Actors (especially big names) can and do improvise all the time, in almost all movies.
It's rare they say all lines exactly as in the script. In fact often the script gets updated with ideas that came up during shooting including improvised lines.
It's rare they say all lines exactly as in the script. In fact often the script gets updated with ideas that came up during shooting including improvised lines.
The biggest problem are writer/directors who cannot deal with improvising actors. Like a Haneke, who would turn around in his grave if an actor goes against his sacred script. That's why they have 25 shots per scene, and 3-6 months per shoot.
Sometimes a line just isn't working and an actor or the director or the writer or a grip will come up with something that works and that's what you hear about. Those are exceptions and not the rule.
The director has the final say. Often others higher up have the final say. If he wants you to say the line as written, you will say the line as written.
In general it's more common that some lines will change and be improvised by the actors, than not.
It's even practical, some lines come off as stiff when the actors tell them verbatim, others just can't be replicated in a longer emotionally charged scene (where the flow and the emotions carry the performance), and so on.
>Often others higher up have the final say. If he wants you to say the line as written, you will say the line as written.
DUH!