Making a movie is a collaborative process. You can’t make one without a script, of course, but you also can’t make one without actors or producers (or editors or stunt performers, etc., ad nauseam). The actors sometimes write some scenes themselves, especially when given free rein by their directors. In certain cases, the actors improvise lines or moments that eclipse the whole movie. Here are some of the best examples.
‘Avengers: Infinity War’
In between the action set pieces and goofy gags, the MCU doesn’t leave a lot of room for heart-wrenching drama. And yet, when Spider-Man (Tom Holland) fades away in the Snap and tells Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), “I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go. Please, Mr. Stark,” it’s one of the franchise’s saddest moments. Except it almost didn’t happen. Holland added the extra lines on a whim.
‘Bridesmaids’
Annie’s (Kristen Wiig) drug-induced in-flight breakdown in Bridesmaids is one of the movie’s most rewatchable moments (and there are many). Everything from her hesitant entrance to her wacky “I’m ready to partyyyyy” dance is completely improvised. Even her argument with the flight attendant Stove Steve (Mitch Silpa) is made up, as Silpa later attested. Basically, the movie’s director Paul Feig just let Wiig go to town.
‘Saltburn’
There are several intensely disconcerting scenes in Saltburn; that’s kind of its thing. You’ve probably heard about the bathtub scene (even if you never watched the movie). Well, one of the movie’s non-bodily fluid-related scenes – and there are few – is completely improvised. We’re talking about the one where Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) strips down and humps Jacob Elordi’s grave. (His character has a name but do you honestly remember it?) Yes, it’s true. Keoghan had no script in that scene; he just read the signs of his body, like Shakira.
‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’
According to Jamie Lee Curtis, the entire sequence in the Hot Dog Fingers Universe is improvised. The script only told Curtis and Michelle Yeoh that their characters would have hot dogs for fingers in that scene – and that was that. The rest, including the moment where they stroked each other’s faces with their meaty hot dog pinkies, was improvised.
‘Bridesmaids’
Yep, this one’s on here again, because it’s worth mentioning the other great improviser of the Bridesmaids cast: Melissa McCarthy. You may be surprised that many of the scenes that catapulted McCarthy to stardom were made up on the spot, such as the one where she harasses Air Marshall Jon (Ben Falcone) in the airplane hallway. In the original script, McCarthy was just supposed to ask, “Wanna go back in that restroom and not rest?” But her director Feig knew she had a creative mind, and let her invent the subsequent scene where she introduces Jon to the “steam heat” from her “undercarriage.”
‘Little Women’
One of the loveliest moments in Little Women is when Laurie (Timothée Chalamet) declares his love for Jo (Saoirse Ronan) on the hill. She immediately launches into a list of all the reasons why she shouldn’t. But in the original script, Laurie is meant to deliver the speech uninterrupted. Chalamet, however, continues to say “I love you” during her speech, cementing his role as a hopeless romantic and making this scene even more affecting.
‘The Empire Strikes Back’
This Star Wars movie’s most perfect character moment is when Leia (Carrie Fisher) tells Han (Harrison Ford) she loves him, and he simply replies, “I know.” Then he leaves to be frozen in carbonite. It’s a perfect distillation of his debonair, rakish charm. It’s also completely improvised. Ford was originally supposed to respond with, “Just remember that, ‘cause I’ll be back,” which is much more clunky.
‘The Shining’
Even if you haven’t seen this 1980 horror classic, you’ve probably seen an image of Jack Nicholson flashing an unhinged smile from the other side of a door frame. Well, in the movie, he’s also screaming, “Here’s Johnny” at this moment, in an improvised reference to the TV host Johnny Carson. Nowadays, it’s one of the movie’s most quoted lines.
‘Dazed and Confused’
No matter how hard he tries, Matthew McConaughey simply can’t disassociate himself from the phrase, “Alright, alright, alright.” The ironic part is that he did it to himself. The iconic phrase wasn’t part of the original shooting script for 1993’s teen comedy Dazed and Confused. McConaughey – in a star-making moment – came up with it himself.
‘Good Will Hunting’
Robin Williams was famous for his tendency to improvise on set, and he injected life into many movie scripts. While we could have put him on here for any of his Genie scenes in Aladdin, we’re choosing instead to mention his big improv moment in Good Will Hunting. In this 1997 movie about Matt Damon’s character, Will Hunting, seeking self-fulfillment, Williams’ character tells a hilarious and deeply moving story about his late wife waking herself up with her own farts. Williams’ story – and Damon’s uncontrolled laughter – were created on the spot.
‘Pretty Woman’
It may be surprising to know that this 1990 movie’s most referenced scene is a product of foul play. Well, sort of. In the movie, Richard Gere’s character presents Julia Roberts’ “hooker with a heart of gold” with a gorgeous necklace, only to slap the box closed and scare her, inducing hysterical laughter. The moment, which made audiences swoon for Roberts’ infectious smile, is iconic. It has also been parodied numerous times, perhaps most hilariously on Arrested Development. But Gere actually closed the box as a joke because he was feeling bored on set that day. It was never even part of the script.
‘A Few Good Men’
Whether or not you are familiar with this 1992 courtroom drama about naughty Marines, you have probably heard someone scream, “You can’t handle the truth.” That line is one of the most iconic lines of film history, and – yep, you guessed it – it’s another improv. Jack Nicholson made up this one on set, too. The man isn’t a legend for nothing.
‘The Godfather’
Speaking of famous quotes, you have probably come across the phrase “bada-bing, bada-boom” in your life. And while this phrase was first popularized before the 1972 crime classic The Godfather came out, the movie arguably made it even more famous. In an unscripted moment, James Caan’s Sonny Corleone deployed the phrase while describing how to shoot a man. The phrase is now nearly inseparable from popular imagery of mobsters.
‘Taxi Driver’
In the case of 1976’s Taxi Driver, the movie’s famous improv moment was directly encouraged by the director. In the shooting script, Robert De Niro’s character was meant to “[talk] to himself in the mirror” in one scene. But the movie’s director Martin Scorsese trusted De Niro to know his character – the angry incel Travis Bickle – and let him shine. That’s how De Niro’s oft-parodied, frequently quoted “You talkin’ to me” came to be.
