10 Insanely Weird Movie Facts You’ve Probably Never Heard Before

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of movie life.

We’re going to take you on a journey behind the scenes and prove to you that stranger things haven’t happened.

These are the stories movie directors would prefer you not to know. But we are the weirdness experts. We’ve cracked the code and uncovered some of the oddest movie secrets you were never meant to find out about.

So tuck into your popcorn, sit back and relax. Enjoy an unforgettable ride with our top ten weird movie facts.  

1. A Clockwork Orange

Director Stanley Kubrick was well-known for removing actors from their comfort zone. His goal was to bring about a more authentic performance.

He discovered that the actor Malcolm McDowell had a bit of a phobia of reptiles. Kubrick then came up with a plan to give his character Alex a pet snake which was called Basil.

The movie was nominated for several Oscars, including best picture. It’s one of only two X-rated feature films to ever be shortlisted for the top prize. The other was Midnight Cowboy.

2. Titanic

There are two hours and forty minutes of scenes set in 1912 during this movie.

This is precisely the length of time the ship took to sink in real life.

At the movie’s wrap party, someone spiked the food with a hallucinogenic drug. This led to more than fifty people being hospitalized. James Cameron made himself throw up when he realized what was happening.

3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Jim Carrey’s make-up took eight-and-a-half hours for this movie. The actor found the process extremely difficult to cope with.  The picture of him really makes the bizarre come to life.

He was so exhausted after the first day of filming that he angrily kicked a hole in the wall of his trailer. He went on to tell the director, Ron Howard, that he was unable to do the movie.

It was then decided that a person who had trained CIA operatives in how to endure torture would be hired to help Carrey deal with the make-up issue. The actor later said that it was this training that got him through the movie.

The actor also revealed he’d listened to the Bee Gees to help him through the filming process.

4. Eyes Wide Shut

It’s hard to believe how far some directors will go to get the right atmosphere in the movies we love to stream through sites like 9xmovie.

Eyes Wide Shut is no exception. Director Stanley Kubrick wanted to try and create a real sense of jealousy in Tom Cruise during filming.

He banned him from the set on all six days his then-wife, Nicole Kidman, was shooting her sex scene with a young male model.

Kubrick also forbade Kidman to discuss the scene with Cruise in an effort to increase the tension between the characters.

5. Alien

When the crew discovers the massive space jockey in the movie, it looks incredibly big compared to them.

This is because it was actually the director, Ridley Scott’s pre-teen children in the spacesuits.

The production company is said to have wanted to cut the scene. It thought it would be too expensive to create such a huge structure. Scott played a trick and created the illusion.

6. Snakes on the Plane

While the movie was being shot its title was altered to Pacific Air Flight 121 from Snakes on the plane.

Changing a title is more common than you’d think. 

The movie’s star, Samuel L. Jackson, insisted that the title was changed back to the original with immediate effect. He later said the only reason he’d taken the movie on was because of its title.

7. Beetlejuice

The studio wanted the title of the movie to be House Ghosts.

The director Tim Burton then jokingly made a suggestion that it be called Scared Sheetless because of the link between ghosts and sheets.

The studio thought the idea was hilarious and considered using it much to Burton’s horror. He insisted that they settle for Beetlejuice. 

8. The Exorcist

The actor who played the radiologist’s assistant is a convicted murderer.

Paul Bateson was working as an X-ray technician in New York. This is where the famous scene of Linda Blair as Regan undergoing a carotid angiography procedure was shot.

Looking for a bit of realism, the director used an actual neuropsychiatric team which included Bateson for the shoot.

Six years after the movie’s release, Bateson was arrested and then convicted for the brutal murder of film critic Addison Verrill. It’s thought he may have been involved in several other murders too. 

9. Django Unchained

In the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Calvin Candie bangs his hand on the dinner table. He accidentally smashes a glass with his palm. Even though his hand was bleeding badly, he stayed in character and finished the scene.

When director Quentin Tarantino called cut, the room broke into a standing ovation.  Tarantino was so overawed that he used this take in the final edit of the movie.

After DiCaprio’s hand was bandaged, the actor came up with the idea of smearing blood onto the face of co-star Kerry Washington. This appealed to Tarantino and Washington. Fake blood was then used in the scene. 

10. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

The teacup which Gene Wilder bites into was actually made out of wax. The actor had to chew on it until the end of the take before he was able to spit it out.

When the children come into the Chocolate Room for the first time and see the candy gardens, their reactions are real. They’d never seen that part of the set before.

They were also unaware that Gene Wilder would come out of the factory with a limp.

Wilder had made it a condition of making the movie that he did a somersault in the scene when he first meets the children.

He said having Willy Wonka limp and then somersault represented his character perfectly. He wanted his character to be a person whose actions could never be predicted.

The Ultimate Weird Movie Facts 

We love to be different. If you enjoyed our weird movie facts, then we have plenty more to share with you. 

You can join the weirdness by checking out some of our more popular posts.

Weirdomatic is the place where all weird things come to life through the amazing world of photographs – a corner of our wild imagination or the whimsical face of the reality?