4. Stephen Tobolowsky Improvised All His Lines (And Genuinely Suffered From Amnesia Once)
In a great exampled of a you couldnt make this up Hollywood story, Stephen Tobolowsky who plays Sammy Jankis genuinely used to suffer from anterograde amnesia. He was temporarily afflicted with memory loss issues after a medical procedure, years before starring in Memento (admittedly, he had a much less severe case than the one he depicts in the film.) Because of this experience, Christopher Nolan keenly encouraged Tobolowsky to improvise his lines in the black-and-white segments that detail Jankis severe memory issues (psychosomatic or otherwise). Part of my brain had to remember what it was doing, and another part had to not remember what I was doing, Tobolowsky later told AV Club, as well as mentioning that playing Jankis was certainly the most difficult thing that Id ever done. This means, of course, that one of the films funniest lines Test this you f*cking quack! was made up on the spot by Tobolowsky on the spot, before going on to become one of the most quotable dialogue snippets from the film. Nice work, sir!