For those of us who aren’t famous Hollywood actors or filmmakers, it can be fascinating to glimpse what really goes on behind the scenes of movie and TV productions. Did the comedic co-stars really get along backstage? Were there actual sparks flying off-screen between the two leads with the strong on-screen chemistry?
While we usually can’t know for sure, film extras, interviews, memoirs, and even social media can sometimes give us further insight into the on-set dynamics, as actors share (or sometimes overshare) stories and tidbits from their productions. Sometimes they dish on awkward moments or the vibe between cast members, other times they share funny stories that are even more entertaining than the movie they made. In this case, these stories went against what we would have expected.
Vote up the behind-the-scenes stories that make you say, “Seriously?”
-
-
- Photo:
- The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
- ABC
1When Kurt Russell Was 12, Charles Bronson Rode Skateboards With Him On-Set
As a child actor, Kurt Russell appeared in the early-1960s Western TV series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters. The show ran for a single season; Charles Bronson, who had already earned fame for his role in The Magnificent Seven, came on board for the second half of that season.
Bronson’s reputation as a difficult actor to work with preceded him onto the McPheeters set. Speaking to Jimmy Kimmel, Russell recalled how he was able to break the ice with this intimidating character:
I heard it was his birthday… So I think I got him a remote-controlled airplane. And I came to the set with it and I gave it to him, and he just kinda looked at me and then he looked at the ground and then he walked away…
[A] few minutes later, the assistant director said, “Charlie wants to see you in his room.” So I knocked on the door and he opened the door and he looked at me… [He] said, “Uh, nobody ever really got me a present before for my birthday”…
Later on, when it was my birthday… he knew that I liked skateboarding, and he got me these fantastic skateboards for himself and myself for my birthday. And he started skateboarding…
When a studio employee told Russell he would not be able to skateboard on the lot anymore, Bronson set things straight, as Russell recalled:
We went up to, I think it was the head of the studio, and we just walked by the secretary, and just walked in, and he said, “Hi, we’re gonna be skateboarding around the lot.”
What do you think?Surprising set story? - Photo:
-
-
- Photo:
2Mel Brooks Almost Got Into A Fistfight With Gene Wilder Over A Scene In ‘Young Frankenstein’
Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks had one of those amazing star/director collaborations. The two first worked together on 1967’s The Producers. Then, in 1974, they re-teamed for the classic satirical Western Blazing Saddles. That same year, they delivered another classic, Young Frankenstein. Everything they touched together turned to gold, so it’s no wonder Brooks called Wilder “a wonderful part of my life.”
According to the filmmaker and director, the men only ever had one fight, and it nearly came to blows. During the writing of Young Frankenstein, Wilder thought it would be funny to include a scene in which his character, Dr. Frankenstein, does a song-and-dance number with the monster he created. It would show how extraordinary his creation is, Wilder argued. Brooks thought the idea was funny, but not in line with the film’s overall tone. As he explained:
We fought and we fought. Our tempers rose and we almost got into a fistfight over it. Then Gene calmed me down and he said, “OK. Do me a favor. Film it and we’ll take a look at it. If it doesn’t work, I promise we’ll throw it out.”
The scene worked, going on to become a beloved movie moment. “I have never been so wrong in my life,” Brooks reflected.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
3Keanu Reeves Refused To Hurl Insults At Winona Ryder On The Set Of ‘Dracula’
In addition to his long career in film, Keanu Reeves has a long-held reputation for being a nice guy. His co-star on the set of Dracula, Winona Ryder, confirmed this reputation was deserved by sharing a personal story of her experience working with Reeves.
She told The Sunday Times that while on-set, director Francis Ford Coppola felt she wasn’t crying enough during one of the scenes. To make Ryder cry more, Coppola told her co-stars, one of which was Reeves, to insult her. Coppola led the group by yelling derogatory insults at Ryder:
To put it in context I’m supposed to be crying. Literally, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu… Francis was trying to get all of them to yell things that would make me cry, but Keanu wouldn’t, Anthony wouldn’t… It just didn’t work.
The film led to Reeves and Ryder becoming close friends and still staying in touch decades later. Ryder will jokingly refer to Reeves as her husband, as there was a marital scene in the film that seemed a little too real. As she explained:
I swear to god I think we’re married in real life… In that scene, Francis [Ford Coppola] used a real Romanian priest. We shot the master and he did the whole thing. So I think we’re married.
