12 Famous Movie Facts That Are Actually False
The myth of the hidden word, according to Snopes, spread after rumors that a 4-year-old boy from New York or Louisiana spotted the word "S-E-X" in the dust cloud while watching The Lion King and told his mother or aunt. However, that doesn't make much sense because how could a child that young spell, make out the spelling, or understand the word? The "discovery" was likely framed as "a child saw it" to make it more alarming and to fuel outrage by someone or somebodies who wanted to criticize Disney.
There is a widely circulated myth that one of the Munchkin actors hanged himself on camera in The Wizard of Oz, specifically during the scene where Dorothy and the Scarecrow meet the Tin Man. In reality, what people often mistake for a hanging figure is actually a large bird — likely a crane — that was part of the set to make the forest appear more lifelike.
According to Snopes, this urban legend dates back to 1989, when the film was re-released on VHS for its 50th anniversary. OK, now, if you were watching this on video in 1989, the resolution would have been, well, shit, so it would be easy to not be able to make out shadows in the background and interpret them as something else. In the 30-plus years since then, the movie has been remastered and cleaned up several times, and if you watch it today you can clearly make out that it's just an exotic bird walking in the background.
Three Men and a Baby was not filmed in a haunted New York apartment, and there's no ghost lurking in the background of any scene. The "ghost" people often point to is actually a cardboard cutout of Ted Danson's character, which was part of a deleted storyline. The movie was filmed on a soundstage in Toronto, not in a real apartment, haunted or otherwise.
Just like The Wizard of Oz, Munchkin one, this urban legend started after the film was released onto home video. The story went that a 9-year-old boy had killed himself in the apartment where the movie was filmed and that he can be seen hiding behind the curtains as the camera quickly pans across the room. But the "ghost" is actually a cardboard cutout of Ted Danson's character (which can be seen earlier in the film). There are a few theories as to how this rumor started — like how it was the studio trying to drive up VHS rentals. It could just be that, again, just like in the case of The Wizard of Oz, the low resolution of VHS tapes, and the fact that TVs were smaller in the '80s and '90s, made it hard to determine what the figure was.
It's a common misconception that Heath Ledger stayed in character as the Joker 24/7 while filming The Dark Knight. While Ledger did immerse himself deeply in the role — notably spending weeks alone in a hotel room developing the Joker's voice, mannerisms, and personality — he did not remain in character off-camera throughout the entire shoot.
Cast and crew members, including Christian Bale, have said that while Ledger took the role very seriously and delivered an unforgettable performance, he was professional, collaborative, and able to step out of character between takes, where he cracked jokes and skateboarded. The myth of him being consumed by the role (and it leading to his death) adds to the film's mystique, but in reality, Ledger approached the part with intense preparation, not constant method acting.
In Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, the scene where Indy shoots the swordsman was not improvised because Harrison Ford was tired of doing takes of it and refused to do anymore.
Ford and the actor who played the swordsman had actually trained for a much longer scene that was going to be elaborate and just be between the whip and the sword. However, Ford was combating dysentery and was not feeling well, so the night before the shoot, he approached the film's director, Steven Spielberg, about shortening the scene (as it was going to take at least two to three days to shoot) by just having Indy shoot the swordsman. Spielberg had had a similar idea, so the scene was cut down before it was even shot.
Leonardo DiCaprio did read for the part of Max in Hocus Pocus. However, he never turned down the role because he couldn't even accept it, as he was already committed to filming two other movies.
It's a bit convoluted, but he was asked to come in to read for it, with director Kenny Ortega being fully aware that he was unavailable to do the movie because he was already committed to filming What's Eating Gilbert Grape and This Boy's Life. According to Ortega, DiCaprio was brought in to read for the role because the casting people knew he would be very good and that it would inspire Ortega to find the right guy to play Max.
The producer of Gone With the Wind, David O. Selznick, was not fined $5,000 for including the word "damn" at the end of the movie because it violated a Motion Picture Association Production Code.
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," is one of the most iconic lines in cinematic history. However, Selznick didn't have to pay a fine because he didn't violate anything. He wanted to stick to the book as much as possible, so he got special permission from the Motion Picture Association to use the words "damn" and "hell" in specific situations in the film. But, just in case he didn't get the permission, Selznick and story editor Val Lewton came up with a list of alternate lines that Rhett could say to Scarlett at the end of the movie.
Mad Max: Fury Road had a script, contrary to internet rumors that said director George Miller used only storyboards to make the film.
Obviously, this is not true, because it would be impossible to make a movie like Fury Road without a script. In an Oct. 2020 email to IndieWire, Miller shut down the rumor once and for all, saying, "I'm not sure how the notion that Fury Road had no script came about. I suppose it's because of the [photo of the] room lined with storyboards. Of course, there was a script! How else could we have presented the project to a studio, cast, and crew to elicit their interest?"
