Props That Actors Stole From The Set

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As cool as it may be to imagine Mark Hamill taking his lightsaber home from Star Wars or Harrison Ford wearing his iconic hat from Indiana Jones at a party, those cool props you see in movies are actually the property of the studio. Once shooting is wrapped, those props get packed up for the next film, auctioned off for charity, or given to a museum (Indy would be proud). Sometimes actors are lucky enough to be given props from the movies they starred in, and sometimes those props get "lost" and end up in slightly sketchy auctions.

Sometimes, though, the lead actors themselves actually take the props from the set with no one the wiser. Whether due to sentimental reasons or just because they feel like their acting deserved a more tangible reward than a paycheck, there are plenty of famous actors who have admitted to nicking some valuable (and not so valuable) props once shooting was finished. From filmic floggers to magic hammers, here are props that actors stole from the set of their movies.

When it comes to living your life in the spotlight, Daniel Radcliffe could certainly offer a few pointers. The young actor was only 11 years old when he first started filming Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and continued to star in the franchise until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 came out nearly ten years later. Considering he spent most of his childhood providing childhood memories for other kids, it makes sense that Radcliffe would want a souvenir of his time spent on set — even if he had to steal one.

That souvenir turned out to be a couple of pairs of glasses that Harry Potter wears; one from the first movie and one from The Deathly Hallows Part 1. It's a sweet reminder of the time he spent on set and the way that Radcliffe has aged over the years, but admit it: you would definitely have gone with a wand if you had the choice, right? 

A movie that utilizes largely computer generated effects might not age as well as movies that use practical effects, but there is one sizable advantage for filmmakers: it makes it much harder for props to "go missing" on the set when nearly everything is added later with computers. Ryan Reynolds ran into this problem while starring in Green Lantern, a movie that fittingly required a lot of green screen. According to Reynolds, so much of the movie was shot using CGI that he struggled to find something to take home as a memento of filming.

Eventually, he realized that the prop to steal was right in front of his face — or on his finger, more specifically: the Green Lantern ring itself. Considering that the movie premiered to relentlessly negative reviews and ended up being a publicly unpleasant experience for Reynolds, maybe it's a good thing that he found some small joy to take from the set.

Being part of a best-selling franchise means devoting years of your life to a specific project, usually surrounded by the same cast and crew. It's no wonder then that actors on franchise movies tend to steal little keepsakes to remember their time. After the final film of the Hunger Games franchise Mockingjay: Part 2 was released, a few of the main actors — including Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson – admitted to taking a few props home. Considering that Hutcherson played the perpetual romantic Peeta, it's actually quite sweet that he admitted to keeping the locket that Katniss wears throughout the film. Meanwhile, Katniss herself (Jennifer Lawrence), took home some of the leather outfits. However, Liam Hemsworth didn't take anything from the set, which kind of makes his two co-stars look bad. The only thing Hemsworth admitted to taking from the set was memories of filming the movies, which is actually pretty touching.

While Kristen Stewart is better known these days for award-winning performances in arthouse films, she found her first major mainstream success in the 2000s with the Twilight franchise. Like the Harry Potter movies, the Twilight franchise was a box office smash that took up years of its young stars' lives; Stewart was only 17 years old while filming the first movie and 22 when the final film, Breaking Dawn Part 2, was released to theaters. While her vampire love, Robert Pattinson, and the rest of the cast don't seem to have many fond memories of filming, Stewart appears to have more of a soft spot for the franchise. She told People that she kept the jewelry that Bella Swan wears in the film to better remember director Catherine Hardwicke and co-star Robert Pattinson, emphasizing "I kept the rings. The rings are really important to me." That's a sweet way to remember her co-star and director.

When it comes to filming big budget blockbusters, security needs to be extremely tight so that plot details and other secretive information isn't revealed to the public. Even that increased security still isn't enough to stop determined A-listers from stealing props from the set. During the filming of Justice League, the actors who played Aquaman and the Flash ended up acting much less superheroic than their characters. Jason Momoa and Ezra Miller both confessed to stealing small things from the set, including "these little bullets with this little red cap on top of it. Bat bullets!"

Most actors tend to try to steal the show, but it seems like the prospect of pocketing these souvenirs were just too tempting for the two actors. If you're wondering what they did with the stolen props once they actually had them, well, according to Momoa: "I [gave] it to my son." Considering that Affleck and Reynolds both stole something from their respective movies, maybe it's a rite of passage for Warner Bros. superheroes to grab some keepsakes from filming.