Reeves said that “Once in a while, I will get a text [from Ryder]: ‘Hello, husband.’”
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
4Betty White Turned Down Hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ Three Times Before Finally Embracing It
Producer Lorne Michaels said he tried to get Betty White to appear on Saturday Night Live three times from the 1970s through the ’90s to no avail, so he eventually stopped asking. But in 2010, after a Facebook petition gained momentum urging the show to have White as a host, her longtime friend and agent Jeff Witjas persuaded her to do the gig.
It was one of the most incredible experiences – it truly, truly was… Betty didn’t really want to go to New York to do it, but I said to her, “You have to do it.” I mean, how could she not? And she trusted me…
I got tired watching her… It was hilarious watching her in rehearsals go from one clothing change to another, because you have to do it within minutes, you can’t take your time… But she loved it. She got into it, she embraced it, and they were great to her…
It was one of the greatest weeks that Betty had, and that I had with her… When we were flying home on that Sunday on the plane together, she said to me, “Thank you. It was fabulous.” And as a friend and an agent, that was the best thing she could have said.
Former cast member Seth Meyers recalled White’s appearance on the show after her passing, tweeting:
RIP Betty White, the only SNL host I ever saw get a standing ovation at the after-party. A party at which she ordered a vodka and a hot dog and stayed til the bitter end.
Tina Fey also remembered White’s unconventional diet while working on the show, saying:
I love Betty… She would go home every night to the hotel, and [I’d ask], “How was your night?” She was like, “Oh it was good, I had a vodka and a cold hot dog.” I was like, that’s the secret, I guess.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
- ABC Television
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
5Paul Newman Didn’t Want The Movie Star Treatment
Paul Newman was an accomplished actor and director with a career that spanned more than five decades. He won numerous acting awards and even co-founded Newman’s Own, a food company that still operates today and gives part of its profits to charity. Despite his immense fame and fortune, Newman was a humble man and didn’t want to be treated differently from any other person.
Film director Sam Mendes shared his awe at working with Newman:
What struck you about Paul were his similarities to other actors, because he demanded to be treated like everyone else. He had no stock at all for any kind of star treatment. I’d try to delay calling him to the set, and he’d come down on his own and be like, “Why don’t you call me earlier? This is where all the fun is! I’m just sitting around in my trailer!”
Speaking of which, you can always tell how much work an actor really wants to do by the size and style of their trailers. Some actors have vast trailers full of scented candles and a chef who offers them two choices for lunch. Paul’s trailer, on the other hand, was completely empty! There was literally nothing in it at all. He had absolutely no interest in being in the trailer. He wanted to work. That’s what I remember – he was just there. It was just him and his script. And also he didn’t travel with any assistants… no driver or trainer, no entourage at all… He spent most of his life trying to stop people from treating him like Paul Newman…
You’re used to editing your thoughts about people – even the nicest ones – but there’s no need with Paul. There’s no such thing as a bad memory. He used to walk on his hands, by the way. He was 76 years old, and I walked into the room twice when he was walking on his hands. He was entertaining the kids on set, the two boys in the movie with whom he had sort of an eccentric, fatherly relationship. He was immediately drawn to them. He had to make them laugh.
A renowned actor, director, and philanthropist, Newman was apparently a man of many talents – including walking on his hands – and his humble nature only served to make him even more fondly remembered.
Surprising set story? - Photo:
-
- Photo:
6Tom Hanks Was Intimidated By Clint Eastwood And Playing A Real-Life Person In ‘Sully’
Although exhausted from other work, Tom Hanks said he loved Sully‘s storyline and wanted the chance to work with Clint Eastwood:
Sometimes you read something that is so stirring and at the same time so simple, such a perfect blend of behavior and procedure… I knew I wanted at least a shot at it, even though I’d been working pretty steadily for about six years. Sure I was beat, but not unlike a solid jolt of adrenaline, this role, Sully, Mr. Clint Eastwood… they all came along. I felt like I couldn’t pass up a chance at playing in this great double-header at the end of this long baseball season.
