7 Movie Scenes That Could ONLY Be Done On The First Take

6. Chest Waxing (The 40-Year-Old Virgin)

Carrell 40 Year Old Virgin
Universal Pictures

Steve Carell has had a long and successful comedy career on both the big screen and the small screen, but perhaps the most memorable scene he's ever appeared in came right at the beginning of his road to Hollywood stardom.

In 2005's The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Carell's character Andy - the titular virgin - gets his ridiculously hairy chest waxed, an extremely painful process that causes him to swear profusely. Carell gives a hilarious performance in this scene, and that might be because he isn't even acting - his chest was actually waxed for real. Poor guy.

Carell chose to execute the scene realistically because he felt like there was no way to convincingly fake it, and because it would've taken ages for the hair to grow back, director Judd Apatow had one chance to capture the waxing on film.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly on the very first go. Multiple cameras were set up to record the action, and by the end, it proved such an intense ordeal for Carell that the bed he was lying on became soaked through with his sweat. Grim.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.