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For Sale Mar 29, 2026 at 10:46 AM

Eating scenes

Posted by chegypter

Its always been something I cant ignore when there is a scene at a restaurant, at home or anywhere where the characters are either cooking or ordering food. Very rarely do they show them eating it. I mean I love the scene when Hans Landa and Shoshanna er sharing a strüdel. You can get a real feel for how and what a person is by how it eats. Which makes me wonder why it seems food scenes are always cut. Its like the opposite of an unnecessary sex to me.
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billy_tables Mar 29, 2026 +1
The actors have to do any given scene over and over and over. The 10th take of biting into that fresh burger is impractical to set up (and can be pretty unpleasant depending on the food). But if you establish it at the start of the scene, then you have to keep continuity of how much food has been eaten etc etc so after the edit, there isn't have a steak popping in and out of existence where different cuts (no pun intended) were chosen
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Loaf235 Mar 29, 2026 +1
I guess that's why to me at least, eating scenes are slightly more common or emphasized in animation cause you don't have to worry about the catering props and actors' well being.
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PrincessLazyBritches Mar 29, 2026 +1
It stands to reason that the fight scenes would be more labor intensive for the prop and makeup crew than any eating scene.
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Ok-Dimension-2512 Mar 29, 2026 +1
yeah that checks out fair point honestly youre not wrong sounds about right thats the move big same a classic wow groundbreaking truly a genius take this is the way couldnt agree more they never learn what a shocker as one does makes sense to me you love to see it and everyone clapped seems legit thats the dream it do be like that no lies detected a tale as old as time you hate to see it nailed it
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billy_tables Mar 29, 2026 +1
u ok hun?
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DrL8X Mar 29, 2026 +1
My wife likes to point out continuity errors when actors are eating or smoking (cigarettes getting smaller, then longer, water glass empty then full again) it's not annoying at all
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PrincessLazyBritches Mar 29, 2026 +1
Sorry. I do that as well. My son loves it but my hubs hates it.
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DrL8X Mar 29, 2026 +1
It balances out when I scroll through an actor's imdb and shout "Oh, that's where I recognize them from!"
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rainsoaked_skin Mar 29, 2026 +1
> why it seems food scenes are always cut Some scenes take many takes. Directors probably don’t want to force actors to eat the massive amounts of food needed if they’d have to eat for real.
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wstacon Mar 29, 2026 +1
Probably the number of takes, shooting with continuity mind, as the characters eat, their portions get smaller. It is harder to edit multiple angles/takes together. Watch Scent of a Woman, there is a scene when Pacino's character is introduced, as the scene unfolds the level of whiskey in his glass goes up then down, it's subtle but it's just a drink, with a plate of food it would be more noticeable. It can be done, just easier not to.
1
enderandrew42 Mar 29, 2026 +1
Oddly enough Brad Pitt must not mind because he is constantly eating in movies, particularly in the Oceans movies.
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PrincessLazyBritches Mar 29, 2026 +1
There’s an interview somewhere with him about his eating. It’s apparently a well known trait in the business and why he gets offered certain roles over other actors.
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Both-Station-2244 Mar 29, 2026 +1
It’s the Steve Macqueen trick of doing something, usually a small movement with the face , a twitch for example that forces the audience to look at them instead of other actors on screen
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jupiterkansas Mar 29, 2026 +1
Charles Laughton was a twitcher.
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TrueLegateDamar Mar 29, 2026 +1
There are several cases where actors ate on camera, and then regretted it because they have to do the scene over and over, like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day had to eat the entire pie in the dinner repeatedly. And the food is often either some cold bland-tasting facismile of a real meal so unpleasant to eat.
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stairway2000 Mar 29, 2026 +1
Put yourself in the actors shoes. It can take days to shoot a scene. Imagne constantly eating for 10 hours, 3 days in a row!
1
timothj Mar 29, 2026 +1
Check out the eating-as-foreplay scene in Tim Jones. “Tom Jones eating scene” YouTube search will bring you right to it.
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xSweetMuse Mar 29, 2026 +1
Hans Landa and Shoshanna sharing strudel is SUCH a good example. It’s intimate in a normal way.
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haruspicat Mar 29, 2026 +1
I have to disagree. I just rewatched the scene because I thought my memory must be wrong, but no. There's nothing normal about the eating, and they don't eat that strudel together at all. Shoshanna has exactly one bite of strudel in the entire scene, just after Landa tells her to eat. Then she sits perfectly still like a coiled spring for the next 5 minutes while he expansively chews his strudel and demands information. The eating is a display of his power, but it tells us nothing(*) about her, meaning it doesn't achieve anything that Christoph Waltz hasn't already delivered just by being there. (*) yes, that one bite shows that she's willing to break kosher to hide her identity, but having the eating itself happen on camera isn't really the point there.
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Coverdale_Murmur Mar 29, 2026 +1