But once Hanks arrived on set, he found Eastwood and the pressure to play a real person incredibly intimidating:
You certainly don’t want one of those Eastwood looks… He treats his actors like horses because when he did the ’60s series Rawhide the director would shout “Action!” and all the horses bolted. So when he’s in charge he says in a really quiet soft voice, “All right, go ahead,” and instead of shouting, “Cut!” he says, “That’s enough of that.” It’s intimidating as hell!…
You’re always intimidated [to play a real person]. You say to yourself, “I’ll never sound like him [Captain Chesley ”Sully” Sullenberger]. I’ll never look like him. Hopefully I can embody some aspect, capture some part of his personality, his characteristics, his gravitas, his charm,” whomever the person may be. And then you go to work.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
7The Eye Surgery In ‘A Clockwork Orange’ Was A Little Too Real For Malcom McDowell
A Clockwork Orange was tied to so many real-life crimes that at one point, director Stanley Kubrick even asked that cinemas remove it from their theaters. The film’s star, Malcolm McDowell, got so many death threats after the premiere that he became a recluse in need of constant protection from bodyguards. He recalled one gruesome scene as being particularly disturbing to film:
[Kubrick] showed me a picture of this [eye surgery] and I went “Oh yeah? Wow…” He goes, “What do you think?” “What do you mean what do I think? It’s an eye operation going on.” He said: “I’d like you to do that.” I went: “What? There’s no way!” But he already had a doctor from Moorfields [Eye Hospital, in London] coming over to talk to me about it. And of course this doctor comes over and he’s the guy in the movie. “You’ll have no problem, your eyes will be anesthetized,” he said. “You won’t feel a thing.” Well, famous last words. That wasn’t exactly accurate…
So they scratch my corneas and then a week later [Kubrick] says: “I’ve seen all the stuff, and it’s great, but I need a real close-up of the eye.” And I went: “Well, why don’t you do it on the stunt double? That’s what he gets paid for.” “Malcolm, your eyes are… I can’t do that.” So I had to go back in and do it again!
However, the actor says that the horrific scenes displayed in the film aren’t nearly as extreme as another film:
For the first 10 years after I made it I resented it… Then I came to the realization that it was a masterwork, and I was very, very much part of it. You may as well just accept it and enjoy it…
Of course it’s psychologically disturbing but I’d just seen Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch… where everything is mass shootings in slow motion. Brilliant. Compared to [that], it’s a Disney movie.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
8Tom Hanks Did Not Get Along Well With The First Child Actor On ‘Sleepless In Seattle’
Tom Hanks admitted he was hard to work with while filming the 1993 rom-com Sleepless in Seattle. The actor had just come off the set of another of his hits, A League of Their Own, and felt he was accomplished enough to complain about his original youthful co-star, Nathan Watt:
I was an extremely cranky actor at that time, coming in and saying, “Why does the kid have so many good lines?” I had made enough movies to get smoked on a couple of occasions as well as thinking that I was a big shot and “My voice must be heard.”
According to rumors on set, Hanks was ultimately responsible for having Watt fired, due to complaining about how annoying the child was on set. He was replaced by Ross Malinger.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
9The Romantic Scenes Between Christina Ricci And Johnny Depp Were A Bit Awkward In ‘Sleepy Hollow’
After Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp made Sleepy Hollow together in 1999, rumors swirled that they were a couple. In reality, they had known each other since Ricci was quite young, and anything romantic between them was pretty awkward. As Depp explained:
I met Christina when she was nine years old and when you have to regard that person you met at the age of nine as a love interest it’s a little [uncomfortable]. Working on Sleepy Hollow we gradually allowed ourselves to get to the stage where it wasn’t so… twisted.
Ricci had more to say when she and Depp were paired up for The Man Who Cried:
It was a little weird… Anytime you’re rooting around like two pigs in front of 20 men or women on a set, it’s kind of bizarre, especially with someone you met when you were 9 and he was 27. But we get along so well that we could both laugh it off and say, “This is really irritating.”
Even with that, she didn’t hate it when people linked her to Depp romantically:
It was awesome – my first tabloid story. If you’re going to have a tabloid story written about you, it might as well be with Johnny Depp.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
- Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
- Warner Bros.
10Brad Pitt Called Pinewood Studios ‘This Cauldron, This Mausoleum’
Brad Pitt scored numerous high-profile acting roles throughout the 1990s, but Interview with the Vampire made him a household name. He followed that up with roles in Seven, 12 Monkeys, and Fight Club (among others), so it’s fair to say the movie opened many doors for the actor.
Interview was shot in several places, mainly New Orleans and London. Working in New Orleans wasn’t the worst thing Pitt had to do, and he credits it with birthing his “love affair” with the city. Ultimately, it was London he didn’t enjoy – more specifically, Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, which he described to Entertainment Weekly as follows:
London was f**king dark. London was dead of winter. We’re shooting in Pinewood, which is an old institution – all the James Bond films. There’s no windows in there. It hasn’t been refabbed in decades. You leave for work in the dark – you go into this cauldron, this mausoleum – and then you come out and it’s dark.
