If you didn’t know already, the white stuff actors snort on stage during drug scenes is not actually a class-A substance.
And the cigarettes they puff on on-screen aren’t the real McCoys, either.
So it follows that the stacks of cash we see in movies and TV shows are not, in fact, legal tender.
But unless the money is clearly distinguishable from, say, a dollar or pound note, how close is the making of “prop” money to breaking strict counterfeiting laws?
Well, sometimes it’s too close ― in fact, movies have gotten in trouble for it before.
Like when?
Speaking to Business Insider, Gregg Bilson Jr., CEO of prop company ISS Props, said that 2001 movie Rush Hour 2 asked for a trillion dollars’ worth of fake cash.
His company did so (at a cost of $100,000), but some extras were seen pocketing the extremely realistic bills and even attempted to buy items with them.
That meant every last one of the trillion fake dollars was confiscated and destroyed by the secret service.
“We didn’t try to make fake money to dupe the public. We made fake money to make a movie. But we just made the prop too good,” Bilson said.
Luckily, there are some ways to prevent this.
For instance, RJ Rappaport of RJR Props, who printed moolah for movies like The Wolf Of Wall Street, told CNN that you can use distance to your advantage.
He makes two types of fake bills; one that looks convincing closeup, and another that only looks believable from far away.
“Our standard grade prop money is printed on both sides, but has an optical illusion built into it,” he shared.
“It looks realistic at an arm’s length, but when you start bringing it closer, it actually changes over and it reveals itself as fake.”
The closeup stuff, meanwhile, is more realistic, but only printed on one side. And neither kind is allowed to replicate the exact design of real money.
There are extra details too
If you look closely at some bills in Breaking Bad, you’ll see they have “for motion picture use only” written on them.
Rappaport’s prop company writes “Unreal Fake Currency Reserve” where “United States Federal Reserve” would be written on real dollars too.
But research and development company RAND says that some supposed “movie money” is in circulation in the EU.
“Because altered design banknotes have a similar shape and colour to the real thing, they can easily be accepted as genuine money if no further inspection is carried out,” they state on their site.
“To be used legally in movies fake banknotes must adhere to rules set by the European Central Bank (ECB),” they add; America has similar laws.
Perhaps that’s why Rappaport claims “Most other companies that make prop money are actually producing illegal prop money, and that can get a show shut down and someone fined and jailed.”