Gene Wilder Only Agreed To Play Willy Wonka After This Demand Was Met

Gene Wilder‘s Willy Wonka, from Mel Stuart‘s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, is by far one of the most memorable characters to ever cross the silver screen. Sure, some actors have tried and are still trying to live up to his legacy, but, so far, none have managed to even come close to the performance that Wilder delivered all the way back in 1971. Though it didn’t exactly have the best run in theaters, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory found new life when it reached TV and soon became as iconic as the classic children’s book on which it is based, Roald Dahl‘s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. However, what few fans of the movie know is just how close we came to not having this trippy kids’ film in our lives, at least not in the way that we have come to know it. The movie could’ve starred someone entirely different from Gene Wilder, and it could be missing one of its most crucial scenes.

That is because Wilder only agreed to play Willy Wonka if he was allowed to do this one thing that wasn’t included in the film’s original script. While reading the screenplay that he received from Stuart, he had the idea for one of the movie’s most remarkable scenes, and it was a stroke of luck that he was allowed to bring it into fruition on set. And thank god he did, because without Wilder’s little addition to the story, we would have ended up with a very different movie.

Gene Wilder Had the Idea for the Willy Wonka Somersault Scene

The scene that we’re talking about is Willy Wonka’s big entrance when he comes to greet the children who won the Golden Tickets to visit his chocolate factory. In the scene, Wonka walks to the gates limping, barely holding up his own weight with the help of a cane. He looks downtrodden, serious, and sickly, and both kids and adult are disappointed to see that this is the man they had been waiting so long to meet. The crowd that had been cheering loudly up to that moment immediately falls silent as they watch the reclusive Mr. Wonka march quietly down the red carpet leading from the entryway to the factory itself. Then, all of a sudden, Wonka’s cane get stuck on one of the bricks that make up the floor. Without its help, the chocolate factory owner looks like he’s about to fall face-first onto the ground. But just as he is about to hit the floor, his fall turns into something else, and he somersaults towards the gate, greeting the winning children and the rest of the crowd with a smile. The cane and the limp were nothing but part of an elaborate act.

In an interview with Robert Osborne at The 92nd Street Y, in New York, Wilder reveals that the somersault stunt was all his idea. The actor recalls telling director Mel Stuart that he thought the script to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was very good, but that there was something missing. “If I play that part,” he remembers saying, “I want to come out with a cane, and that something is wrong with my leg, and come down the stairs slowly, and then have the cane stick into one of the bricks that are down there, and then get up, start to fall over, then roll around, and then they all laugh, and they applaud.”

It was a wild idea — one that many mistakenly believe was improvised — and one that Stuart didn’t quite get at the moment Wilder offered it to him. Still, the actor stood his ground, saying that, in his version of the story, “from that time on, no one will know whether I’m lying or telling the truth.” Stuart then agreed to try things the Wilder way, and the producers absolutely loved it. Gene then asked Stuart what would have happened if they had hated it, and the director stated that they would have used the one shot they did without the cane and the somersault. “I said, ‘Well, that’s business. Film business. I should never have said I’ll do it one time without the thing,” Wilder recalls.

RELATED: Timothée Chalamet Changes the Chocolate Game Forever in First ‘Wonka’ Trailer

‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’s Somersault Scene Is Essential to Its Protagonist’s Characterization

Honestly, Wilder is quite right when he remarks that he shouldn’t have done the shot without the somersault. After all, it seems absolute bonkers to think of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory without that scene. Can you even imagine the movie we would’ve gotten without it? Perhaps it would’ve been equally good — there’s no way of knowing, but it would definitely be something completely different. And that is because the faux limp followed by the brief display of acrobatics is essential to Wonka’s characterization, as Wilder himself puts it when he talks about audiences not knowing whether he’s lying or telling the truth.

The premise of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is that a reclusive millionaire hides Golden Tickets inside his candy bars that will allow five children and their parents entrance to his mysterious and magical chocolate factory. The idea, though we don’t know about it at first, is to find the perfect heir to Mr. Wonka’s sugary empire. Thus, as the kids go around the factory, they are presented with temptations that are supposed to test their honesty, and as they fall victim to these traps, Willy Wonka shows complete indifference towards them. In a way, Wonka is kind of a villain in his own movie. The good guy is, of course, little Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum), the poor boy who eventually becomes Mr. Wonka’s chosen heir, not without first showing him the error of his ways.

The limp followed by the somersault, then, helps establish, right at the moment we first see Willy Wonka, that he is an unreliable figure. While the kids waiting at the chocolate factory’s gates are amazed by his whimsy and physical ability, we as the audience are left wondering why someone would pull a stunt like that. Does he find some sort of pleasure in deceiving others? Or is he just playing around? From the get-go, it is established that Willy Wonka is a trickster spirit of sorts: amusing — no doubt a testament to Wilder’s comedic abilities — but perhaps more than just a little mean-spirited. This is a conclusion that viewers would eventually come to without the help of the somersault scene, as Willy Wonka reveals himself to be somewhat evil in his moments of delight at the fear and humiliation of the spoiled children visiting his factory. However, without the scene in question, the revelation of Wonka’s cruel streak would come as a shock, disrupting the narrative flow of the story. No one would’ve seen it coming, and it would’ve felt like a kind of betrayal. The somersault scene makes everything more cohesive and prepares viewers for what is to come. And that’s not to mention the fact that it is one hell of an impressive stunt.