10 Famous Movie Scenes The Actors Almost Ruined
1. "I'm Walkin' Here!" (Midnight Cowboy)
One of the most perfect pieces of improvisation in movie history, the moment in Midnight Cowboy when Dustin Hoffman tells a taxi "I'm walkin' here!" after it nearly hits him and Jon Voight was never meant to happen.
The two actors were supposed to walk in a straight line towards the camera, delivering their scripted dialogue. The difficult thing was getting the timing right: Hoffman and Voight had to start walking at just the right time, so that when they approached the road, they weren't waiting for a light, and could cross without stopping.
However, on a take when they finally nailed that timing, a real taxi driver - that is, he wasn't associated with the production - drove up and nearly hit Hoffman, who responded by ad-libbing the line "I'm walkin' here!" and slamming the car's bonnet.
The moment swiftly became immortal, but, as Hoffman told The Huffington Post in 2017, he almost ruined the whole thing by breaking character and telling the taxi driver that he was making a movie:
“The truth is, this is the way the brain works: What was in my head was, ‘We’re makin’ a movie here!’ And then just as I’m about to say that, I realize, ‘Oh, you can’t do that,’ the brain changes it to, ‘I’m walkin’ here!’ What was really being said, for me, was, ‘We’re shooting here!'"
Fortunately, he caught himself just before he spoke the line, and changed it to the one we hear in the final take.
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Know any other famous scenes the actors almost ruined? Let us know in the comments section!