Beer Can Incident

As I've often seen, there is contradicting information on the scene where John Malkovich is hit in the head with the beer can. Below are the two "trivia" entries. Does anyone know which if either is the real story? Both are interesting.

"The scene when a can is thrown at John Malkovich's head is real. John Malkovich has described how Spike Jonze wanted to cut it due to running late that night expecting that no one would be able to hit him on the head with a half-full can of beer from a passing car, when about 70 or 80 sets of hands shot up on the crew saying that they would like to try. Eventually the task fell to John Cusack's writing partner and he nailed it on the first try.


"According to the commentary by director Spike Jonze, some extras sneaked beer onto the set and got drunk. One scene called for cars to just drive past Malkovich as he angrily walks away. However, one of the extras decided to 'improvise' his scene and yell out "Hey Malkovich, think fast!" before throwing a beer can to his head. Malkovich's surprised yelp of pain and subsequent cradling of his head amused Jonze so much that he decided to keep the scene in the film. Rather than being a scene about how angry John Malkovich is at the main character, it became a scene about how his life is falling apart around him. It helped the audience to empathize with the actor, not to mention that the moment was also very much in line with the absurd humor of the screenplay.

In regards to the drunken extra, this inspired moment of what was essentially an act of bullying paid off since he now had a line in the movie. His pay rate was bumped up to $700 a day, that of a speaking role, and he was also now eligible to get his Screen Actors Guild card."

Planned? Improvised? John Cusack's writing partner or Opportunist Extra?