Janet Jackson never demanded that Tupac Shakur get an HIV test before he kissed her for their film Poetic Justice.
While this didn't happen, it does have an origin; according to the film's writer-director, the late John Singleton, it was actually a joke (not the most tasteful joke, I know) he started when they were filming. The backstory is that both he and Tupac had HUGE crushes on Jackson (who was not interested in either of them, 'cause she was secretly married at the time), and he would jokingly say, "We're gonna have to get you an AIDS test for you to kiss my actress!" as a way to one-up Tupac. The joke became a rumor even before the movie was released.Also, it's important to note that HIV/AIDS had been a known disease for over a decade-plus when the movie was filmed — it was already a known fact that you could not transmit the disease through kissing, so it doesn't even make sense.
Universal had high hopes for Jaws, and knew it would be a hit (obviously not the massive blockbuster film it would become). The movie was based on a bestselling novel, and the studio believed the thrilling concept and beachside setting would have a strong appeal for summer audiences, which is exactly why they chose to release it in the summer. At the time of its release, 1975, summer was considered a dead zone for movies, with studios typically dumping lower-priority releases during those months. In the decades since, this has led to the misconception that Universal didn't expect much from Jaws.
Additionally, Universal backed the film with an aggressive marketing campaign, which was unusual for the time. The campaign included an unprecedented number of TV and radio spots, which helped build nationwide buzz.
Contrary to popular belief, Cleopatra was not a box office bomb. In fact, the 1963 epic starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton was the highest-grossing film of that year, earning around $57 million at the box office, which was an impressive figure for the time.
The misconception largely stems from the film's behind-the-scenes chaos, production problems, and notoriously bloated budget, which ballooned to close to $44 million (roughly $460 million today with inflation), making it the most expensive movie ever made up to that point. The movie struggled to make an immediate profit due to its staggering production costs. But Cleopatra eventually recouped its budget through re-releases and international earnings.
And lastly, no, a disgruntled Disney employee who had just found out they were fired did not secretly draw penises on the VHS cover of The Little Mermaid — despite what you may have heard as a kid. The now infamous image, which appears to show phallic shapes hidden in the castle towers, was actually the result of an innocent mistake by a freelance artist hired to create the marketing artwork.
In 1998, Snopes interviewed the artist responsible for the original Little Mermaid VHS cover to get to the bottom of the infamous "phallic castle" rumor. The artist, who had previously worked on other official promotional materials for the film — including the theatrical poster, CD artwork, and Happy Meal boxes — insisted it was purely accidental. He explained that he was rushing to finish the artwork around "four in the morning" and didn't notice anything unusual in the castle design. In fact, that exact castle illustration had already been used in the film's original poster (below) and was simply reused for the VHS cover, with only Ariel, Prince Eric, Sebastian, and Flounder being newly redrawn.
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The Exiles of Tehrangeles
Shohreh Aghdashloo still remembers the blood, bitter in her mouth. It spilled from a gash in her head after a hail of stones hit her during a pro-democracy rally in Tehran. The year was 1979. The Islamic Revolution was convulsing Iran. She was 26. 'The sky was full of stones,' she recalls. 'I was ever so angry. I was numb. At that moment, I decided that no, no, no. I need to leave.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Rotterdam Unveils 2025 Hubert Bals Fund Projects Imax Quarterly Revenue and Profit Rise Amid Hollywood's Theatrical Comeback Ukrainian, Iranian Docs, Kenyan Sci-Fi Set for Venice Days Lineup She fled under cover of night, making her way through Istanbul, Yugoslavia and Paris before settling in London and eventually Hollywood. She's never returned. 'I am banned,' she explains. 'If I do, they will kill me.' Following recent Israeli and American air strikes in Iran — widely seen as the most direct confrontation between Iran and the West in decades — the Oscar-nominated actress found herself reliving her moment of exile. But this time, grief and fear were tinged with a fleeting hope for change that quickly gave way to despair. 'Wars are about devastation and misery,' Aghdashloo says, her signature gravelly voice occasionally cracking with emotion — the same emotion she once masterfully restrained as Dina Araz, the calculating terrorist matriarch on 24, a cultural touchstone of post-9/11 America. 'But this war gave us mixed feelings, including hope it might bring freedom to Iran. Instead, the regime's grip has only tightened.' As Israel and Iran retreat into a fragile ceasefire, she and other Iranian artists in Hollywood and beyond are still grappling with the cultural and emotional fallout. 