Unexpected Ways Fans Got Onto Movies And TV Shows

8 The Glen Coco Guy From Mean Girls Snuck On Set For A Free Meal

Everyone’s favorite hardly-seen character in the movie about teenagers being wild animals almost never happened. Aspiring actor David Reale initially auditioned for a part in the film but didn’t get it. That didn’t keep him away, though. 

As Reale told Daze back in 2014: “What happened was, they ended up filming a lot of the school stuff right across the park from my apartment in Toronto. One day I sort of wandered onto set to see if I could watch some scenes being shot and maybe get some free food (I was 19-year-old actor with no money, so eating was daily mission) ... At one point, the director recognized me from my audition and, as a consolation prize, said something like ‘Hey, I'm going to put you right in the front on this next scene, and you'll have a name and everything’ … I just sat in a chair and tried not to stare at Lindsay Lohan.”

Truly, you go, Glen Coco.

7 Game of Thrones Fans Got To Voice The Screams Of The Undead Dragon

Remember that very sad part where the dragon Viserion died, only to be resurrected by the Night King in that show where the most annoying people come into power? It turns out that the show’s sound designer, Paula Fairfield, recruited some die-hard fans to help create “the tortured screams of the dead army” that was Viserion’s new dragon cry. 

A filmmaker had been recording fans’ reactions of the show every Sunday evening at the Burlington Bar in Chicago, and Fairfield — who had met some of these regulars at the Con of Thrones fan convention — asked a bunch of them (without telling them what it was for) to record some clips by getting drunk and then screaming “as if you're being tortured. It’ll be therapeutic!”

Fairfield joined the group during the airing of the episode where Ice Zombie Viserion first takes flight (she’s the one with the ball cap and glasses in the video below). It was only after seeing the episode that she revealed to them that they were, in fact, the dragon.

6 A TikToker Playing Corpses Got The Role Of A Corpse On CSI: Vegas

Josh Nalley from Kentucky has a TikTok account where he goes to different locations and plays dead because he figures that’s the “easiest way” to get on to a movie or TV show. He also admitted that “laziness is part of it” because this way, he doesn’t have to go to any actual auditions. His laziness worked, as Nalley got discovered by the folks over at CSI: Vegas, who apparently scour social media for extras good at playing dead people. Nalley spent a week on set playing a random corpse.

5 The Australian Tourist Who Crashed The Gossip Girl Set

Kate Robertson was a tourist on a mission. After wandering into the Waldorf Astoria, where the teen drama was being filmed, she pretended to have a reservation at the restaurant, only to take the elevator up to the ballroom area where the cast and crew were doing their thing. She pretended to be an extra, the crew totally bought it, and she got to be a “Partygoer” in the scene. Naturally, disillusionment soon followed: “Amazing to see … but tedious work. They did retake after retake.” 

4 A Star Wars Fan Got A Cameo In The Force Awakens Thanks To A Charity Drive

In 2014, J.J. Abrams announced a campaign called Star Wars Force For Change that invited fans to participate and win a cameo in the upcoming movie. The winner, D.C. Barns, did not expect to win — he just wanted to donate money to a good cause. Little did Barns know that he’d end up winning and be part of the movie. In a Reddit AMA, he talked about his experience: “The acting part wasn't difficult, I was just really nervous. Yes, everyone was super nice. I did freak out when I met Han Solo. Everyone freaks out when they meet Han Solo. Even JJ Abrams!” Check out the behind-the-scenes video of Barns’ experience here:

3 Comic Con Fans Ended Up Recording Lines For Tron: Legacy

At the release of the movie’s trailer during San Diego’s 2010 Comic Con event, the panel asked audience members to chant “Disk Wars!” and “Rinzler!” together, as seen above, for the recording to ultimately be used in the movie, as seen below.

2 University Wins Competition To Be Featured In Psych, Causes Controversy

Winning a contest to get featured in a movie or show is nothing new, but when Brigham Young University entered one that had colleges compete for a shoutout in the detective drama series, they didn’t know the controversy that would follow. It turned out that their Uni was featured in a bar setting — with two characters sporting BYU T-shirts — which angered some folks because the Uni is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which strictly prohibits the consumption of alcohol.

1 How 26 10-Graders From An Inner City School Got The Chance To Write An Entire Bewitched Episode

After Jefferson High School teacher Marcella Saunders realized that her Black students understood TV shows better than they did poetry back in 1969— less than 1% were reading at a 9-grade level — she asked them what shows they enjoyed, with the idea being to teach them through the medium of television. When it became apparent that a lot of kids were into the ‘60s sitcom Bewitched, she wrote to the television studio, sharing her idea but not expecting a response. Producer William Asher and star Elizabeth Montgomery paid for the students to visit the set, and the show ended up commissioning Saunders and all of her students to write an entire episode called “Sisters at Heart.”

It was a groundbreaking episode that tackled racism and prejudice, and it received the Governors' Award at the Primetime Emmys in 1971.