9 Fascinating Facts About Iconic Movies You’ve Probably Never Heard About

Film production can bring its’ share of thunderbolts. Sometimes, the iconic movies that we know and love could have turned out completely different if the roles were given to someone else. There are also movie scenes that are entirely improvised and that turned out even better than if they were scripted. Thanks to creative producers, scriptwriters, and even voice actors, the movies that we know today are beyond exemplary and an iconic inspiration to us all.

1. James Corden could’ve played Charlie in The Whale

“I was going to play that part, and Tom Ford was going to direct.” James said that while he was on the verge of getting the part while, at the same time, he was also worried that he might be too young (44) to play this character compared to Brendan Fraser (54).

Not only that, but Corden also auditioned for Samwise from The Lord of the Rings trilogy when he was in his 20s. “Every single person in London auditioned for The Lord of The Rings. Everybody. And I auditioned for Samwise. I was doing the accent and everything! ’Mr. Frodo!’”

2. Some of the dinosaur noises in Jurassic Park are the sounds of tortoises mating.

The sound designer of Jurassic Park had a lot of work to do for this movie, as he had to come up with the many sounds that the dinosaurs make. The velociraptors actually weren’t noises from irritated animals, rather they were the sounds of tortoises mating.

“It’s somewhat embarrassing, but when the raptors bark at each other to communicate, it’s actually a tortoise mating sound. I recorded that at Marine World...the people there said, ’Would you like to record these 2 tortoises that are mating?’ It sounded like a joke, because tortoises mating can take a long time. You’ve got to have plenty of time to sit around and watch and record them.”

3. Alden Ehrenreich could’ve played Dan in Gossip Girl

At first, the casting director of Gossip Girl, David Rapaport, wanted Alden Ehrenreich to play Dan Humphrey, and he even read the part. “Before Penn Badgley was involved, I desperately wanted Alden Ehrenreich to play Dan.” But because of his shorter height compared to Blake Lively, the casting team decided that Penn Badgley would be the perfect fit.

4. The voice of the little girl, Boo, in Monsters, Inc. was actually a little girl.

Mary Gibbs is currently a 26-year-old voice actress, but when this movie came out, she was only 5 years old. However, the audio crew found it hard to record her part because she would play around and run all over the office. “They would follow me around the recording studio, use puppets to talk to me, and have my mom tickle me or take money/candy away from me to make me laugh and cry...All real emotions.”

5. Leonardo DiCaprio called his role in The Revenant the hardest performance of his career.

Each actor in the movie needed to have their timing perfect since the cameras were moving around constantly. It was also difficult because of the weather since it was a snow movie, and they had 7 feet of snow melt in a day. This resulted in the production shutting down a few times.

While he was diving in South Africa, there was a shark that almost ate DiCaprio. “A great white jumped into my cage when I was diving in South Africa. Half its body was in the cage, and it was snapping at me.”

6. Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway both cried while losing weight for The Devil Wears Prada.

At first, Anne had to gain weight, so she dieted on junk food, but later she was asked to lose 10 pounds. Her costume designer said: “This isn’t going to work. You have to fit into couture. Lose 10 pounds,” to which Hathaway said, “It was a nightmare. It took me about a month to gain it and 2 months to lose it!”

Emily was asked to lose weight, which left her sobbing. “I was thin for my height. I was basically stuck with fruit, vegetables, and fish. I wouldn’t recommend that. Emily Blunt and I would clutch at each other and cry because we were so hungry.”

7. The drowning scene in Kingsman wasn’t an act.

In the movie, when the new Kingsman recruits had their first night’s sleep intervened by a splurge of water coming in their dorm, it all went wrong. The producer said that, during the scene, “I shouted ’action!’ and the computer got it wrong and vrrrrssshh, everyone was 20 feet down underwater. Cameras, sound guys. People were in waders full of water, panic, everyone diving in, and pulling people out.”

He said that “those actors weren’t acting. They were absolutely terrified. It was awful for the first day of filming.”

8. Jennifer Lawrence dislocated a rib because she was hyperventilating on the set of Mother!

There was one scene in the movie where Jennifer came out with a dislocated rib after hyperventilating too much, so the production had to take a break for a while, and Jennifer was put on oxygen. “I have oxygen tubes in my nostrils, and Darren’s like, ’It was out of focus; we’ve got to do it again.’”

The crew set up a “happy place” for Jennifer, so she could manage the extreme material, it had gumballs and a TV playing the Kardashians. Although unusual, this helped her get focused until the next take.

9. Matthew McConaughey could’ve played Jack in Titanic.

Matthew and Kate Winslet first got recorded on video to see how they would look together on screen. After that, he got a hug from one of the crew members and thought that he had impressed them. “I really thought I got the part.”

However, he never got picked to play this role. It was given to Leonardo DiCaprio instead. This was because Leo had a more romantic, wholesome, charming, and charismatic look — which was what they were looking for in Jack Dawson.

The enduring bond between Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, which began on the Titanic’s deck, has remained strong over the years. Winslet recently revealed the depth of their connection, stating that DiCaprio feels more like her husband than her actual spouse. Their profound friendship was evident in their collaboration on the film “Revolutionary Road,” where they leveraged their relationship to deliver intense performances.