Have you ever thought about all the food you see in movies? Maybe you wondered if the actors on set are actually eating? Is the food plastic? Do actors actually swallow the food? If you just want to find all this out, then give this article a good read in which we have compiled all the necessary information regarding actors eating food on set that is worth sharing.
Do actors eat real food in movies? As required for some specific scenes, the actors usually consume real food but often spit it out after the scene finishes. The reason behind this is to make sure that the actors do not fall sick, as some scenes require many retakes. However, if the food scene does not involve eating, real food is often replaced by fake food.
Let us take a few minutes and explore this topic a little further.
When Does It Have To Be Real And Not Fake Food?
A few times, the food is required to be actually eaten by the actors. However, most actors keep a spit bucket with them, so as soon as the director says cut, they spit out whatever food is left in their mouths. Also, there might be times when an actor has eaten nothing since the morning and might really need to take a bite from the food during the scene. That is when the food needs to be real and not fake. However, it is certain that once these actors are stuffed, they go back to spitting the food again in their spit buckets.
Watch this video to see how actors actually eat on sets:
Challenges Of Eating Real Food On Movie Sets
Two of the main challenges that make eating real food on the sets a little tricky are:
- Time: Since a single scene in the movies is shot from many angles, it requires a lot of time to shoot a scene for each camera angle. Therefore, the food lying there for a long time is not safe to consume. So, the ice cubes you see in the movies are plastic ones. The ice cream is usually mashed potatoes. Eww!
- Continuity: Continuity of the movie scenes is the most challenging when the props used are food. Some scenes require to be shot even more than 100 times. This means that everything needs to be the same for each retake. For example, the utensils need to be aligned the same way, the buttons need to be done, the furniture needs to be placed at the exact same location, and much more. Thus, the food lying there for such a long time is not safe to consume for the actors.
Some Examples Of Movies With Real Food
Here are some famous movies where all the food you see is real!
- Harry Potter
- Pulp Fiction
- Cool Hand Luke
- Goodfellas
- The Godfather
- The Goonies
Last Words
There are some things which we have to gauge in the scene to determine if the food is real or fake. If you see an actor actually eating in the movie, chances are that the food is real. However, these actors do not gain weight since most food is usually spat out and not ingested. Also, if you see that the food in the movie is only lying there and nobody is touching it, there is a 99% chance that it is all plastic!