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But she says she welcomed the chance to play such a complex and layered character. Still, she fears that today's tensions could trigger a return to two-dimensional villains like those that proliferated during the 1980s and 1990s in the aftermath of the Iran hostage crisis. 'I am hoping from the bottom of my heart that this will not happen,' she says. If the story of the Iranian diaspora were a film, it would be a sweeping epic marked by repression, exile and reinvention. It might open in 1979, when a profligate monarch — so enamored of Hollywood that he once hosted Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton at Teheran's Niavaran Palace — was toppled in Iran by the fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini, sending tens of thousands fleeing into exile. Many settled in Southern California, where swaggering creativity and bikini-clad beachgoers offered a striking contrast to the clerics back home. Persian grocery stores, bakeries and synagogues serving the Iranian Jewish community sprouted across Los Angeles — especially in Westwood, Beverly Hills and Pico-Robertson — earning the area the nickname 'Tehrangeles.' While many first-generation Iranian American parents urged their children to become doctors, lawyers and engineers, some couldn't resist Hollywood's allure. Aghdashloo earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for 2003's House of Sand and Fog. Bob Yari was a producer on 2004's Crash, which won best picture. Maz Jobrani and Nasim Pedrad chose trenchant comedy as their most potent artistic weapon. Like Aghdashloo, comedians Jobrani and Pedrad have also been shaped by the rupture of exile. Jobrani fled Iran as a child, arriving in California at 6. In his 20s, the Eddie Murphy-obsessed comic dropped out of a UCLA Ph.D. program in political science to pursue stand-up. 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Federal Building, demonstrators wearing 'MIGA' — Make Iran Great Again — hats blasted Persian music and waved American and Israeli flags, demanding regime change. Others feared that Israeli bombs would only embolden Iran's hardliners. Sitting in his office covered with movie posters, Mark Amin — one of the few major Iranian American producers in Hollywood — says there has long been a deep cultural kinship between Muslim and Jewish members of the Iranian diaspora. That bond was rooted in the experience of exile; a common language, Farsi; and shared opposition to the Iranian regime. Still, he notes, the war in Gaza has been polarizing, even as most Iranian Americans reject the Islamic Republic's support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. 'It has been a stressful time,' says Amin, who came from Rafsanjan to the U.S. in 1967 and rose from running video stores to producing Frida and Girl Most Likely. He recently executive produced The Apprentice, the Trump biopic applauded at Cannes. His sister fled Tehran by taxi after Israeli air strikes destroyed a neighbor's house. The recent 12-day war exposed a fault line within the diaspora. Many Iranian Jews feel an abiding support for Israel, seeing it as a necessary counterweight to Iran and a bellicose regime for which 'Death to Israel' has long been a central tenet. For many Muslim Iranian Americans, however — even those vehemently critical of Tehran — the war also stirred visceral anger and solidarity over the devastation in Gaza. Support for Palestinian rights does not equate to support for the Islamic Republic of Iran, but it is a prism through which many view the conflict. The Iranian diaspora is extraordinarily diverse, and political and generational outlooks often transcend religious lines. Just as many Muslim Iranian Americans strenuously oppose Hamas, progressive Iranian American Jews are among Netanyahu's harshest critics. 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Her parents fled Iran in 1988, during the Iran-Iraq War. 'They felt prejudice coming from the government,' she says, 'but they never felt prejudice from their neighbors.' As bombs fell on Iran in June, Lalezarzadeh says many Jewish Americans of her parents' generation hoped for regime change, even as they grieved seeing the landscapes of their youth under attack. 'They don't want innocent people to get hurt,' she says. 'They don't want their childhood neighborhoods to get bombed.' She says Gaza revealed a 'cleavage of ideology' between her Persian Jewish community — rooted in trauma from religious persecution — and her artistic, non-Jewish Middle Eastern friends. 'There's a lack of acknowledgment of the power imbalance and of having compassion for the magnitude of suffering, death and starvation in Gaza' in some Jewish spaces, she says. 'But also, these Persian Jews have left Iran. They're being informed by their own trauma.' She is also troubled by 'casual prejudice' toward Israelis. 'There's a conflation between the Israeli government and Israeli people,' she says. 'Their beliefs are also shaped by trauma.' Her family story has inspired her offstage work, too. In In the Garden of Tulips, a 2023 short film she wrote, Lalezarzadeh dramatized her mother's escape from Iran at age 15. 