10 More Movie Scenes More Real Than You Think

Whilst filming one particularly tense scene during the making of Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter, Robert De Niro's desire to add more realism to the moment actually led to him making a rather absurd request.

According to the director himself (at 9:10 in the clip below), the Staff Sergeant Michael Vronsky actor felt that a scene involving the character pointing a gun at John Cazale's Stanley after getting annoyed with him messing around with it in a cabin would work better if the pistol had an actual bullet in it.

Cazale actually ended up agreeing to add that little extra authenticity to the impromptu game of Russian Roulette, too, though he did understandably check the weapon before each take just to make sure the live round wasn't the next one to fire out of the chamber.

And after learning exactly how shockingly real this pistol scene actually was, it's pretty much impossible to watch the moment Mike decides to play a truly dangerous game with a petrified Stanley the same way again.