9 Behind-The-Scenes Stories You Didn't Know About Your Favourite Films
Who nearly drowned on the set of Star Wars?
Movie sets are regularly seen as being an amazing, glamorous place to work.
Mingling with stars on a daily basis, hanging around exciting environments and being taken away to far off lands, it's no surprise so many people have the desire to work in the film industry. That though, might not be the whole truth. For years we've been hearing weird stories and odd rumours about the history of some of the world's most famous movies that might change the way we view them forever.
The production of a movie often doesn't go smoothly, with the crew regularly running short on time/money and chaos never too far away. Now and again it seems the story behind the making of a feature is actually more exciting than the plot of the film studios were trying to tell in the first place.
From actors having heart attacks on set to fistfights breaking out involving a former Batman actor, you won't want to miss out on some of these slightly strange, yet totally true secret filmmaking stories.
9. Mark Hamill Almost Drowned - Star Wars: A New Hope
Where do you start when talking about Star Wars? There is as much of a rich history on the screen as there is behind the scenes. The production of all of the movies come with their fair share of stories, from directors getting fired, last-minute re-casts and changing titles.
Yet, during the filming of the very first instalment in the Star Wars Skywalker saga, there was a particular behind the scenes story that caused one actor great discomfort. Actor and voice-over artist, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) found out that filming these fun family movies can actually be a little more dangerous than he first might have thought.
During the scene where Luke, Leia and Han Solo along with Chewbacca are stuck in the trash compactor, Hamill ended up bursting a blood vessel in his face. The incident happened when Hamill's character of Luke Skywalker was dragged under the murky water by a Dianoga to the horror of his friends. Hamill had to hold his breath under the water for the scene but the take lasted longer than Hamill could, causing a blood vessel to rupture. It's because of this that you will notice that for the next few scenes of the film the production crew only tried to film the left side of Hamill's face.
Unfortunately for Hamill, he would be struck down again during the production of The Empire Strikes Back. The actor was involved in a car crash causing his nose to break and fracturing his left cheekbone.