Calling The Godfather an infamous movie is like saying that Michael Jordan was a great athlete. And the movie is better since one of the most iconic scenes went down a little differently than it was intended to.

In the scene where Don Vito Corleone is delivering his orders, he’s doing so while holding and petting a cat. A cat that just randomly showed up on set and ended up on the actor’s lap. That take wasn’t supposed to have a cat, but it made the scene even more memorable.

There are characters in movies that can get away with anything, and Forrest Gump was certainly one of them. It’s no surprise then that Tom Hanks decided to go off the rails in one scene.

He did say what he said by accident. It’s when he says, “My name’s Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump.”

That last part wasn’t written or planned but it fit the character so well that he’d follow-up by saying that.

That flag flying away in the distance was supposed to stay on the pole. But with Eowyn just staring out in the distance, the flag being ripped off the pole just fit well with the scene.

It’s not as if the scene wouldn’t have been good if they decided to reshoot, but leaving the flag flying away was the right call by the director.

Scenes that get left in the final cut but weren’t supposed to happen the way they did are rather insignificant, in the grand scheme of things. In Guardians of the Galaxy, Chris Pratt ends up dropping an orb.

He wasn’t supposed to drop the orb but he picked it up while in character, so it stayed in. That might’ve been an example of the director not wanting to shoot the scene again though.

In Blade Runner, actress Daryl Hannah is running away panicked, and she ends up slipping and shattering the window in the van. That wasn’t intended to happen and it was actually a freak accident.

The slip was bad so Hannah was taken to the hospital.She ended up breaking her elbow but the take managed to stay in the final movie. It fit really well too.

This one is just hilarious. Apparently, the director of The Avengers couldn’t stop Robert Downey Jr. from sneaking snacks behind scenes. Those scenes where you see him eating are probably non-scripted, to some extent.

What makes it great is how natural he is while playing Tony Stark. It just shows that Robert Downey Jr. was having the time of his life playing that character.

People tend to forget that celebrities and anyone who’s famous are people too. They’re not that different from us when it comes down to it.

During the filming of Rain Man, there was a scene where Dustin Hoffman ended up passing gas beside Tom Cruise.

But instead of making a big deal out of it, the actors continued with the take and made the scene feel natural. It would’ve been so easy for the two to burst out laughing.

There are actors that like to immerse themselves in the characters they play. Except R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket, who literally was the role.

He was a Parris Island Marine drill instructor who came on to the set as a technical adviser, but his role changed significantly. He ended up with a role in the film, improvising the training scenes himself.

Ermey made life easier for the writers and producers.

If an actor is playing a clumsy character, accidental falls are never a big deal. That’s the advantage of playing such a role, since you can just keep the falls in the film.

But during the filming of The Princess Diaries, two girls are walking on the bleachers, and then one of them takes a bad fall. That fall was an accident, but it ended up making the final cut.

Genuine reactions make good actors great since it’s part of the art of acting. Genuine scenes can make movies so much better, and they are sometimes very real. This was the case during Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Remember the scene of Nick the Greek breaking the coffee table? That was an accident, and the look on the actor’s face was his genuine reaction making for a memorable scene that the director knew needed to be included.

One of the reasons why Al Pacino is one of the greatest actors of all-time is because he takes every role seriously. So for his preparation for Scent of a Woman, he wouldn’t let his eyes focus on anything to better simulate the idea of being blind.

His vision being somewhat compromised because of that, he accidentally falls over a garbage can. The respect for Al Pacino just went to a higher level.

During Fast and Furious 6, there’s an infamous line that Dwayne Johnson ended up saying, which he came up with himself because Hobbs, his character, wasn’t supposed to say anything.

Looks like Dwayne went back to his old-school self and became The Rock in that one scene. If you’re familiar with his career as a wrestler, that’s a line he would’ve said as a retort to someone else.

Anthony Hopkins garnered serious praise for his iconic performance in The Silence of the Lambs. And fans will appreciate him more now after learning what he did.

While explaining his crimes to an FBI agent, Hopkins lets out a creepy hissing sound. That was something he decided to improvise, and it made his character way more intimidating and crazy.

Even the best actors tend to forget their lines from time to time, but rarely do you see one go ahead and repeat a line they just said a few moments earlier. During Zoolander, Ben Stiller’s character says, “But why male models” on more than one occasion.

His character in the film made it seem natural and planned. But Ben Stiller actually forgot his lines.

Credit goes to Leonardo DiCaprio for this one. When filming The Wolf of Wall Street, Matthew McConaughey’s character bangs his chest, and it turns out that the actor did it before each take for relaxation.

DiCaprio told him to do that during the actual scene, and it ended up working well for the context. Actors helping actors makes movies and individual scenes much better.

