Breaking Character - Famous Breaks in Film

Famous Breaks in Film

Examples of breaking character in movies include:

• Catherine Schell, who found it difficult to act with Peter Sellers in The Return of the Pink Panther and maintain her composure; several scenes showing her laughing at his antics remain in the film.
• Peter Bull briefly breaks character in the film Dr. Strangelove, as he begins to laugh at the over-the-top behavior of Peter Sellers' character (Dr. Strangelove), but regains his composure.
• Virginia North had so much trouble trying not to laugh in a dance scene with Vincent Price in The Abominable Dr. Phibes that she had to be photographed behind him to conceal her face, although her smile is briefly visible.
• In The Wizard of Oz, during an encounter with the Cowardly Lion (played by Bert Lahr), Judy Garland, as Dorothy, hides her face behind the dog Toto in order to conceal the fact that she is laughing rather than frightened as she observes Lahr's performance.
• In the 1959 version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Christopher Lee can be seen smirking at Miles Malleson and his comic acting when his back is turned.
• Jack Nicholson famously cracks himself up during the campfire scenes in the 1969 film Easy Rider. It is well known that the entire cast was smoking actual marijuana during the takes, and several moments between Nicholson, Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda are punctuated by natural giggles.
• In the film A Knight's Tale, Mark Addy broke character in the first sword fighting scene after Paul Bettany's character gives a rousing speech and no one responds. The crowd were actually Czech men and women who did not understand the speech, only after Addy yelled did they remember to cheer.
• An early scene in The Usual Suspects has the main characters forming a police lineup, where they are all asked to say the words, "Hand me the keys, you cocksucker!" in order to help a witness identify a suspect. The scene was originally supposed to be played straight, but the actors could not do it without cracking up, so it was decided that the characters would laugh over the line.

• In Scary Movie 2, when Dwight and Hanson are insulting each other, Actor Marlon Wayans lets out an over the top laugh which the rest of the people at the dinner are obviously laughing at.

The advent of DVD players, with the use of their precise pause and slow-motion functions, has made it far easier to spot breaks in character in motion pictures.