perfect swan dive onto his head onto concrete from about 8ft in the air. They left it in the movie, and it’s now one of the more memorable scenes. ---
**Author:** ![Skip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/34 "2002-10-03T10:11:21Z")
In Blade Runner, there’s a scene where Pris (Daryl Hannah) meets J.S. Sebastian outside his apartment. She runs off, skids on the wet pavement and hits a parked car smashing it’s window. In an interview I read, Daryl says the collision was unscripted and she actually chipped the bone in her elbow hitting the car. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/35 "2002-10-03T10:54:12Z")
In **Attack of the Killer Tomatoes** there is a helicopter crash early on which was unscripted and remains in the film ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/36 "2002-10-03T12:01:54Z")
In THE GRADUATE, director Mike Nichols and Dustin Hoffman arrange for him to touch Anne Bancroft’s (clothed) breast when she wasn’t expecting it, and her response (and Hoffman’s own emotional and out-of-character response) was left in the movie. [http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/8200/quotes.htm](http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/8200/quotes.htm) ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/37 "2002-10-03T12:08:02Z")
If I was being coy above, Hoffman’s response was to bang his head against the wall in embarrassment, which Nichols turned into the character Ben’s (unscripted) embarrassment. ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/38 "2002-10-04T07:21:07Z")
I don’t know if this counts, but in _Seven_, Brad Pitt really did mess up his hand. He fell on a car windshield during a take. They worked it into the script. And in \*Fight Club[/]i, when Ed Norton and Brad Pitt are hitting golf balls, they really are drunk and the thud you hear is the golf balls hitting the catering truck. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/39 "2002-10-04T13:58:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cervaise \* > **When McClane (the hero, if you don’t remember) climbs into the vertical venting shaft, wedging the assault rifle across the opening to hold him in place, the script called for him to lean across the shaft, leap slightly, grab the lip of the other hole, and climb into that airvent. However, when filming the stunt, the stunt guy leaped across and _missed_, plummeting down twenty or thirty feet into the bag or boxes or whatever safety pad was at the bottom. It looked cool enough that they went back and shot the closeups of the shoulder strap sliding through and out of the buckle, and picked up Bruce Willis looking more freaked-out than usual when he caught the other opening a few floors below. (Even though it makes absolutely no sense that somebody would bounce away from a vent and curve back in midair to be able to catch the next one.)** I wonder if this is why Die Hard 2 is full of physical impossibilities. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266/40 "2002-10-04T14:24:24Z")
Eva Marie Saint really dropped her glove while shooting _On the Waterfront_, and Marlon Brando improvised the rest of the now-famous “glove scene”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-it-real-in-the-movies/130266.md?page=3)