re: Everyday stuff that always happens in movies and TV shows that is not realistic

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Nobody actually eats their food. People get up and walk away from food they haven't touched all the time in movies.

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I recently read the autobio of the actress who played the schoolteacher on Little House On The Prairie. I figgered she was some conservative Theatah type -- turns out she was a '60s hippie chick who hung out w/Jim Morrison and others in the Laurel Canyon scene. (she also plays the mother in Eraserhead)

She wrote something very interesting. When she was a starving young actress she got a job on some TV show where she had to eat dinner. She showed up on the set hungry, and when they shot the scene she wolfed
down her food voraciously. What she didn't realize is that they would shoot various coverage shots: long, medium, two shot, her CU etc... And every shot had to match her wolfing down the food. By the time they finished the scene she was about to burst.

You may have heard the story about Sinatra storming off the Guys & Dolls set after Brando kept blowing his lines -- deliberately? -- in a two shot where Sinatra had to eat cheesecake. I've seen outtakes from Paper Moon where Tatum O'Neal kept deliberately blowing her line so Ryan had to keep eating pancakes.

The Little House actress said she was too young and naive to know the trick actors use in such scenes: Play with your food -- don't eat unless you have to.

The B&W half hour Gunsmokes have a lot of scenes set in the local restaurant, so the characters can exchange exposition* ("I'm going after the bank robbers", "Be careful Matt" etc). I recently saw one where Matt is having stew for lunch. We see James Arness stir it, cut some of it with a knife and fork, even bring some of it up to his mouth -- but we never actually see him eat anything.


*Another reason for these scenes is actors like them as it gives them something to do with their hands.