1917 film: Sam Mendes reveals THIS star’s cameo had most MISTAKES of entire cast combined

The James Bond director’s war epic is a favourite this awards season, having already won Best Motion Picture Drama and Best Director at the Golden Globes on Sunday. And what really makes the WW1-set 1917 stand out is cinematographer Roger Deakins’ long takes making the film appear like it’s one continuous shot. Understandably, to capture the footage, actors had to make sure they didn’t make a single mistake or they’d have to start again.

If anything, shooting 1917 sounds a bit like trying to complete a really hard level of a video game like Super Mario.

During the film, audiences will have spotted a number of major cameos from stars like Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth and Richard Madden.

But it turns out that Sherlock and Fleabag star Andrew Scott was guilty of making the most mistakes, meaning they had to go back and start the long take over and over again.

Director Sam Mendes made the reveal at the 1917 UK press conference at the Imperial War Museum last month.

colin firth and benedict cumberbatch in 1917

1917 film: Sam Mendes reveals THIS star’s cameo had most MISTAKES of entire cast combined (Image: UP)

andrew scott as leslie

Andrew Scott as Lieutenant Leslie (Image: UP)

Scott played Lieutenant Leslie in the British trench at the beginning who gives Schofield and Blake directions across No Man’s Land to the original German front.

Mendes said: “I’d say Andrew in his only scene made more mistakes than the rest of the cast put together!”

But what was the cause of the trip-ups?

Well, it turns out that Scott’s Leslie was having trouble with his cigarette lighter.

andrew scott and sam mendes

Andrew Scott with Sam Mendes at the 1917 premiere (Image: GETTY)

Scott, who also played C in Mendes’ Spectre, replied: “Never smoke, never smoke in anything!

“On stage or in film. Never use a cigarette lighter.”

Mendes teased back: “He had a lot of props in that scene. Y’know, he’s not been acting for very long!”

The director went on to describe the challenge of shooting 1917 as one continuous shot.

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Mendes, who has received a Knighthood in the New Year Honours List, said: “You can have seven minutes of magic and then if someone trips or a lighter doesn’t work or they just do something normal like they forget half a line, you’ve got to start again and none of it is usable.

“We did seesaw between thinking, ‘why are we doing this to ourselves?’ and thinking ‘this is the only way to work’.

“It was all the first until it was the second and the feeling…was so great when we got it that we wanted to do it again.

“There were some really tough days.”

Mendes, who directed the last two Daniel Craig James Bond movies, has revealed he’s looking forward to Cary Fukunaga’s No Time To Die.

Speaking with CinemaBlend, he said: “Am I going to be able to enjoy it? Absolutely, yeah yeah. No, totally. I think doing this movie [1917] – I think if I hadn’t done another movie it would be weird.

“Not that I wanted to do it, but it would seem very odd that there I was. But I’d gone so far into another world, you know, and so immersed in it, that to me it just seems like, I can’t wait [for No Time to Die].”

1917 is released in UK cinemas tomorrow.

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