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

5. The Mirror Smile (I, Tonya)

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Margot Robbie's Oscar-nominated performance in I, Tonya is her finest work to date, and if there's one scene that demonstrates this, it's the mirror scene.

This powerful moment involves Robbie's character - figure skater Tonya Harding - sitting in front of a mirror and applying some makeup to her cheeks. She breaks down sobbing while doing so, before practicing a smile to cover up her sadness.

It's a highly dramatic scene that you'd think would require dozens of takes to get right, but unfortunately, the filmmakers just didn't have that kind of time.

The production was housed in a stadium that they were about to lose access to, and with around ten different scenes to shoot, it was a race against the clock to get everything done. This lack of time - combined with the fact that Robbie's makeup would need to be re-done with each successive take - meant that the actress had to act fast. Quite literally.

Fortunately, Robbie was able to nail the scene in the single take she had, creating one of the movie's most memorable moments in the process.

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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.