This is one of those things that once you notice it can't be unseen. Series like Big Bang Theory and Friday Night Dinner have many scenes that revolve around eating food but no one ever actually eats anything, if they do put food in their mouth and start chewing it cuts to another angle.  I guess it's not always been like this because in the first episode of The Twilight Zone (called Where is Everybody, released in 1959 I think) there's a scene that really impressed me for this reason. The main character enters an ice cream parlour whilst talking to himself (he's starting to lose it a bit because he's completely alone in the world) and makes himself a bowl of ice cream and eats the whole thing. All in one take.
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ParadoxEgirl Mar 29, 2026 +1
it’s probably because real eating looks kinda awkward on camera like chewing, pausing, retakes… it kills the flow. but yeah when they actually show it, it makes the scene feel way more real instead of just “we ordered food for vibes”
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Soulspawn Mar 29, 2026 +1
It's all about continuity and the number of take can't keep taking a bite out of a pizza if you need to then redo the scene multiple times, plus actors don't want to eat 10 slices of pizza
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BlueHarvestJ Mar 29, 2026 +1
Same as most coffee cups are empty. You can usually tell that actors are fake-sipping and drinking
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monochromeorc Mar 29, 2026 +1
Braveheart - Uncle Argyle tucking in to that stew with bread. Best food scene in cinema history
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No_Winners_Here Mar 29, 2026 +1
I can't remember who but I remember an actor talking about a prank on set where they or someone else purposefully screwed up a scene after convincing another actor to actually eat the food during the take. This meant that take after take after take they had to keep eating (the director decided that up until the "mistake" was fine but since the actor was eating at the time....) and eventually the actor became physically ill from eating so much.
1
Corsair4U Mar 29, 2026 +1
Yeah it’s super noticeable once you start looking for it. They usually avoid eating because they have to do a ton of takes, so it gets messy or just gross real quick. That’s why scenes like Hans Landa actually eating hit different, it feels way more real.
1
typewriter6986 Mar 29, 2026 +1
Not a movie but TV. The Sopranos. Eating is like it's own character.
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Competitive-Rate7561 Mar 29, 2026 +1
Gandolfini must have gained lots of pounds just from show food alone lol
1
typewriter6986 Mar 29, 2026 +1
He did. You can tell it effected him over the years.
1
grumpykraut Mar 29, 2026 +1
How would you manage 20+ potential takes if you had to eat for real in every single one? Oh, and this: An Umlaut is NOT a signifier for "this is a German word". Do NOT put random dots above vowels because you want to show that you know German. It is pronounced very differently from the letter without the dots.
1
dandyline_wine Mar 29, 2026 +1
Not to be That Person who brings up Heated Rivalry in an unrelated sub, but there's an eating scene in one of the episodes where one of the characters INHALES plates of spaghetti. It cracks people up simply because it's so unexpected and it plays no part in the scene. Viewers are so used to people pushing food around or letting the fork hover before putting it down (like the other actors do in this scene), so the juxtaposition of a character annihilating his plate in the background and speaking with his mouth full is priceless.
1
Syric13 Mar 29, 2026 +1
One scene that confused me: in Pulp Fiction, when Mia is eating her burger, her toppings are still on her plate. You can clearly see a slice of watermelon with its rind on her plate, on top of a big chunk of red onion.  It always confused me. 
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Quirky-Invite7664 Mar 29, 2026 +1
A Ghost Story (2017) - famous pie-eating scene
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brickiex2 Mar 29, 2026 +1
Brad Pitt in Mr and Mrs Smith, a fun dinner scene Brad Pitt in most of his movies
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HotHalo_ Mar 29, 2026 +1
Every bite tells a story.
1
celestialmechanic Mar 29, 2026 +1
Yeah, Rob Lowe tells a story about a commercial he was on as a kid. He was sitting opposite an actor eating burgers or something. Around take 15 he notices a bucket near the other actor and lots of burgers in there. On the other end of it, Brad Pitt is constantly eating in the Oceans movies.
1
DogMamaLA Mar 29, 2026 +1
Unless there is a way to move the plot forward with it or offer brief humor, it's a waste of film minutes. The "When Harry Met Sally" restaurant scene was great - it had dialogue of 2 characters discussing something, it had humor when Rob Reiner's mother chimed in with "I'll have what she's having" and it was brief.
1
Stepjam Mar 29, 2026 +1
Having them actually eat the food is difficult. Scenes generally take multiple takes to do, and a lot of times there is a fair amount of sitting around waiting for everything to be ready to shoot under hot lights. The latter is relevant with food potentially spoiling (it wasn't eating, but they used milk for the android blood in Alien, and it spoiled while they were shooting). The former is relevant because A: you'd have your actors eating a lot of food over multiple takes (also gotta make more food for multiple takes) and B: continuity between shots becomes a bit of a nightmare. You don't want the state of the characters' plates shifting from shot to shot, which is much easier todo if they aren't actually eating.
1
Turbulent-Taste-169 Mar 29, 2026 +1
for real, food scenes can reveal so much about a character. it’s wild how they skip the actual eating part, like it would add so much to the scene. maybe it’s all about pacing, but i'm here for the messy portions too.
1
meetdiandra Mar 29, 2026 +1
Honestly never really thought about it but you're right. Prolly just annoying to film with all the continuity issues.. half eaten plate, full plate, bite marks changing between shots. Sounds like a nightmare ha
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LyleTheAdonis Mar 29, 2026 +1
And sex sells. Watching people eat… not so much. One’s an easy unnecessary keep.
1
Chrono_Convoy Mar 29, 2026 +1
Yea I guess those Taxidermia scenes with competitive food eating trials weren’t that s*** after all.
1
LHGray87 Mar 29, 2026 +1
Unless it’s both: 9 1/2 Weeks; Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down; The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.
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