By now, everyone knows Gene Wilder as the titular character in 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. As it turns out, in his own words, he only did the film on one condition, that being of the now legendary first appearance of his character in the film:
When I make my first entrance, I'd like to come out of the door carrying a cane and then walk toward the crowd with a limp. After the crowd sees Willy Wonka is a cripple, they all whisper to themselves and then become deathly quiet. As I walk toward them, my cane sinks into one of the cobblestones I'm walking on and stands straight up, by itself; but I keep on walking, until I realize that I no longer have my cane. I start to fall forward, and just before I hit the ground, I do a beautiful forward somersault and bounce back up, to great applause.
As it turns out, Wilder did this because, in his own words, "from that time on, no one will know if I'm lying or telling the truth". He's not wrong, of course, and it paid off in more than one way. Stay tuned!
Behind ze book case