'There's a small hub of us Persian Jewish artists writing our family stories,' she says. Nazanin Nour, an Iranian American actress, comedian, writer, podcaster and activist, hosts Mehmooni, a podcast spotlighting Iranian voices. She laments that Hollywood and the media often misrepresent Iran — and that Iranians themselves remain largely invisible on American screens. Even when she makes it into the room, she's been told she doesn't 'look Iranian enough.' She asks, 'Who are you to tell me that I don't look Iranian?' Like many in her generation, she hungers to create work that highlights acts of defiance and resistance inside Iran. In her latest project, she is producing a feature-length version of the short film Forbidden to See Us Scream in Tehran, directed by Iranian filmmaker Farbod Ardebili, which follows a punk band led by a female singer defying the country's ban on women performing solo. 'It's showing the resilience and beauty of the people inside Iran,' she says, 'and how they fight back against the regime through art.' Actor and activist Nazanin Boniadi helped reshape the portrayal of Iranian Americans following 9/11. Her parents fled Iran for London in 1980, when she was just weeks old, fearing her father was on an execution list. She first broke through on Homeland as Fara Sherazi, an intelligent and strong-willed American CIA analyst. Wearing a hijab, Sherazi grapples with her Muslim and American identities while confronting Islamic terrorism, never losing her moral compass. Boniadi laments that many in the West fail to grasp that most Iranians reject the Islamic Republic. She also criticizes protesters waving the regime's flag to oppose Israel: 'If you want to oppose war, do not raise the flag of our oppressors.' She worries that the news depicting Iran as a dangerous enemy could distort the portrayal of Iranians in Hollywood storylines. While her Fara character was a breakthrough, she says the headscarf underscored how Hollywood sometimes falls back on facile cultural markers. As the daughter of exiles who despises the regime, she felt the character would have been more realistic as a secular woman. In Iran, she notes, the hijab holds symbolic weight as an emblem of the state's control over women's bodies. 'I'm so blessed to have played that role,' Boniadi says, adding that at that time, it 'was really groundbreaking to have a Muslim woman portrayed in that way.' Still, she pushed back, unsuccessfully, against the hijab. She calls for more nuance in Hollywood's portrayal of Middle Eastern characters. 'I think it's something that would be questioned now, and frankly, I would probably resist more now taking on a role that isn't an honest depiction of the Iranian people.' These days, however, Boniadi relishes simply playing a character not defined by her ethnicity. In Amazon's epic The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, she portrays Bronwyn, a village healer and single mother — no accent, no hijab, no Middle Eastern identity. More broadly, Iranian American artists yearn for a future when Iran isn't automatically conflated in American popular culture with theocracy, militancy and radicalism. 'They always show us blowing things up,' Jobrani says. 'Just once, I want to see a show where Mohammed in Iran is baking cookies.' This story appeared in the July 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe. 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‘Wizard of Oz' blown up by AI for giant Sphere screen
The massive Las Vegas venue known as Sphere will be screening its first classic movie, 'The Wizard of Oz,' starting on August 28. And as detailed in a segment on CBS Sunday Morning, this isn't just a matter of taking the existing movie and projecting it on Sphere's 160,000 square foot, wraparound LED screen. Instead, Sphere Entertainment CEO James Dolan said a 2,000-person team is creating a new experience. That includes using AI to both increase the resolution of the existing film and expand the footage beyond the frame of what was actually shot. For example, Turner Classic Movie presenter Ben Mankiewicz said that through the use of AI, 'a grainy close-up of Dorothy becomes richly detailed, and then through a process called outpainting — though it seems like magic — we see the rest of the Scarecrow, the Yellow Brick Road, and the mountains of Oz.' In other cases, expanding the frame means creating new performances from the existing actors. Despite these changes, Dolan said, 'Our standard on this was not to modify the film at all but to try and bring you into the film, as if you were in the studio when it was shot.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
TechCrunch
5 hours ago
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‘Wizard of Oz' blown up by AI for giant Sphere screen
In Brief The massive Las Vegas venue known as Sphere will be screening its first classic movie, 'The Wizard of Oz,' starting on August 28. And as detailed in a segment on CBS Sunday Morning, this isn't just a matter of taking the existing movie and projecting it on Sphere's 160,000 square foot, wraparound LED screen. Instead, Sphere Entertainment CEO James Dolan said a 2,000-person team is creating a new experience. That includes using AI to both increase the resolution of the existing film and expand the footage beyond the frame of what was actually shot. For example, Turner Classic Movie presenter Ben Mankiewicz said that through the use of AI, 'a grainy close-up of Dorothy becomes richly detailed, and then through a process called outpainting — though it seems like magic — we see the rest of the Scarecrow, the Yellow Brick Road, and the mountains of Oz.' In other cases, expanding the frame means creating new performances from the existing actors. Despite these changes, Dolan said, 'Our standard on this was not to modify the film at all but to try and bring you into the film, as if you were in the studio when it was shot.'
