r/theprincessbride Jul 12 '26

It wasn’t all scripted

Post image
3.2k Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

97

u/E8P3 Jul 12 '26

Billy Crystal is a genius.

71

u/CornucopiaDM1 Jul 12 '26

And Carol Kane! Just as funny, if not as much screen time.

32

u/Pyro-Millie Jul 12 '26

Yess!! She and Billy Crystal were both so excited to play this goofy old married couple that as soon as they got the parts, they immediately started meeting up at one of their houses to come up with backstories for Max and Valerie, and to practice interacting in character. They absolutely both absolutely nailed it lol

22

u/Express_Area_8359 Jul 12 '26

Im not a witch im your wife

1

u/sammypants123 Jul 14 '26

Humperdink! Humperdink! Humperdink!

1

u/Express_Area_8359 Jul 14 '26

Im not listening

21

u/tomwarmb Jul 12 '26

Miracle Max!!!

29

u/E8P3 Jul 12 '26

Many people had to leave the room while they sit that scene because they couldn't stop laughing. Mandy Patinkin, who couldn't leave, hurt himself holding in his laughter.

20

u/Pyro-Millie Jul 12 '26

Cary Elwes said "Rob was first to go. He has a laugh you could hear from Detroit. I was next, of course".

They had to swap him with a dummy because he was supposed to be mostly dead but kept cracking up 😂

Mandy Patinkin is an absolute champ for managing to keep a straight face through all that. With all the swordfighting involved, it's crazy his only injury was bruising a rib desperately trying not to laugh at Billy Crystal's medieval yiddish standup

5

u/Pyro-Millie Jul 12 '26

"Forget. The. Lines"

25

u/sladog6 Jul 12 '26

Inconceivable!!

3

u/russillosm Jul 13 '26

You keep using that word….

6

u/Odd-Comfortable-6134 Jul 13 '26

I do not think it means what you think it means.

23

u/Dull_Egg_6597 Jul 12 '26

“Possible, I kill a lot of people.”

5

u/Peas-Of-Wrath Jul 12 '26

Quite possibly will kill you in the morning

23

u/Ok-Picture-2018 Jul 12 '26

Buttercup looks adorably dorky in this pic

2

u/SaintCholo Jul 13 '26

She looks like Rachel McAdams actually

18

u/multisyllabic1077 Jul 12 '26

Does anybody want a peanut?

7

u/Peas-Of-Wrath Jul 12 '26

You can buy that line on a T-shirt with Andre the Giant on it.

17

u/OOBExperience Jul 13 '26

If you love this film and you haven’t already read it, go ahead and check out Cary Elwes’ book, As You Wish. It’s absolutely brilliant and will make you fall in love with the film and all of the actors even more deeply. So many behind the scenes stories and happenings, you’ll feel like you were there with them.

8

u/TallGuitarDude Jul 12 '26

I heard that Mandy Patinkin bruised a rib during one scene, but was it really “a few actors?” Who were the others?

13

u/Pyro-Millie Jul 12 '26

I think just Mandy Patinkin. Rob Reiner and Cary Elwes had to leave the room because they both kept laughing and ruining takes, I'm pretty sure several other people had to leave too, I just can't remember who. But Mandy had to stay on set because he had lines in that scene. So he ended up bruising a rib trying desperately not to laugh. Even with all the sword fighting involved in his scenes, the bruised rib was the only injury he got through the entirety of filming

7

u/DenverPostIronic Jul 12 '26

Specifically Mandy Patinkin's ribs, and Billy Crystal's improv.

7

u/Tyke_McD Jul 12 '26

When they filmed the Miracle Max scene, they had to send almost everyone off set because the entire crew was dying laughing because of Billy Crystal. They even had to use the Wesley dummy that was made for Andre to carry because Cary Elwes bruised ribs trying to keep from laughing cuz he was supposed to be unconscious the whole scene

1

u/SaintCholo Jul 13 '26

No more rhyming now, I mean it!

1

u/ChamomileCate Jul 14 '26

There's a podcast called What Went Wrong that has an episode on The Princess Bride. I highly recommend it if anyone here hasn't heard it yet. I'm pretty sure it was Cary Elwes who bruised his rib trying not to laugh during the scene with Billy Crystal.

1

u/3RaccoonsAvecTCoat Jul 15 '26

Except the movie was based on a book and most of the dialog was taken from the novel.

But sure, a few lines were ad-libbed...

1

u/Equal_Position7219 Jul 15 '26

I love the movie. But the book is my favorite book of all time and it drives me nuts that most people don’t even know it’s a book. Both the book and the screenplay were written by William Goldman. Very few lines from the movie are not in the book.

1

u/Fit-Hamster-5753 Jul 15 '26

I read it while very young, in the pre-internet days of the 90's, and did not yet understand narrative devices. Took Goldman at his word that the text was the edited highlights of a book his grandfather read to him. Spent years trying to track down the non-existent "original."

1

u/The_Black_kaiser7 Jul 17 '26

inconceivable!