8 Actors Who Were Confused While Filming Movie Scenes
8. Clark Gregg Didn't Know Why Coulson Was Going To New Mexico (Iron Man 2)
If you're going to join a Marvel movie, you'd better be prepared for a bit of confusion. The studio is completely and utterly devoted to the secrecy of its projects, which, on the downside, means that the actors are often left wondering where certain scenes fit within the wider cinematic universe, or even what their specific lines mean.
On that latter point, Phil Coulson himself, Clark Gregg, tells an amusing story about the time he spent filming 2010's Iron Man 2.
There's a moment in that movie where Coulson tells Tony Stark that he's been reassigned to New Mexico. This line is a bit of setup for 2011's Thor, which is predominantly set in that state. However, when he shot the scene, Gregg wasn't informed about this, forcing him to question the crew once they'd wrapped filming:
"During one of the scenes in Iron Man 2, they said, 'Tell him you have to go, tell him you’re going to New Mexico.' At the end of it, I said, 'Oh, what’s in New Mexico? Where am I going?' And they said, 'Oh s**t, Thor! Didn’t anybody tell you? Thor. You’re in Thor.' I was, 'That’s sweet!' Then all of a sudden I was here, in Santa Fe, in the desert with the Destroyer and I thought, 'This is amazing!'"
That's right: he recorded the New Mexico line without knowing that he was set to appear in Thor. At least it was a nice surprise when somebody told him.