10 Surprising Reasons Movie Scenes Were Ruined

American Sniper, a biopic of U.S. Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), was a massive critical and commercial success, yet remains surely the only Best Picture-nominated movie in history to try and get away with a blatantly plastic baby.

During a scene where Kyle talks with his wife Taya (Sienna Miller), Kyle holds their newborn daughter, except it's hilariously, distractingly obvious that the baby isn't real: it's egregiously clear Bradley Cooper is holding a plastic doll, and even tries to subtly move his arms to "animate" the doll.

Now, many immediately assumed that this was simply a case of Clint Eastwood, a famously "efficient" director who typically shoots scenes fast, wanting to cut corners so he could wrap up the shoot ahead of schedule.

But shortly after the scene went viral, the film's screenwriter Jason Hall chimed in and confirmed why Cooper was saddled with a fake-ass baby:

"Hate to ruin the fun but real baby #1 showed up with a fever. Real baby #2 was no show. [Clint voice] 'Gimme the doll, kid.'"

In Eastwood's defense he planned for a real baby and even had a backup in case the first didn't work out, but his contingency also failed him, leaving him to resort to a doll.

You can certainly argue that Warner Bros. should've stumped up the cash to reshoot the scene with a real baby, but as much noise as the scene made online, it evidently didn't bother general audiences, given the film's massive $547.4 million worldwide gross.

As for Bradley Cooper's take on the situation? He knew the scene wasn't going to work while shooting it:

"I couldn't believe it, like, I couldn't believe that we were working with a plastic baby, I was like, 'This is nuts'... I remember thinking - I made a joke I was like, as Chris, I can't even do it anymore but I was like 'I'ma save y'all a hundred thousand dollars and just start doing this [with the arm]' 'cos you know you have to CGI the hand movements. I was like 'Watch this, eat your heart out Muppets.'"