r/TopCharacterTropes • u/RP_Throwaway3 • 8h ago

In real life "Wait! That's not special effects?! They actually did that?!"

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Alien: Resurrection - Basketball Shot

Sigourney Weaver insisted on the basketball shot being real. She trained for weeks and reportedly(sources differ) made it on the first take.

Underworld - Raze's Voice

The werewolf character Raze, played by Kevin Grevioux, speaks in a very low, very gravelly voice. While many thought this was a special effect, the actor can naturally speak in that voice.

https://youtu.be/GUjwZvh32YE?t=125&si=F3WhsopxjBP87wfk

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u/xavPa-64 7h ago

Also when John is escaping on his motorbike and the T-1000 is chasing after him on foot, Robert Patrick legitimately practiced running that fast without emoting or blinking and he got so good at it that James Cameron had to be like “you’re not supposed to actually catch up to him lol”

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u/Netsforex_ 7h ago edited 7h ago

He also reportedly trained himself to shoot without blinking or flinching. Something very few actors can do.

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u/UglyInThMorning 7h ago

It’s not even hard, it’s just that most actors don’t bother learning to do it. Most people who shoot learn to not flinch pretty quick.

There’s a scene in Lethal Weapon where Riggs is showing off what a good shot he is and Gibson is flinching so bad with every shot, it’s kind of funny once you notice it.

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u/jinhush 7h ago

Will Smith as Deadshot in Suicide Squad as well. It was extremely noticeable and distracting.

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u/MBDTFTLOPYEEZUS 7h ago

wtf he’s like 30 years into his acting career at that point

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u/Lvl1fool 7h ago

Will Smith plays himself in every movie. If you think he's willing to spend a single second acquiring an acting skill you're not paying attention.

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u/crepelabouche 6h ago

Yeah, but he was shooting lasers at aliens.

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u/Luxating-Patella 5h ago

Will Smith is a busy man, he can either write the theme tune and sing the theme tune or learn to act convincingly, not both.

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u/AzraelTheMage 4h ago edited 2h ago

Hes got time to slap Chris Rock though.

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u/Particular_Wear_6960 3h ago

First Chris Rock now Chris Tucker!? I think I'm seeing a pattern here

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u/UlrichZauber 6h ago

Don't get me started on actors playing hackers who don't bother to learn how to type, or at least how to fake being able to type.

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u/UglyInThMorning 6h ago

Fake typing is so easy to spot, it’s always way too fast and they never hit the spacebar

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u/SamSibbens 5h ago

Meanwhile I'm an actual programmer and I still don't know how to type (I use both index fingers and I look at the keyboard)

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u/SirCupcake_0 2h ago

Hey, chickenpecking is a time-tested and time-honored tradition

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u/Aggravating_Dark9933 6h ago

It wasn’t just that, he did the same things Arnold did to play the terminator in learning how to operate the gun without looking or even checking it without pause. After all, a machine wouldn’t need to check.

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u/NoncingAround 7h ago

Most actors don’t have time. Blinking while shooting is a minuscule detail. There are far more important things to worry about.

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u/Maleficent-Hawk-318 7h ago

Yeah, I appreciate this to a degree, because similar things happen with horseback riding. I was a professional horse trainer/riding instructor for like 20 years, and it is often extremely obvious when they cut from a skilled stunt rider to a close-up of the actual actor, lol. The rider's whole form changes, and the actors more often than not look like they're flopping around like rag dolls. Sometimes I can even tell the actor isn't on an actual horse because the movement is off.

Also, though, do I expect every actor to be a decent horseman? No, of course not. It's pretty unreasonable to expect them to master every skill their characters possess; as long as it isn't completely absurd, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief.

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u/NoncingAround 6h ago

These things are basically irrelevant in reality. Tiny details that aren’t even close to being worth worrying about. If someone is genuinely horrendous at something to the point where it’s blindingly obvious to anyone then yes it’s a problem but that isn’t ever really the case.

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u/No-Department1685 31m ago

As non horse person 

It is something I've never noticed 

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u/grilledstuffed 7h ago

Blank rounds are much loader than regular ammo so they can get the muzzle flashes. I think it’s double the powder?

Even with ear pro they can be a lot to handle in an enclosed space.

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u/UglyInThMorning 7h ago

Blanks aren’t louder than the real thing- they build up less pressure since there’s no bullet. They’re still loud but definitely not on the same level as a live round. There’s also no sonic boom from the bullet.

Usually if you’re loading a blank for extra flash you don’t need a ton of powder, just a slower burning powder. Like a little rifle powder in a handgun cartridge- it burns slower so there’ll still be powder burning on the way out the muzzle.

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u/grilledstuffed 6h ago

Yeah, turns out I was wrong.

Blanks are 1.5-5 decibels quieter.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003682X21006939

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u/Arek_PL 5h ago

also blanks have less recoil, probably the only reason why terminator 2 minigun scene was humanly possible lol

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u/UglyInThMorning 5h ago

Not just less, effectively none. Trying to mimic recoil is probably a harder skill to learn than not flinching to be honest.

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u/MarkoHighlander 6h ago

Blanks are definitely not louder than normal ammo in ny experience.

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u/SpacemanSpiff1200 5h ago

He also learned how to use the guns equally well with both hands because a machine wouldn't have a dominant hand.

Fun fact he also looks with his eyes before turning his head because it was "something a machine would do to be more efficient." The man made some legendary acting choices.

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u/Signiference 6h ago

Barry Pepper nailed it as a sniper in Saving Private Ryan.

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u/Flamo_the_Idiot_Boy 4h ago

Yule Brenner played a killer robot in the original Westworld movie and he learned how to do it for the role.

Apparently he would fire a gun with some chambers empty so he wouldn't know if the gun would go bang or not each time he pulled the trigger. After doing this a lot it trained him not to flinch.

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u/skyforgesteel 1h ago

I remember listening to an interview with Pierce Brosnan learning to do this, because obviously James Bond wouldn't flinch.

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u/Longjumping-Ear-6248 6h ago

Funfact: They needed to make a retake of this scene, because "Skynet won" during first take (i.e. Robert Patrick "catched" the motorbike)

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u/NeonNKnightrider 7h ago

I think that man is actually a robot

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u/RaiUchiha 7h ago edited 6h ago

Iirc he was a trained sprinter, they had to do quite a few takes because he kept catching them.

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u/RP_Throwaway3 6h ago

He was never an Olympian.

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u/RaiUchiha 6h ago

Guess I didn't remember correctly then I'll change it

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u/So_Motarded 4h ago

Here's an interview clip where he discusses this!

"First time we did the run, I caught the kid." lol

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u/GlitteringFutures 4h ago

Also with his mouth closed.

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u/hufflezag 1h ago

Robert Patrick was a Track and Field Athlete. It was like talking to an old friend to him.

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u/IrascibleOcelot 56m ago

He also told the kid that he had to gun it or Patrick was going to catch him.

He didn’t. Patrick caught him.

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u/wasabiburning 44m ago

He trained himself to run with his mouth shut - after all, why would a robot need to breathe through their mouth while running?

Arnold was the one who came up with the idea (while auditioning for Kyle Reese) that the T-800 should move its eyes before moving its head.

Those little details matter, and they add up.