1. Coppola Pulls The Ol' Decapitated Horse Switch For The Godfather
In a movie filled with iconic scenes, one that has endured the longest (and is referenced and parodied the most) is the scene in which film mogul Jack Woltz wakes up to find the head of his prized horse under his sheets after defying the Corleone mob family. There was a lot of outrage at the time amongst animal rights' groups at the time who demanded to know if the head was real. It was. Apparently director Francis Ford Coppola wasn't too fond of the mock-up they'd been using during rehearsals, and decided to pull a bait-and-switch when it came time to actually film the scene. So he ordered a real horse head from a dog food company... because apparently they have those just lying around. Coppola decided it would be best not to tell the actor playing Waltz, John Marley, about this slight change of plans. So when he "wakes up" to find the horse head, that scream isn't being exaggerated for the cameras. The guy is literally freaking out about a bloody, creepily life-like horse head staring him in the damn face. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC1_tdnZq1A Which other "great" directors terrorised their actors for great performances? Share any we missed down in the comments.
