History EnforcedMethodActing / LiveActionFilms

* The three lead actors in ''Film/ProjectX'' were sent to Ride/{{Disney|ThemeParks}}land together and spent a weekend up at a cabin in Big Bear City so as to make a more believable friendship between them. During filming of [[WildTeenParty the party scenes]], the music kept playing even when cameras weren't rolling so as to maintain the party atmosphere among the extras.

*** While filming the scene where Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are examining the pyre of Uruk-hai bodies, believing Merry and Pippin has been burned along with them. Aragorn kicks a helmet lying on the ground and screams in anguish over his hobbits friends most likely being dead. The intensity of the scream was due to Creator/ViggoMortensen (who played Aragorn) breaking two toes when he performed the kick, but Creator/PeterJackson liked the shot so much that it was left in the movie. In the DVD extras for the movie, you can see the other takes filmed before the one that made the cut. There were quite a few, suggesting Mortensen was having trouble getting the reaction just right, until he kicked the helmet and channelled his pain into a realistically heart-rending scream of genuine anguish.

** ''Film/CarryOnNurse'': The reason the Colonel looks so relaxed before being told he's had [[ThermometerGag a daffodil stuck in his rear end?]] Creator/WilfridHydeWhite wasn't told of his fate during filming. When Hyde-White found out and believed a stand-in bottom was used to show the flower, he was infuriated and threatened to sue, although didn't in the end.

** In the finale, [[spoiler: where Roy tries to kill off the hero of the fairytale he has been telling Alexandria]], they had another difficult day of shooting and Pace, once again, got quite wound up. His frustrated, angry telling of the story is fuelled by quite genuine anger not to mention, in the moment when he lifts his hand to mime punching someone as in the story, Catinca once again flinched realistically as she genuinely thought he might hit her.

** Buster practically built a career around these; In one film he's being washed down a lake, but Buster had a hidden harness on which kept him from actually being washed towards the rapids and waterfall. The harness broke, naturally, and it's glaringly obvious when Buster's waves and swimming to safety suddenly become faster and more pronounced. He actually looks and shouts at the camera several times. He had to cling on to rocks before he was rescued.

** The famous telephone conversation was the first take of the scene and the first scene that James Stewart had recorded since returning from WWII (in which he flew something like 50 bombing missions). Apparently the scene wasn't even rehearsed and the outpouring of emotion from Stewart is quite genuine; you can see how nervous and uncomfortable the actress playing Mary was and this flood of emotions apparently scared the crap out of Frank Capra too, who didn't even try to film the scene a different way and of course it is one of the most famous scenes in the film.

** According to Kathy Bates, James Caan is naturally quite athletic and hates having to sit still for long periods of time. His character's growing frustration about having to remain bedridden is very much Caan's own.

* ''Film/{{Network}}'': In the scene where Max Schumacher (Creator/WilliamHolden) confesses his infidelity to his wife Louise (Creator/BeatriceStraight) director Creator/SidneyLumet ran the scene through numerous rehearsals and even filmed takes so that by the time the takes that actually made the final cut were filmed, Straight was extremely tired and so in addition to her performance being explosively angry and heartbroken it also had a distinct air of exhaustion and defeat that was exactly what Lumet wanted. When called out on this by screenwriter Creator/PaddyChayefsky, who in many ways had more control over the production than Lumet and was very particular about the tone he was trying to set, Lumet rebuffed him by saying, "Paddy, you know comedy, I know divorce." [[labelnote:*]]Not only was Lumet twice divorced at the time of filming but Straight ended up winning Best Supporting Actress at that year's Academy Awards so it's probably safe to say he knew what he was talking about.[[/labelnote]]

* ''Film/TheRecovered'': This NoBudget MindScrew movie stars Tina Krause as a drug-addled and possibly delusional woman who doesn't understand what's going on around her. Krause had little time to study or understand the script, so she was genuinely confused by what was going on in the plot, which she says inadvertently helped her performance.

** Creator/DolphLundgren actually punched Creator/SylvesterStallone hard enough to hospitalize him in ''Film/RockyIV''. Dolph punched him hard enough that the impact ignored Sylvester's ribs and ''bruised his heart''. The Insurance Company first thought Stallone was lying since such an impact on a chest usualy was because of a direct collision in traffic. Stallone showed them the tape (that is still in the finished movie) and said "Dolph is a truck!"

* In ''Film/TheGeneral'', director Creator/BusterKeaton did not tell leading lady Marion Mack what was going to happen when he pulled the spout off the water tank during the return chase. He wanted her reaction when she got ''drenched'' by a torrent of water to be authentic.

** In yet another film, Buster leaps from one building to another, misses by a hair and slams into the side of the building before falling. Buster performed this stunt, for real, slamming at speed into a solid brick wall. He took a hot rub down then an ice bath and was back at work within two hours.

* ''Film/CarryOnNurse'': The reason the Colonel looks so relaxed before being told he's had [[ThermometerGag a daffodil stuck in his rear end?]] Creator/WilfridHydeWhite wasn't told of his fate during filming. When Hyde-White found out and believed a stand-in bottom was used to show the flower, he was infuriated and threatened to sue, although didn't in the end.

* To make the actors more at ease during a love-making scene in ''Mannen som slutade röka'' (''The Man Who Quit Smoking''), director Tage Danielsson as well as the whole production team were naked during the shooting.

* In ''Looking For Eric'', Steve Evets (who plays Eric Bishop) had not been told that Eric Cantona would be here - they smuggled him on set while Evets was smoking a cigarette and hid him. However, they didn't use his enforced take. Other scenes of enforced method acting include an armed police raid omitted from the actors' scripts, and the gangsters' first reactions to seeing dozens of United fans in Cantona masks raiding their house.

* From [[http://www.dfi.dk/tidsskriftetfilm/50/dogsleds.htm an article]] on the making of the film ''The Journals of Knud Rasmussen'': "The way (filmmakers Norman) Cohn and (Zacharias) Kunuk work, the scene starts, everyone gets into character and the camera rolls. It was a challenge for the Danes, (producer Elise) Lund Larsen says. She mentions a scene of a party, when Kunuk unexpectedly pointed the camera at (actor Jakob) Cedergren and urged him to drum dance. That's not in the script. The point is to get a reaction that matches how Mathiassen must have felt. "

* An offscreen version, but in ''Chasing Mavericks'', Creator/GerardButler got caught under several big waves and had to be rescued. The actor credits this experience in helping him play the character, as big wave surfers often are in constant danger of being caught in these waves.