10 Things You Didn't Know About Jumanji
5. Robin Williams Wrestled A Crocodile ... Sort Of
During almost every other scene, Robin Williams and the other cast members never actually acted with any real live animals.
Instead they were forced to perform against thin-air, something that Williams compared to hallucinating while using LSD, because it was cheaper to use CGI than it was to train animals to destroy houses etc. It was also a heck of a lot safer.
During one particular scene though, Williams' character Alan is forced to wrestle a crocodile, something that just didn't work on a computer and was much too dangerous to do for real. So, instead director Joe Johnston opted to stuff puppeteer Tom Woodruff Jr. inside a crocodile costume so that he could react appropriately while play-fighting with Williams.
Years later, in an interview with Clive Anderson, Williams recounted how he had gotten carried away while filming the scene, and was so "in character" that he started to fight the so-called crocodile like his life depended on it.
All the while, inside the suit, Woodruff Jr, was being pummelled for real, only bringing the Academy Award winning thespian to his senses by screaming "Hey, knock it off!" from deep within the bowels of his costume.