I’m telling you, one day it broke me. It was like, “Life’s too short for this quality of life.” I called David Geffen, who was a good friend. He was a producer, and he’d just come to visit. I said, “David, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t do it. What will it cost me to get out?” And he goes, very calmly, “Forty million dollars.” And I go, “OK, thank you.” It actually took the anxiety off of me. I was like, “I’ve got to man up and ride this through, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Surprising set story? - Photo:
-
-
- Photo:
11Noel Marshall’s Film ‘Roar’ Was A Horror To Shoot And Caused Numerous Injuries To The Cast And Crew
If you haven’t heard of Noel Marshall’s 1981 film Roar, that’s because it wasn’t released in the US until 2015. Even now, it’s only available through the indie Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, although a documentary about the film is now available to stream as well.
The movie, often called the most dangerous one made in history, follows Marshall’s character Hank as he lives with and studies a group of lions, tigers, panthers, and other animals. The cast includes Tippi Hedren as Marshall’s wife Madeleine, Melanie Griffith (Hedren’s real-life daughter) as the couple’s daughter Melanie, and Marshall’s real-life sons John and Jerry as the couple’s sons.
Hedren, who was married to Marshall at the time, wrote about the Roar experience in her autobiography, including the fact that she and Marshall bought land in California to house all the animals and film parts of the movie:
Our lions, tigers, elephant, leopards, and panthers (actually leopards in black coats rather than spotted ones) were joined by a few cougars…
[We had] 132 big cats, one elephant, three aoudad sheep, and a collection of ostriches, flamingos, marabou, storks, and black swans.
Nearly every cast member met with some animal-related injury. Griffith needed surgery to save her eyesight after being mauled. Cinematographer Jan de Bont’s scalp got ripped off, resulting in 120 stitches. Marshall himself contracted blood poisoning and Hedren suffered gangrene that required skin grafts. Despite that, she said she was “into it every bit as much as he [Marshall] was.”
Marshall’s son John, however, had a different take: “Dad was a f*cking a**hole to do that to his family.” John said the production (which took 11 years) left him with nightmares, but still says the experience was “amazing” to live through.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
12Woody Harrelson Got A Little Too Method For An ‘Indecent Proposal’ Scene
Director Adrian Lyne sparked national controversy with his plot for Indecent Proposal, prompting audiences with a simple question: If someone offered $1 million to sleep with your spouse, would you take the money?
The film was the topic of national discussion for months, as religious groups fought the immoral storyline and feminists lamented that the film made women seem like chattel. But while everyone else was caught up in the hypothetical moral dilemma, Woody Harrelson’s concerns at the time were much more personal:
I’m close friends with [co-star] Demi [Moore] and with Demi’s husband [then Bruce Willis]. You have to draw the line at how far to go, and I’m not good at drawing lines. I like to be lineless, without boundaries. The scene was flesh and flesh coming together. I don’t know if Demi was turned on, but me… But you have to think of what the repercussions will be. I don’t want Bruce coming after me.
To ensure he was playing the most authentic version of his character, Harrelson also got heavily intoxicated before filming one of his scenes. However, things didn’t go as the actor hoped:
There’s a scene where I’m supposed to be really smashed… and I got smashed. It was the scene where I’m supposed to challenge Robert Redford’s character and I was not at my best…
There are those people that act and they need to be whatever it is, but I find the main thing you need to be is relaxed. If you’re playing something very tense, you need to be relaxed underneath of it. So I wasn’t relaxed when I was drunk, I was terrified and I was like, “There’s cameras rolling and I’m smashed, Robert Redford’s there.” It was bad.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
13Shia LaBeouf Went Months Without Showering, Got A Tooth Pulled, Cut Himself With A Knife, And Converted To Christianity During ‘Fury’
In preparing to film the WWII film Fury, in which he portrayed tank gunner Boyd “Bible” Swan, Shia LaBeouf went to the extreme:
So the day after I got the job, I joined the US National Guard. I was baptized – accepted Christ in my heart – tattooed my surrender and became a chaplain’s assistant to Captain Yates for the 41st Infantry. I spent a month living on a forward operating base. Then I linked up with my cast and went to Fort Irwin. I pulled my tooth out, knifed my face up and spent days watching horses die. I didn’t bathe for four months. I met some tankers who told me that was just the way it was out there – some guys had the same pair of socks on for three years.
