Wild Things Movie Actors

[Darios Uclaray]

WillFerrell walked away from the set of Step Brothers with something pretty unusual -- the prosthetic testicles he used in the film. While the prop tends to weird some people out, Will says he likes showing them off at dinner parties.

"They're life-like and I have brought these out, much to the horror [of many]. At many a dinner party, I presented these. These fake testicles are what was put on Brennan's drum kit," Will explained on The Graham Norton Show.

Aaron Paul admits that he stole quite a lot from the set of Breaking Bad including the prosthetic head used when Gus Fring got blown up. While the prop is a little bit gross, Aaron says he's happy to have it -- and even shared a photo of it on Instagram.

"Well, this is what it looks like," Aaron captioned the photo of the head. "Also, if you are not caught up on Breaking Bad guess what...Gus's face blows up.????? Love to you all. By the way, I stole every prop I could from this show. So happy I did."

When Alexander Skarsgrd wrapped filming on Northman, he walked away with a bizarre souvenir. He says he was given the "bloody thong" that he wore while filming the nude fight scene at the end of the movie.

Dakota Johnson admits that she also walked away from a set with underwear! When she finished filming the first 50 Shades of Grey flick, she said she had accumulated a lot of underwear -- as well as a sex toy.

John Stamos took home an entire couch from the set of Full House. In an Instagram post, John revealed that he had the iconic couch from the Tanner family's living room -- and was partially using it as a baby gate!

After filming Avengers: Age of Ultron, Robert Downey Jr. requested that the giant Avengers 'A' from the set be sent to him so he could put it in his office. Despite being massive, he had the prop sent to him and now proudly has it on display.

When Parks and Recreation wrapped, Nick Offerman asked to take home some spare wood from the construction of the set. While it may have seemed weird at the time, he actually used it to create custom wooden paddles for people who worked on the show.

Rupert Grint admits that he took a few things from the set of Harry Potter but the most wild item he acquired was the flying car. After filming wrapped, the car was actually stolen but it was later abandoned when its notoriety made it hard for the thieves to sell. Rupert eventually gained possession of the car and it's gone on to be displayed in museums.

Norman Reedus has a collection of bizarre items he's acquired from filming The Walking Dead -- and show boss Greg Nicotero has even helped him add to the collection. As for some of the weirdest items, Norman says he has hair clippings from some of his co-stars.

When 30 Rock wrapped, Tracy Morgan decided to take home the fish tank which housed his character's iguana, Jeremy. Tracy later shared that everyone on set knew he was going to take it since he's such a big fan of marine life.

"A fish tank from 30 Rock," Tracy told People when asked about the last thing he took from a set. "I love marine life. They knew that was gone. There was no need to do paperwork."

"You had this weird guy putting it on you and you have to wear it all day. There's not a way to go to the bathroom so it's pretty weird. But actually it's the only prop I've ever kept from a movie!" Mark admitted on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

After filming eight Harry Potter films, Daniel Radcliffe admits he acquired a lot of things from the set. As for the weirdest item, Daniel says it's probably the prosthetic arm that was used for the scene in Chamber of Secrets when Harry loses all the bones in his arm.

"I started to try and just go inside the book as opposed to thinking of stuff I'd put on top of the book," says Jonze. "In thinking about who the wild things were ... I started to think of them as wild emotions. That idea seemed like a big one."

"When I read the book and I imagined being Max, I didn't imagine being Max inside some animated version," says Jonze. "We wanted a real kid ... [going] to a real place with these creatures that are there in front of him that can push him, hug him and pat him on the head and with their claws sort of swiping close to his face."

Sendak's wild things are frightening and fantastical giant creatures with strangely human characteristics. For the movie, Jonze commissioned 10-foot-high versions of the monsters from Jim Henson's Creature Shop and then set about carefully casting the actors who would wear the costumes.

"What we were looking for was really internal subtle performances. My dream was that when you put the camera on a wild thing it would be the same as putting the camera on Meryl Streep or Nicolas Cage or James Gandolfini. You'd be able to just sit there, have the camera rest on their face as they're listening or not even talking, just listening," he explains.

