Great Moments In Extras Acting: 16 Blocks

The best part of the Bruce Willis / Mos Def real-time opus 16 Blocks is, by far, a moment about 2/3rds of the way into the movie. Bruce Willis and Mos Def jump onto a bus and yell for the driver to hurry up, and to ignore the corrupt cops chasing them. Well, passengers soon see that ol' Bruno has a gun and they start understandibly freaking out; with his ghostly pallor, stupid gay porn mustache, and ridiculous hairpiece, Bruce Willis is quite frightening here.

The camera pans down one aisle of the apeshit-going passengers, and catches one panicked woman cry-talking to a friend on her cell phone. The only problem: she has no cell phone.

I don't know if she thought it was a practice take and she'd get her phone prop later. It's possible. But more likely she dreamt up the piece of business in an actor's fever dream, in the moment, and neglected to realize that unlike improv theatre or acting class -- which is probably what her acting experience was limited to at that point -- you can't just mime a prop when you're in Toronto (shh... New York) making a big budget movie.

Since my camera phone doesn't take good-enough stills to show you, here's a recreation:



Give that woman her SAG card... or whatever the Canadian equivalent. And a cell phone.