Improv: Difference between revisions

* A lot of ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean|]]'': A lot of Jack Sparrow]]'s mannerisms were not actually written into the script, but improvised by [[Johnny Depp]]. Sparrow's epic ending line "Now, bring me that horizon" was also an improv.

** In ''[[Three Ages]]'', Buster attempts to jump from one rooftop to another using an improvised springboard and doesn't quite make it. Instead of reshooting they kept the fall and created a sequence involving multiple awnings, a drainpipe and a firefighters' pole to get the character to ground level in one piece.

* Certain short, one-or-two-minute scenes in the ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movies were edited together from literally hours of footage of the actors improvising off each other. One scene of note was the initial scene at the Evils' table in ''[[Goldmember]]'', where [[Seth Green]] and [[Mike Myers]] [[Overly Long Gag|just kept on playing]] until the cameras ''ran out of film''.

* In ''[[Give My Regards to Broad Street]],'' many of [[Ringo Starr]]'s lines are ad-libs. Possibly the majority.

* [[Peter Sellers]] often improvised on set, though he was more careful than most to do so in character. [[Stanley Kubrick]] used three cameras to shoot his ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' scenes so the best material could be edited together; most famously, much of the hotline telephone monologue is said to be improvised, as is the behavior of his [[Evil Hand]] in the second-to-last scene.

** When Sellers is doing the aforementioned evil hand scene, you can see the guy who plays the Russian ambassador trying his hardest not to [[Corpsing|burst into fits of laughter]], complete with shaking and much biting of the lip.

* Pretty much all of [[Bill Murray]]'s dialogue in ''[[Tootsie]]'' is supposedly improvised.

* One of the most famous comedy line improvs appeared in the movie ''[[Wayne's World|Waynes World]]''. During a scene where the main characters Wayne and Garth are sitting atop their car watching airplanes take off, when suddenly Garth asks a strange question:

{{quote|'''Garth:''' Did... Did you ever find it attractive when [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]] dressed up like a girl bunny?

** As it turns out, the entire exchange was improvised. [[Dana Carvey]], Garth's actor, visibly snickers right before asking the initial question and [[Mike Myers]] bursts out laughing after responding. The director decided it was too funny to cut and so left it in the final version.

* Most of the dialogue between [[Bing Crosby]] and [[Bob Hope]] in the "[[Road To]]" movies was completely ad -libbed, to the point that Dorothy Lamour often found herself unable to get in her lines. In ''The Road To Morocco'' Hope and Crosby share a scene with a live camel which decided to spit in Hope's face. The "attack" and Crosby's resulting ad-lib went into the film.

* While not a great film, ''[[The Score]]'' did have its moments. Several of them were the back and forth between Robert [[Robert De Niro]] and [[Marlon Brando]], who were purposely given only key points to hit in dialogue and then simply left in front of a camera.

* In the film of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' (as opposed to the TV series), this also comes up in what is probably the film's single genuinely funny scene. Buffy, played by Kristy Swanson, stakes the [[Big Bad]]'s (Rutger Hauer's) second in command, who is being played by Paul Reubens. The scene as written simply required Reuben to say "You're gonna wish you died" and then slide out of shot. Which he did. And then, two seconds later, stood up again with stake still in his chest, putting on a bunch of fake but hilarious "ah, ooh, eee, ah, ooh!" noises and even looking directly at Swanson for one second before going off at it again. The fact the shot was ad-libbed is clearly visible in Swanson and Hauer's faces: Swanson ''turns'' to someone offscreen as if querying what's going on—and the shot ''cuts'' to Hauer, on whom another camera was already rolling, and who has a vaguely amused look on his face and who ''shrugs'' as if to say "Just roll with it." Which they did, and the shot stayed in. A part of the performance even got into a postcreditspost-credits sequence.

* In ''[[Mars Attacks!]]'' no dialogue was written for the Martians so [[Frank Welker]] made up his own language for them.

* In ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]'', the whole anecdote about the girl and the barn was ad -libbed by [[Matt Damon]].

** He may have had more respect for the script of the ''[[The Fugitive (film)|The Fugitive]]'', but he did the same thing while filming it—adit — ad-libbing what became his character's defining line (and the film's most famous) -- "I don't care!". And the fugitive himself, [[Harrison Ford]], deliberately did not learn the lines for the scene where he's interrogated by the police, wanting his responses and reactions as their questions and attitude change from helpful to hostile to be as realistic as possible.

** Ford did the same thing in the original ''[[Star Wars]]'', not learning his dialogue for the scene where he tries to respond to a call to the detention cell.

* [[John Rhys Davies]] in [[The Lord of the Rings (film)|''The Lord of the Rings'']]. Many of his lines were this, including the one during the drinking game in Two Towers when he says that "It's the Dwarves that go swimming with little hairy women".

** Doubles as a [[Shout-Out]], since he was basing it on a line from ''[[Jaws]]''