From my easel, I have looked out the windows of my Paradise Valley home to see black bear, deer, elk, bighorn, long-tailed weasel, and an assortment of other wild things both furred and feathered. This is the reason I have chosen to live here; to be immersed in the place that inspires my work.

Years of observation have taught me that individual bears may have different foraging and hunting techniques that are dependent on the unique flora, fauna and geography of their territory. When you spend enough time in a place, you find an ebb and flow to the creatures, the plant life, even the land.

There are as many ways to approach subject manner as there are artists. For me, the experiences are what inspire my work. Each painting is story of a personal encounter and holds a piece of my soul. Swirled into every brushstroke are the nonvisual experiences that accompany wildlife encounters: the crisp chill in autumn air; the sometimes-relentless wind; the bitter cold of 30 below zero; the glitter and gurgle of fresh water over streambeds.

You can't say the same for Spike Jonez's movie adaptation, which by necessity has to expand Sendak's spare and wondrous tale. It's uneven, drags in spots and becomes a mite too self-indulgent, particularly for the youngest in the audience.

Yet it has a beauty and integrity and wildness of its own - it's clear this is a film that just loves the book. And in its own way, it gets at the sadness and the exuberance of Sendak's story (the author, fittingly, is on board as producer). Let the wild rumpus start, indeed.

You might know the story: Young Max, in his head-to-toe wolf suit, makes mischief of one kind and another. Here he faces off against his single mother (Catherine Keener) because she serves frozen corn and has a boyfriend over, though Max's problems really run far deeper. The science teacher who told him the sun was going to die one day certainly didn't help.

So he stands on the kitchen counter and roars: "Woman - feed me! I'll eat you up!" Then he does something even more wild and runs away into the streets until he finds a boat, in which he sails off through night and day to where the wild things are.

Yet they also come freighted with old hurts, insecurities, rivalries and resentments, and argue in ways that sometimes resemble a serious Woody Allen movie. That's perhaps too heavy a psychological load for children, who will want them to get over the psychotherapy and just get to eating and wrassling.

You've got to love that kid, problems and all. And young Max Records (his real name) gives an astonishingly real and raw performance; if he were an adult, they'd mention the Academy Awards in the same sentence with his name.

The creatures stop moping long enough to make him king of where the wild things are, and then they get around to the business of having fun. But as the book made clear, sometimes that not enough, even for the very wild.

"Where the Wild Things Are" is wise to the ways of the child, but as a film it's probably not cute enough to be a big hit with the very young. Instead it speaks to adults who remember being a child, or who have children of their own. It might get some sniffles going among that crowd. The script - by Jonze and Dave Eggers (who wrote the memoir "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius") really gets at that anarchic, howling-at-the-moon wildness of childhood - and also at that boundless energy and imagination.

Jonez ("Being John Malkovich") sets the film to a winsome indie-rock soundtrack, shoots it with hand-held cameras and keeps a lo-fi look to the whole thing; it's hardly a slick mainstream film. And he makes the wise decision to create his wild things with actors in furry suits, using CGI only for their facial motions.

"Where the Wild Things Are," the book, is just 339 words long. But in turning it into "Where the Wild Things Are," the movie, director Spike Jonze has expanded the basic story with a breathtaking visual scheme and stirring emotional impact.

It's a gorgeous film: This may sound contradictory, but it's intricate and rough-hewn at the same time, dreamlike and earthy. What keeps it from reaching complete excellence is the thinness of the script, which Jonze co-wrote with Dave Eggers.

Jonze gets that, too. There's always been an inventiveness to his films, a childlike playfulness even amid some of the darker material within "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation." With its warm lighting and detailed production design, "Where the Wild Things Are" remains lovingly faithful to the look and spirit of the book but functions assuredly as its own entity.

At their center is Max, played by 12-year-old Max Records, a lonely, misunderstood kid who runs off one day to the magical land where the wild things are and becomes their king. Records is no self-conscious, precocious child actor: He makes Max feel real and relatable, full of joy and rage like any little boy. (Catherine Keener has some lovely, subtle moments at the film's start as Max's struggling single mom, who inadvertently neglects him when he needs attention the most.)

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