10 Times Actors Broke Character In TV Shows

Perhaps the most basic expectation of any actor is for them to maintain character throughout a project, to leave the audience totally immersed and convinced by their performance.

Obviously mistakes happen and actors blow takes all the time, yet generally character breaks are caught by the production crew and discarded during production.

That's not always the case, though, as evidenced by these 10 actors who ended up breaking character in a final, produced episode of these TV shows.

Perhaps the crew simply failed to notice it during shooting and didn't have another take to use in post-production, or maybe the rest of the take was so damn good that they decided to use it anyway.

Whatever the reason, these scenes all saw actors break character, whether laughing inappropriately, doing something completely unscripted for their role, or even just dead-ass staring into the camera lens and showing us who they really are.

While in most instances these breaks don't even begin to ruin their scenes, they are interesting quirks which managed to slip through the cracks of production. As such, they offer an amusing window into the whirlwind, time-limited nature of TV production, where getting another take isn't always a possibility...

Given the loose, faux-doc shooting style of The Office, combined with the cast's tendency to improv, it's genuinely surprising that the show isn't absolutely littered with cast members breaking character left and right.

Yet a most hilariously blatant break did make it to air in the season three episode "Women's Appreciation," when Michael (Steve Carell) accuses Toby (Paul Lieberstein) of being the person who flashed Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) in the parking lot.

Michael eventually shouts at Toby, "Let's see your penis!" - prompting an awkward silence throughout the office as Michael's employees look on in stunned horror.

But if you take a close look at Jim (John Krasinski) throughout the exchange, you'll see that he's actually covering his mouth with his hand. 

The reason for this? John Krasinski actually couldn't stop himself from laughing, and so buried his mouth in his hand in an attempt to hide it from the camera.

Keep your eyes on him when Michael keeps talking, though, and you can see him visibly laughing despite the scene calling for all of the office workers to be dead serious.