10 TV Scenes Shot For Real

10. Hannibal Lecter's Egg Trick - Hannibal

In Hannibal's season two episode "Mukōzuke," Dr. Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) carries out an astonishingly dexterous cooking trick, throwing an egg up into the air and catching it on the edge of his spatula, causing the yolk to break and fall into the frying pan below.

While most viewers understandably assumed the scene was pulled off with either the help of a CGI egg or a "stunt" double for the close-up shot, it was actually entirely the work of Mikkelsen himself, who pulled it off on the first freaking take no less.

The film's food stylist, Janice Poon, said of Mikkelsen's flawless execution of the tricky task:

"So I called my Japanese food guy and asked for a Benihana chef to bring in for a potential hand double. The next morning, there were two Japanese guys, me, six dozen eggs, and Mads wanders on to the set and asks 'OK, what are we doing?'...I tell him we're doing the Benihana egg trick today, but don't worry because we have these chefs from the Sushi shop, and we're gonna handle it.

So Mads asks what he has to do, and I tell him - you throw the egg up in the air, you stick the spatula out, it breaks slightly, you twist your wrist, then the egg falls down into the pan. He says, 'OK, let me try it.' He goes on set, and he actually did it. I accused him of practicing, but that's when he told me he used to be a juggler."