20 Well-Known Movie "Facts" That Are Actually Bulls**t

16. Lee R. Ermey "Improvised" His Lines - Full Metal Jacket

Lee. R. Ermey's batsh*t crazy drill-instructor, Hartman, is arguably the most memorable part of Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam movie, Full Metal Jacket. The story goes that Ermey, a real life former drill instructor, was brought onto the set of Full Metal Jacket as a technical advisor. After Ermey threw together an instructional tape showing him yelling at a bunch of extras, Kubrick decided to cast him the movie. The rest, as they say, is history: Ermey improvised most of his lines and insults during shooting, resulting in some really awesome scenes. In actuality, though, Ermey probably didn't "improvise" anything. In fact, the man himself has admitted in interviews that he "wrote" 50% of his lines, and did so during the script stages, with Kubrick at his side. Given Kubrick's reputation for perfectionism and creative control, it would have been entirely unlikely that Ermey would have been permitted to improvise on the spot, either. So although the actor certainly assisted in the scripting of his most famous insults, they weren't - as is often reported - "improvised" on the set. That's to say, they weren't made up on the spot and were the result of much preparation.