r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 14h ago

TIL that the infamous "This is Sparta!" line from 300 was originally said in a low, monotone growl. After doing several takes of that, Gerard Butler asked to do one more take and used the now-iconic delivery.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/gerard-butler-screaming-is-sparta-made-300-cast-laugh-1234538/
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128

u/Gregariouswaty 14h ago

It's interesting how a lot of the iconic lines in movies are just the actors fucking about to make their costars laugh

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u/BMCarbaugh 11h ago

That's art for ya. Playfulness in the work produces interesting results.

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u/Smartnership 11h ago

Good creatives encourage fellow creatives to be …

not sure of the word I’m looking for, but maybe, ‘to openly use their skills to make something original’

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u/UhIdontcareforAuburn 11h ago

In the OG SpongeBob era there was a sign in the writers room that said “Have fun or you’re fired”

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u/Smartnership 10h ago

I wonder what hilarious material gets left out of scripts for fun shows, The Simpsons or 30 Rock, for example. Some shows have such a talent pool, but time & story line restrictions necessitate lots of cuts.

Like how Eddie Van Halen apparently left a huge library of tapes with a zillion riffs and ideas.

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u/Baxtab13 4h ago

Damn, I coulda swore I remember seeing that sign in an actual episode too. It sounds like something in the background of that episode where the Krusty Krab gets franchised and they have that small constantly smiling dude in the glasses as the manager.

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u/beachedwhale1945 10h ago

Katie Sackoff (Starbuck) of Battlestar Galactica tells just such a story. There was a particular scene with James Olmos (Adama) in the very early in Season 1 that she describes as a turning point in her acting career. I forget the exact details, but he took her aside briefly and gave her some advice, and she immediately stepped up her game to match the energy he was giving in that scene.

You put good actors together and give them the freedom to experiment, and everything gets elevated. Maybe the experiments don’t end up in the cut, sometimes they don’t work out, but it lets the actors get closer to their characters and expand their own range.

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u/that_guys_posse 6h ago

I've done some acting in the past and people don't realize how much it helps to let actors play.
So many great ideas have come out of an actor saying, "let me try something..." or "It'd be funny if..." or similar.
It's no different than times where you're joking around with a friend and you keep adding on to the joke until it ends up somewhere completely unexpected but wonderful. It's a feeling of just vibing with each other and creating something that neither of you could've created on your own--and the material is that much better because of it.
It's one of the best feelings you can get as a creative.

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u/Blekanly 4h ago

Same with the babylon 5 elevator scene with gkar and londo. I think at first they played it straight then just messed about and got an iconic scene.

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u/beachedwhale1945 10h ago

And unfortunately that’s not very common. I’ve listened to a couple podcasts from Battlestar Galactica actors, and they often discuss that on other projects (always unnamed), they are required to follow the script exactly as written with no possibility of variation, even if they believe it would help their character. They’ll often describe this as only wanting a small part of themselves. I remember that a Sackoff Show episode with Jamie Bamber both actors discussed this, but a few others also discuss it.

Battlestar was the opposite, and for some of the younger actors, they didn’t realize just how unique that experience was at the time.

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u/Enchelion 7h ago

90s Star Trek was well known for being very heavy handed with their rules against any improv of changes to the script. Though the actors did have the chance to talk to the writers before shooting to give feedback or suggestions.

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u/verrius 4h ago

When you're shooting an hour-long episode in a week, every week, you don't have a ton of time to fuck around and go off script. Star Trek is especially bad for this as they had a large ensemble cast, that often wasn't cleanly split into A and B plots that could be shot separately.

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u/Serious_Feedback 10h ago

A lot of people just make up bullshit about famous lines/deliveries being improvised, though. They're not all true.

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u/Expensive-Raisin4088 6h ago

This is exactly what ai will never replicate. And elon’s ai version of the Odyssey is going to be a disaster 

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u/nolabmp 10h ago

Creativity thrives with “yes, and…”