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Hype Drip

Actors Who Fell Asleep On Set

Author

David Richardson

Published Mar 07, 2026

Forget about crying on command—an actor's greatest challenge might just be staying awake while peacefully reclining in bed. It's a challenge that ultimately got the better of Treat Williams while filming the 1984 gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America, specifically during a sequence filmed after his character had been shot. "I'm lying in the bed, and we were talking, and then all of a sudden I feel somebody's arm on my shoulder," Williams told Entertainment Weekly. "I look up and it's Bob De Niro saying, 'Hey.' I go, 'Hey, what's up?' He goes, 'You wanna say your line? We rolled, and you were asleep. Wanna join us?'"