When filming, there are moments that you really can’t predict. Stuff does happen on the fly, no pun intended, and everyone has to adjust to it. During Raiders of the Lost Ark, there was a scene when a fly randomly appeared on Belloq’s face.

Instead of a reshoot, the special effects team decided to erase the escape of the fly. So viewers saw something that was impossible to miss.

If you make more than one appearance on a list like this, then you know you’re a special actor. That’s Tom Hanks, though most people already know he’s pretty special.

It was a small improv he did while filming The Burbs, but it’s still cool that it happened. In the scene where his character lifts a gurney and tosses it in the ambulance, it was done on the spot by Hanks.

If a normal actor went through what Leonardo DiCaprio had to endure during a scene in Django Unchained, they would’ve called cut.

Leonardo ended up hurting himself. He was bleeding pretty badly, but he ended up finishing the scene. The blood in the scene was real, and it just goes to show Leonardo’s dedication and why he is one of the greats of his generation.

You’ve probably heard the infamous line, “I’m walking here.” What’s funny about it is that, during Midnight Cowboy, it was improvised and not in the original script.

Dustin Hoffman uttered the line in New York City while filming a scene, when a cab driver ran a red light and drove through the set. Many say it wasn’t organic but who knows.

The best actors have a great understanding of the characters they play. The producers and writers lay the groundwork for the characters, but actors can have a little say. Harrison Ford is one of those actors.

During Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, when Princess Leia says she loves Han, he’s supposed to reply with, “I love you too.” Instead, Ford thought it was more appropriate to say, “I know.”

When it comes to action movies, everyone knows it’s all “fake.” But stunt actors are stunt actors for a reason, and injury is very real for them. While filming Mission: Impossible 2, a stuntman told Tom Cruise to not pull back on the final kick.

Cruise didn’t, and the kick hit the stuntman’s jaw. John Woo saw the greatness of the shot, so he decided to use the entire thing.

Roller Coasters, you either love them or not. During the opening scene of Knocked Up, actor Jay Baruchel was clearly not having any of the rollercoaster ride.

But the actor agreed to appear in the movie without any clothes on just to get out of the ride. Everyone pushed him to go on the ride, and he ended up doing both scenes. He got the short end of that stick alright.

If you’ve watched all The Avengers movies, you know there’s a lot of kidding around that happens behind the scenes.

In Thor: The Dark World, Chris Hemsworth, Thor, was trying to be funny when he tried to hang up his hammer on a coat rack. It turned out to be so good that the director ended up including it in the final cut.

The best mistakes and bloopers are the ones you didn’t think were mistakes. Remember the scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring where Gandalf is having a hard time moving through a tiny home?

When he slams into the doorframe, it was done accidentally. Ian McKellen letting out a shout made the scene even more natural, and it was never cut from the final movie.

Back to the Future fans remember a scene from the second installment where Biff’s gang is chasing Marty on hoverboards. The gang crashes into the courthouse window, and as it turns out, one of the three stuntmen ended up taking a bad fall.

A stuntwoman was sent slamming into a pillar and falling 30 feet below. She survived, and though you can’t see the impact in the film, you can see her falling.

A bizarre scene from The Other Guys has Terry telling Allen that if he were a lion and Allen was actually a tuna, he would get himself into the ocean and eat Allen.

The latter wasn’t supposed to respond, but Will Ferrell improvised a response to explain why a swimming lion would be a very odd idea. Credit to Will Ferrell since that was more than a small improv moment.

Rocky is one of the most popular and beloved franchises of all-time. But during filming, the budget was very small. Which meant they had to cut corners in certain places.

One of those was with the filming of people in the background, when Rocky was running.

Most of the people in the background had no idea they were being filmed. It made their reactions really genuine, including the man who tossed Rocky an orange, which he caught.

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight deserves every ounce of praise heaped on him. The scene where he’s behind bars had him doing a bit of improv.

When Jim Gordon is promoted in front of the Joker, he ends up clapping in a very sarcastic manner. It was so symbolic of the character considering that the clap was never in the script. That’s called brilliant acting.

Here’s another reason why many people have respect for Harrison Ford. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, there was a specific fight that was meant to be an intense duel. Ford was suffering from food poisoning but he still showed up for the shoot.

The director made an audible at the last minute, turning an intense duel into one of the most iconic moments in the history of cinema. Not bad considering the cards that were on the table.

Actors like to warm up before scenes, and some like to get into their characters. In one of the scenes in Dirty Dancing, Baby and Johnny are crawling towards each other, but it was just a case of the two warming up.

The occurrence was so natural that the director decided to include it in the film. Who would’ve known that the two actors were just getting ready?