10 Genius Techniques Directors Used To Get Great Movie Performances

5. Stanley Kubrick Used George C. Scott's "Practice" Takes - Dr. Strangelove

Stanley Kubrick is another filmmaker well-noted for his dictatorial attitude on-set, most famously tormenting The Shining's Shelley Duvall to the extent of giving her a nervous breakdown.

But way back on Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick was playing 4D chess with his cast - and sometimes actual chess between breaks in filming, in fact - such as famously "forgetting" to tell Slim Pickens, who played Major Kong, that the film was a satire in order to evoke a more straight-laced performance.

But Kubrick's most deliciously devious manipulation emerged when directing the legendary George S. Scott, who of course played the unforgettable General Buck Turgidson.

Scott wanted to play the part more pared-down, and realising he wouldn't budge, Kubrick ultimately tricked Scott by asking him to perform Turgidson as larger-than-life in "warm-up" takes at the start of every set-up.

Kubrick ended up largely using these takes while discarding the more serious ones where Scott was actually, you know, trying.

Scott was pissed off enough that he vowed to never work with Kubrick again, even if he did eventually confess that Kubrick made the right choice for the character.