10 Movie Cameos That Were Total Accidents
2. The Holiday - Dustin Hoffman
Sometimes everything lines up in ways you could never have dreamed of. The 2006 Christmas romcom The Holiday had a wonderful unexpected surprise when a huge movie star turned up on set one day, totally unplanned.
So the story goes that during the filming of a particular scene in a Blockbuster video store, Dustin Hoffman just so happened to be driving by. Seeing the production trucks, cameras and crew he decided to have a little peek. Imagine doing that as a regular joe-schmo, just sticking your nose into a film set. These are the things you don’t have to worry about when you're Dustin Goddamn Huffman.
By chance, The Holiday director Nancy Meyers was already friends with Hoffman and so they decided to film something impromptu.
In the scene, Kate Winslet’s Iris follows Jack Black’s Miles through the store as he reedle-deedle-doos his way through famous movie scores (because he’s a character played by Jack Black and that’s what he does). One such movie he remarks on is The Graduate. Suddenly the camera cuts to Hoffman, checking out films further down the rack, who scoffs and says to himself “you can’t go anywhere”.
It’s a really funny moment that comes out of nowhere, and now we know why. The knowledge that this was essentially improvised it makes it all the sweeter.