Awesome TV and Movie Characters Who Were Completely Improvised

Film script writers spend hours planning out what each character will say and do. This takes much creativity and can determine to a great extent the success of the film. But sometimes, actors go off script and come up with another idea. This is when improvisation occurs. You might be astonished to learn that some of the most famous quotes and iconic scenes in film history were ad-libbed. This is not restricted to only scenes. In the cases you will read here, the characters were also improvised.\r \r 1. Dr. Peter Venkman – Ghostbusters\r \r Dr. Peter Venkman is a fictional character from the Ghostbusters movies. Venkman is one of three professors of parapsychology on the Ghostbusters team and he is portrayed by Bill Murray. While there was a script and it was presented to Murray, it is said that he improvised almost everything. Some people on set revealed that he only occasionally glanced at the script and others say he ignored it completely. One thing is for sure, Murray, his role and his character to a great extent was all him.  \r \r 2. Optimus Prime- Transformers\r \r The protagonist of the Transformers film series, Optimus Prime is the last Prime, the commander of the Autobots, and the brother of Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons. He has appeared in every Transformers movie directed by Michael Bay as well as the Bumblebee remake. In all of these films the voice of Optimus Prime was that of Peter Cullen, a veteran voice actor. Given that Cullen has so much experience voicing Prime, he developed a great understanding of the character. As such, he improvised the lines whenever he felt that there was something that Prime would likely say.\r \r 3. The Janitor- Scrubs\r \r Janitor worked as a handyman and a subpar custodian at Sacred Heart Hospital on the series Scrubs. He rarely actually carried out his job's responsibilities; instead, he spent his time thinking up ways to irritate J.D., on whom he pulled countless practical jokes. Neil Flynn played the role of Janitor in 166 episodes over the course of the seven seasons of Scrubs. The director planned for Janitor to be a one-time character, however, Flynn did such an excellent job on day one that it was decided that he would be a mainstay character. Flynn was so good that most of his lines were improvised and they relied on him to a great extent to make things up as he went along.\r \r 4. Beetlejuice\r \r Beetlejuice is a 1988 American fantasy horror comedy film that was directed by Tim Burton. Michael Keaton who played Beetlejuice actually designed the classic character’s iconic and memorable look. Although playing the main character of this film, Keaton only appeared on screen for 17.5 minutes out of the 92-minute movie. During almost this entire time, Keaton ad-libbed almost all his lines. In fact, it's said that he improvised over ninety-percent of his lines.\r \r 5. Wikus van der Merwe – District 9\r \r The 2009 science fiction action film “District 9” is about Wikus van der Merwe and Christopher, his alien best friend. It centers on Wikus van der Merwe transformation to an alien. Sharlto Copley, who played Wikus, explained that there was not much of a script to go by. As such, the words spoken by Wikus were totally improvised. We can only assume that this was done to maintain the feel of a documentary. The ability to do this and produce a film of such superb quality is impressive.