10 – I Don’t Care – The Fugitive
• Another improv involving Harrison Ford but this time he is on the receiving end from Tommy Lee Jones’ tough as nails US Marshall
• As Ford appears trapped on the ledge of a dam he has his first confrontation with his hunter, pleading with him that he didn’t kill his wife. Jones’ ice cold response of ‘I don’t care’ helped to define the actor as a hard man of the 90’s.
• The line though was totally unscripted and originally said “that isn’t my problem” which is nowhere near as intimidating as Jones stone cold badass adlib
9 – Here’s looking at you kid – Casablanca
• Yes even in the old Hollywood days of the 1940’s actors had the opportunity to input awesome moments.
• The line that was never in the script was actually an inside joke between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman that apparently originated while they were playing poker on set. For some reason Bogart added it in and a legendary line was born.
• Oh and “play it again, Sam” is actually never said in the film so next time someone quotes it you can feel pompous by correcting those film newbs
8 – The Hiss – Silence of the Lambs
• The world’s most iconic cannibal, Hannibal Lector made his most famous appearance here played by the great Anthony Hopkins.
• Hopkins plays the character will a cool collected intellectual façade over a psychotic murderer. In a key scene where Lector describes how he ate a man’s liver the man-eater lets out a psychotic slobbering hiss that became an instant quote that people would say when they left the cinema.
• But while audiences found it creepy on set it was hilarious. Hopkins added the hiss in as a joke way to creep out Jodie Foster and well it worked really well, so well that we are sure it’s what got Hopkins his Oscar.
7 – Hey I’m walking here! – Midnight Cowboy
• Great improve is the type of improv that almost kills you, the type between genius timing and horrible accident. That’s the case with classic Midnight Cowboy.
• When Dustin Hoffman is almost run over by a cab while walking across the street he lets out the awesome insult at the impatient taxi driver. But not a single part of it was planned…other than the crossing the street part that is
• Turns out a real cab driver somehow got onto the closed street and almost ran over the movie star. The line is Hoffman’s actual reaction to almost being killed on film.
6 –Funny how? – Goodfellas
• Before he was getting mutilated by Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci was able to put out some dark and violent performances but with still keeping his comedic edge, best represented in Goodfellas.
• The intense moment that causes Ray Liotta to look like he’s about to shit his pants was actually based on a real event that Pesci had experienced when he called a real life gangster funny when he worked as a waiter in his youth.
• Scorsese had been told the story by Pesci and got him to improv the scene creating a truly menacing moment that perfectly sums up the volatile character. Who thought someone so tiny could be so pants wettingly scary.
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