5

Harrison Ford Landed The Part Of Han Solo While Fixing A Broken Door

If it wasn't for that infamous earring, we'd all assume that Harrison Ford actually is Han Solo. It's such perfect casting that it's hard to imagine anyone else as the infamous scoundrel. But despite having cast Ford before, George Lucas didn't even consider letting him audition for the role...until he saw him hanging out on a porch in his tool belt.

As we've mentioned before, Ford made ends meet as a carpenter while trying to make it as an actor. Ford thought his big break had come when he got a part in Lucas' American Graffiti, but afterward, he couldn't get any acting jobs and went back to carpentry. It's like what Jesus would have done if that whole messiah gig hadn't worked out.

Else Cederborg, Via CBR.com“Carpentry is fun, but my real dream is to spend my life crashing planes.”

4

Ryan Gosling Was Cast In The Notebook Because He Was "Not Handsome"

Grown-up child actors have it rough in Hollywood. Not everyone stays as charming and lovable as they were at seven -- just look at Lassie. But this worked in favor of one former child actor, who was able to make the transition into stardom exactly because he grew up ugly. We are of, course, talking about ol' lazy-eyed, crooked-nosed Ryan Gosling.

Before he wouldn't shut up about jazz but after he was done hamming it up on kids' TV, Gosling was a young actor struggling to be taken seriously. But his fortunes changed when he was offered the leading role in The Notebook. For those of you pretending not to have seen it, The Notebook tells the story of an old-timey couple falling in love despite obstacles that include class and Hitler. The movie became a huge hit, and a big part of that is owed to Gosling's breakout handsomeness. The movie's poster even looks like the cover of one of those Harlequin novels tucked in the back of your mom's nightstand.

New Line CinemaWe know, it doesn’t even seem possible that a romantic movie with no attractive leads could ever be popular.

3

Gunther From Friends Was An Extra Hired For His Coffee Experience

We all remember Friends, the sitcom about six 20-somethings dealing with work, love, and the inability to befriend a single minority. But besides a great and memorable main cast (and Phoebe), there was only one supporting character who really stood out: Gunther, the awkward manager of Central Perk, a man who forever hovered in the background looking like a ventriloquist dummy going through a midlife crisis.

Warner Bros. TelevisionSeen here displaying 100 percent of his acting range.

2

Shane Black Was Cast In Predator Because They Wanted Him To Rewrite The Script

The original cast of Predator was a who's who of movie tough guys, from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Carl Weathers to Jesse Ventura, who acts throughout like he thinks he's in a documentary. One notable exception is the character of Hawkins, who looks less like a championship bodybuilder and more like a guy whose contraband is a waifu pillow and some wicked D&D dice.

20th Century FoxSeen here reading a comic, because otherwise you might not realize that he’s not as tough as a three-time Mr. Universe.

While you might not recognize the face, Hawkins is played by famed writer and director Shane Black, who at the time had made a name for himself with the script for Lethal Weapon. So why does Black show up in an action movie surrounded by body types rarely seen outside of an American Gladiators rerun? According to the movie's director, they wanted him to take an on-set rewrite job, but Black refused. So in a Machiavellian scheme where the ultimate goal was to slightly improve a killer dreadlocked amphibian movie, the producers cast Black. That way they had him on set, where he couldn't help but "contribute" to the story.

1

The Leads For The Omen And The Exorcist Were Hired Due To Pure Hilarity

With the exception of the Hieronymus-Bosch-esque landscape of malevolence that is a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's, it's hard to envision little kids as the embodiment of Satan. But in creating some of the great horror movies, filmmakers were tasked with finding little tykes who could successfully pass as antichrists.

When casting The Omen, director Richard Donner had to find a kid creepy enough to play Damien, who's part young boy, part unholy monster, and part Morrissey publicity photo. While there was presumably no shortage of stage parents lining up their kids for a crack at playing a creepy devil child, finding the right one was another matter. So how did Donner settle on actor Harvey Stevens? Easy: Stevens was the only one who immediately struck him in the crotch.

20th Century FoxMaybe not the exact shade of terror they had in mind, but definitely a menacing move.

Donner wasn't immediately convinced Stevens was the right kid for the unholy job, but at the insistence of his producer, he brought the boy in for another audition. However, unbeknownst to anyone else, Donner wanted to see how Stevens would perform in the scene wherein Damien had to fight his own mother. So when the audition started, Donner challenged the boy to a fight and told Stevens to "come at him" -- which was apparently an acceptable thing to say to a child actor in the 1970s. Before the director realized what he'd done, the young actor was charging at him, clawing his face and hitting him square in the groin. After the audition, Donner told his producer to dye Stevens' hair black and get him a contract, presumably in a falsetto voice.

The team making The Exorcist had a similarly daunting task when casting Regan, a preteen girl possessed by an ancient demon with a penchant for violence, profanity, and getting kinky with religious symbols. Director William Friedkin had a hard time finding a stage kid who had "swearing like a sailor" on her resume, and was about to give up on his search when in walked 11-year-old Linda Blair and her mom. At first sight, Blair was like all the other precious darlings Friedkin had rejected, but when he asked her if she knew what her part was all about, Blair calmly responded by listing all the bad things her character does, like how "she pushes a man out of a window and hits her mother in the face and she masturbates with a crucifix." Taken aback by her candor, Friedkin asked her if she knew what masturbation was. Blair answered: "It's like jerking off, isn't it?" He then asked if she'd ever "done that" -- to which the 11-year-old replied "Sure, haven't you?" Friedkin hired her on the spot.

Warner Bros.Boy, we’re kind of amazed that everyone who ever held an audition in the ‘70s isn’t in jail right now.

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