Logan Lerman, who played tank assistant driver/bow gunner Norman “Machine” Ellison, supports the stories about his eccentric co-star:
Then he walks out into the hallway and says, “Hey man, wanna see something fun? Check this out…” and he takes out a knife and cuts his face. And for the whole movie he kept opening these cuts on his face. That’s all real.
I mean, he didn’t do [the tooth extraction] himself, he did go to a dentist and asked them to pull his tooth out but yeah, what an odd request.
He really spent every moment on that set. He’s the guy operating the turret in every shot, even when you don’t need to be in there as an actor. You know, you can have somebody else inside. But he was there, for every shot.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
14Bob Hoskins Called ‘Super Mario Bros.’ A ‘F*ckin’ Nightmare’
Bob Hoskins did not enjoy making 1993’s Super Mario Bros. During the production, he was stabbed four times, nearly drowned, electrocuted, and broke a finger.
According to co-star John Leguizamo, nobody involved in the film remembers it fondly. In his autobiography, Leguizamo writes that he and Hoskins would drink Scotch between takes just to get through the days (which resulted in the aforesaid broken finger when Leguizamo drunkenly crashed the Mario brothers’ van).
In 2007, Hoskins told the Guardian that Super Mario Bros. was the worst film he ever made:
It was a f*ckin’ nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! F*ckin’ nightmare. F*ckin’ idiots.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
- Hancock
- Sony Pictures Releasing
15Charlize Theron Said She And Will Smith ‘Fell Madly In Love’ With Each Other
Will Smith had the opportunity to work with Charlize Theron on two films, beginning with 2000’s The Legend of Bagger Vance and then in 2008’s Hancock. In the latter, they both played supernatural beings whose love for each other made them vulnerable – with some superhero shenanigans, a lot of liquor, and plenty of fighting thrown into the mix.
After they shared the screen twice, Theron spoke about her time in the spotlight with Smith:
We didn’t get the chance to work that much together, and yet it took us all of about five minutes to really fall madly in love with each other. We just hit it off instantly and were always messing around. There was something about me and him. We’re very similar people.
Theron described their relationship as a “brother and sister” kind of vibe.
Surprising set story? - Photo:
-
- Photo:
16Director Terry Gilliam Said Bruce Willis Seemed ‘Like A Kid’ On The Set Of ’12 Monkeys’
12 Monkeys (1995) is often remembered for Brad Pitt’s breakthrough performance (and first Academy Award nomination). Director Terry Gilliam talked about the pressure to get a more well-known (at the time) star cast in his sci-fi flick, eventually going with Bruce Willis, even though he had some reservations:
I had never been a great fan of Bruce’s before, but I liked talking to him, and I thought, “Okay, this guy’s smart; he’s funny.”
Gilliam then described Willis’s behavior on set:
Bruce was trying incredibly hard to just be an actor at work, but he had been spoiled by success for so long. So he was in many ways like a kid who was pushing the limits constantly and then coming up with stupid excuses for being late on the set. There was one point he had something that looked like a note from his mother. We let Bruce go away for a long weekend and he came back and suddenly he was Bruce Willis Superstar again.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
17Filming ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ Blurred Reality Vs. Pretend For Nicole Kidman And Tom Cruise
In 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut, then-married couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman sparked controversy because of its plot line and a notorious sex scene that Warner Brothers had to digitally obscure to keep the film at an R rating.
The film depicted a couple who had marriage troubles battling jealousy and infidelity. Notoriously demanding director Stanley Kubrick forced the actors to immerse themselves so entirely in the process that they sometimes had difficulty separating their on-screen relationship and their real lives. Kubrick often kept them separated during filming and prodded them to share their deepest relationship fears to stir their emotions before a scene. Kidman recalled:
Tom would hear things that he didn’t want to hear… It wasn’t like therapy, because you didn’t have anyone to say, “And how do you feel about that?” It was honest, and brutally honest at times… As an actor, you set up: there’s reality, and there’s pretend, and those lines get crossed, and it happens when you’re working with a director that allows that to happen. It’s a very exciting thing to happen; it’s a very dangerous thing to happen.
