“He’s just an NPC! Waste that motherf–”
1.
In The Gray Man, Suzanne replying “I will gladly [punch] you in the dick” to Lloyd was improvised by Jessica Henwick.
Netflix
“I got a couple of zingers in there,” Henwick said.
The scene isn’t yet on YouTube, but you can watch the movie on Netflix. The moment comes around 20:54.
2.
In the most recent season of Stranger Things, Joseph Quinn improvised Eddie’s line to Steve “don’t ya big boy”:
Netflix
This was confirmed by the Stranger Things writers!
3.
And in the second season, Murray dropping his eggs and looking at Jonathan to say “oops” actually happened in the moment — it wasn’t in the script, and actor Brett Gelman just went with it:
Netflix
If you watch the clip, you can actually see Natalia Dyer trying not to laugh.
4.
In The Adam Project, Ryan Reynolds came up with many of the film’s funny lines when his character Adam meets his younger self. Like this one about his younger self having trouble understanding what “classified” means:
5.
…and his wound “farting” when he coughs.
6.
Reynolds also suggested the scene and line where two little girls are playing Free City 2 in Free Guy and say of Guy, ‘He’s just an NPC — waste that motherf—.” Director Shawn Levy shot it with his two daughters in their bedroom after the rest of the shoot was complete.
7.
Taika Waititi also improvised a ton of his lines in the film, and many didn’t make it in. One that did was his line about “Albuquerque Boiled Turkey.”
20th Century Studios
Screenwriter Matt Lieberman said, “There are 80 percent of his lines that are on a cutting room floor somewhere.”
8.
In Our Flag Means Death, the little toe touch between Blackbeard and Stede after they’re caught was improvised by Taika.
HBO Max
Rhys Darby, who plays Stede, said, “That was just Taika [Waititi] deciding he should do that. Because we were staring at each other. Yeah, it was just a little sweet moment.”
9.
John Cena improvised Peacemaker’s rant about who Economos could’ve framed instead of his dad in Peacemaker.
HBO Max
Steve Agee, who plays John Economos, said the original script mentioned Ariana Grande and maybe one other person, but that the director, James Gunn, told Cena to just start listing off people. There are outtakes where Cena lists even more people, if you’re interested.
10.
In Schitt’s Creek, Annie Murphy wrote the lyrics for “A Little Bit Alexis”:
Pop!TV
Murphy was excited to have her own music moment after Patrick’s “Simply the Best,” and wrote the lyrics out on a paper plate.
11.
And Catherine O’Hara came up with pronouncing “baby” the way she did, which became a running gag on the show.
12.
In Clueless, Alicia Silverstone similarly came up with pronouncing “Haitians” that way. Well, sort of. She actually thought it was pronounced that way, and the director, Amy Heckerling, thought it was so funny that she declined to correct her.
13.
In Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, when Han Solo and Luke break in to save Leia and Han is pretending to be a stormtrooper, Harrison Ford improvised the awkward “how are you” moment:
14.
While Oliver and Charles are following Mabel in Only Murders in the Building, they start making jokes about getting STIs in Long Island. Oliver then launches into a song about it — this was improvised by Martin Short:
There isn’t a good YouTube clip, but the moment happens at around 14:30 in Season 1, Episode 5, or you can watch a tiny piece of it here.
15.
Many of Faye’s one-liners in Euphoria were improvised by Chloe Cherry, including “you’re probably fucking eating that ginger’s ass”:
16.
And when she asks Cal if he and Nate “fuck people together”:
17.
Andrew Garfield came up with the Spider-Man: No Way Home moment that includes a funny reference to the Spider-Man pointing meme:
19.
Zendaya throwing bread at Andrew’s Spider-Man in the film was also unscripted. At first, she picked up a candlestick, but she turned to the director and asked if she could use the bread on the table instead:
20.
In The Good Place, the evil laugh Michael does when he’s found out after *that* big reveal wasn’t scripted — it was something Ten Danson tried three or four takes in that showrunner Mike Schur loved and told him to keep:
21.
In The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Nicolas Cage improvised screaming, “Nick f—iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing-ow-wow Cage!”
Lionsgate
“We call action on this thing, and we’re watching the scene go down. I have no idea what’s going to happen. He just does it. We call cut and take off the headphones, and Nic gets up, walks over to the monitors where we’re sitting, 20 feet away, and he looks at us, and goes, ‘I wanted it to be transcendent!’” writer-director Tom Gormican recounted.
22.
It was also Nicolas Cage’s suggestion to have the two versions of himself make out. The script just featured Nicky kissing Nicolas on the cheek. He also came up with the line, “You tell ’em Nic Cage smooches good.”
23.
In Loki, Tom Hiddleston improvised the moment where he throws down his drink and yells “another!”:
24.
This was a reference Hiddleston threw in to the iconic Thor moment when Thor throws his coffee mug down and requests another — which was also, btw, improvised:
25.
Throwing it back to a classic — Malfoy’s line “I didn’t know you could read” from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was improvised by Tom Felton:
26.
In Don’t Look Up, Jonah Hill came up with the line in the post-credits scene where his character says, “I’m the last man on Earth…don’t forget to like and subscribe.”
27.
And Janie getting eaten by a Bronteroc was Meryl Streep’s idea. She improvised her character wanting to know how she would die, which led to a collaborative effort that eventually resulted in adding a post-credits scene where her character was, in fact, eaten by a Bronteroc:
