Blade Runner star Edward James Olmos says he ad-libbed the movie's most iconic line and was surprised Ridley Scott didn't end up cutting it. Olmos starred in the cult classic 1982 sci-fi movie as Gaff, a fellow Blade Runner in the same department as Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard. A mysterious and shadowy figure who pops in and out of the movie, Gaff utters Blade Runner's most iconic line. In one of the movie's final scenes, he tells Deckard: "Too bad she won't live. But, then again, who does?"
It is considered one of the most profound lines from a sci-fi movie as it sums up Blade Runner's central themes of identity, existentialism, and what it means to be human in just a few words. Despite appearing on screen for just a fraction of the running time, Olmos' Gaff is one of the best-remembered characters, partly due to that line, and the actor even reprised the role in Denis Villeneuve's 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049, appearing in a single scene opposite Ryan Gosling's replicant K. Now, Olmos has revealed that his famous line didn't originally appear in the script.
Speaking to The AV Club, Olmos reveals that he ad-libbed Gaff's iconic line. Calling it "wonderful," Olmos adds that he couldn't believe that director Ridley Scott decided to keep his ad-lib in his final cut of the movie. Olmos goes on to explain why he ad-libbed the line, revealing he was the "only one" who knew that Deckard was a replicant, and felt it was a subtle hint at the character's true nature. You can read his full comments below:
AV Club: You also just have one of the best lines in a fantastic movie: “It’s too bad she won’t live, but then again, who does?”
Olmos: I wrote that. It was really fun. I just couldn’t believe when he left it in.
AV Club: Oh wow, I didn’t know that!
Olmos: Yeah. It’s a wonderful line. “It’s too bad she won’t live, but then again, who does?” And “You’ve done a man’s job, sir.” I think that was one of the lines that they wrote. “You’ve done a man’s job.” And then I go walking away and I go, “Too bad she won’t live, but then again, who does?” I knew that [Deckard] was a replicant. See, I’m the only one that did at that moment in time. The very last moment that Deckard’s on screen—they changed it when they got into editing, but they went back to the original. There are four or five different cuts, but if you go to [Ridley Scott’s] final cut, at the end when Deckard’s leaving his house and Rachel goes into the elevator, he looks down and sees the origami unicorn. He realizes [Gaff] was there. Because that origami is something that I made; it was my signature. So he picks it up, looks at it, and it’s a unicorn, which was his dream. So he knows that I know his dreams at that moment. But no one ever pronounced it. And for many years, people said, “No, Deckard was not a replicant.” People have argued about this so much over the years. And Ridley finally came out and he said, “Yeah. Deckard was a replicant.” That’s why Blade Runner 2049 was the awakening.
For audiences, it's clear why Scott would have wanted to keep the line in Blade Runner, as it really is a succinct and poetic encapsulation of the movie's central themes. Clearly, though, as a young actor still near the beginning of his career, Olmos was worried that he might have added in something that Scott wouldn't have wanted. Now, though, Olmos clearly appreciates the poetry of the line, and is proud enough to take ownership of it as one of the best quotes from Blade Runner.
That line isn't all Olmos brought to Blade Runner, as he reportedly came up with a lot of Gaff's backstory, and helped invent the futuristic Los Angeles street language that he uses in the movie. But with this revelation, it could be argued that his greatest contribution to the movie was this ad-libbed line, as it helped Blade Runner attain its place as a sci-fi classic, one which audiences keep returning to almost 40 years after it was first released to theaters.
Source: AV Club