According to Vanity Fair, to get Cruise in the mindset of a jealous husband, Kubrick once had Kidman shoot six days of sex scenes with a male model for a one-minute scene, not allowing Cruise on-set or Kidman to discuss the shoot with him. Kubrick also reportedly filmed 95 takes of Cruise walking through a door; he reportedly ended up with an ulcer afterward. While Cruise has defended the film, he did admit:
I didn’t like playing Dr. Bill. I didn’t like him. It was unpleasant… But I would have absolutely kicked myself if I hadn’t done this.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
18David Schwimmer Wished Death On The ‘Friends’ Monkey
”I hate the monkey. I wish it were dead,” David Schwimmer said in 1995 about one of the capuchins that played Marcel in Friends. ”The trainers won’t let me bond with it. They’re really, really possessive. It’s like, ‘Land on your marks, do your job, don’t touch or bond with the monkey.’ It’s a bummer.”
He wasn’t exaggerating. At a Friends reunion 25 years later, Schwimmer was still bellyaching about the monkey business:
Here is my problem: The monkey, obviously, was trained. It had to hit its mark and do its thing right at the perfect time. What inevitably began to happen was we would all have choreographed bits kind of timed out, and it would get messed up because the monkey didn’t do its job right. So we would have to reset, we’d have to go again, because the monkey didn’t get it right.
While trainer Mike Morris admitted that he did discourage monkey-human camaraderie (“An actor is a prop to the monkey and has to work with that prop”), he thinks Schwimmer was jealous of the attention paid to his non-human co-star:
Schwimmer was fine with the monkeys for the first couple of episodes and happy to be there. But people would laugh at the monkey and I think he got jealous because it wasn’t him getting the laughs.
Surprising set story? -
- Photo:
- American Made
- Universal Pictures
19All Tom Cruise Wanted For His Birthday Was An Eight-Hour Meeting
Directors are often known for being tough on actors. But when Tom Cruise is in your movie, it might be a bit of a role reversal. Director Doug Liman, who worked with Cruise on Edge of Tomorrow and American Made, found his star’s work ethic to be a bit much, even for him:
I lived with Tom when we made American Made… When you work with Tom, it’s a seven-days-a-week job. No matter how hard a worker you are, and I consider myself that, it’s nothing compared to Tom.
After 40 or 50 straight days, we were coming up on July 4 weekend. It happens his birthday is July 3 and I’m thinking that since his birthday happened to fall on a holiday, maybe Tom will want to have a long weekend off to celebrate his birthday somewhere. I mention to Tom, “Are you thinking of going away for your birthday?” Tom says, “No. I was thinking since we have the day off on July 3, we can use that time to have the eight-hour aviation meeting that we’ve been having trouble scheduling.” I am beyond tired and I’m like, “You want to have an eight-hour meeting on your birthday?” He said, “Yes, that’s what I want for my birthday. I want to be making a movie. That’s the best birthday present.” There was no blowing out candles, either.
Surprising set story? - Photo:
-
- Photo:
20Rob Lowe Said Tom Cruise Didn’t Want To Share A Room On ‘The Outsiders’
Accordingly to Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise was acting like a movie star well before he actually became one. He had only appeared in two feature films when he came in for a final round of New York auditions for a role in the 1983 coming-of-age film The Outsiders.
Lowe was also a young actor starting out at the time, and wrote about checking into the Plaza Hotel for the audition in his memoir, Stories I Only Tell My Friends:
I am taken aback at the luxury and spectacle of the lobby. Last time I was in New York, Dad and I stayed at the Sheraton. The front desk tells us we will be sharing rooms. In a flash, Cruise is on the phone to his agent, Paula Wagner. “Paula, they are making us share,” he says. He is certain that this is not right and wants it fixed A.S.A.P. The rest of us are staggering around like happy goofs, but this guy’s already showing traits that will make him famous; he’s zeroed in like a laser – all business and very intense. “OK, then. Thank you very much,” he says like a 50-year-old businessman getting off the phone with his stockbroker. “Paula says it’s fine.”
Lowe again laughingly discussed the incident during an appearance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast:
…We check in and Tom finds out that we’re sharing a room and just goes ballistic… To me, what’s great about the story is, there’s certain people who have always been who they are, and that element of them has powered them to where they are today and the rest is history. And the notion that an 18-year-old actor with a walk-on part in Endless Love and, like, a seventh lead in Taps could have that kind of like wherewithal. I remember going, “Wow, this guy is the real deal.” I mean it made me laugh – it was gnarly. But in the end of it, you can’t argue with the results. He’s had his eye on the ball since day one.
Surprising set story?