12 Interesting Behind-the-Scenes Stories of Iconic Movies

The world of movies is truly fascinating, and it’s not surprising that there are so many things we love about them — after all, lots of extremely talented people join their creative efforts to produce something completely new and amazing. Unfortunately, most of the time, we only get to see the end result, whereas the details of the filmmaking process are left behind the scenes.

We at Bright Side decided to shed light on how our favorite movies are shot and reveal some secrets that go into movie magic.

1. John Wick could have been called Scorn.

The movie we know as John Wick could have had a completely different title. The creators of the franchise wanted to name it Scorn at first, but then changed their mind because Keanu Reeves, who plays the main role there, kept referring to the movie as John Wick. So the decision was made to change the title.

2. The egg sandwich in Birds of Prey was made using duck eggs.

The sandwich in Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) that looked so tasty in the movie that it became a star on its own, didn’t contain any chicken eggs. Actress Margot Robbie who played the villain is actually allergic to chicken egg whites, so they had to use duck eggs.

3. Tom Felton used to sneak candy on set and it didn’t go unnoticed.

Even though Draco Malfoy appears to have hands in his pockets in this scene, it’s not actually so. Tom Felton’s habit of taking food in his pockets made the wardrobe department sew his wizard robe’s pockets (that used to be huge) after the filming of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The actor admitted that it was true, and he also mentioned that other actors followed his example too.

4. Dan Aykroyd saved Carrie Fisher’s life while filming The Blues Brothers.

The actors were in a trailer on the set of the movie, The Blues Brothers, when Carrie Fisher started to choke, so Dan Aykroyd applied the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life. Right after that, he proposed, and the couple was engaged.

5. There was no cellphone signal during the filming of The Revenant.

The Revenant director, Alejandro Iñárritu, decided to film in the remote parts of Alberta, Canada to bring as much authenticity to the movie as possible. This came with a set of challenges, including extremely cold weather, no cellphone signal, and even wild bears. However, it all paid off when the movie got a number of awards, including 3 Oscars.

6. Sean Bean had to tape the script to his knee while filming The Fellowship of the Ring.

As the director of the Lord of the Rings franchise, Peter Jackson, has mentioned, the movie scripts evolve, even into the production stage, and this sometimes leads to the necessity for actors to rapidly learn their new lines. Once, the team revised actor Sean Bean’s character’s speech right before the shoot, but he found a clever way out — he just taped the text to his knee.

7. An Encanto song was recorded by Stephanie Beatriz while she was in labor.

Stephanie Beatriz revealed in an interview that while she was recording her solo song, “Waiting on a Miracle,” from the movie, Encanto, she started to go into labor. The actress didn’t tell anyone about it because she didn’t want them “to freak out.” The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star gave birth to her first child, Rosaline, the next day.

8. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley lost her eyelashes while filming Mad Max: Fury Road.

In the process of filming Mad Max: Fury Road, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley had to wear a full-body cast that got into her eyelashes. When the props team took it off, they accidentally pulled all of her lashes out. As a result, the actress had zero lashes for 3 months.

9. Tobey Maguire repeated the catching scene in Spider-Man 156 times.

It’s hard to imagine, but the catching scene in 2002 Spider-Man was filmed without the use of CGI. When Mary Jane slips, Peter Parker is there to save both her and her lunch by catching everything in the air. It seems impossible without supernatural abilities or at least some green screen movie magic, but actually, actor Tobey Maguire caught everything only with the help of glue, and it took him 156 takes.

10. “The world’s loneliest dog” got adopted thanks to a promised role in Transformers 5.

The dog named Freya got the nickname of “the world’s loneliest dog” after spending 6 years in the shelter. However, when Michael Bay posted a photo of the “poor pooch” and promised the doggo a role in Transformers 5, she finally found a permanent home.

11. When Chris Evans’ mom saw her son in Avengers: Endgame, she burst into tears.

Chris Evans mentioned in an interview that there was a moment in the Avengers: Endgame movie that made his mom, Lisa Capuano, very emotional. It wasn’t anything in the script, but the time when an aged Steve Rogers appeared on the screen. The actor said it was because he looked exactly like his late granddad.

12. The Matrix code is actually sushi recipes.

If you’ve watched The Matrix, you probably have a number of associations with it, one of which can be lots and lots of green characters in numerous rows of code that looked very mysterious and futuristic. The mystery is no more, as the creator of The Matrix code revealed that the characters make up sushi recipes from his wife’s cookbooks.

What other fascinating facts about movies do you know?