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- The Fate of the Furious
- Universal Pictures
Sometimes an actor feels they have to put their foot down. Here are 13 movie and TV scenes actors outright refused to film. Â
An actor may ask for a body double for an uncomfortable intimate scene. Or, they may feel the scripted storyline doesn’t make sense for their character. They may even have a religious conflict.Â
Find out which then-unknown actor put her entire career on the line when she refused to take part in a scripted love triangle. Which famous actor refused to kiss his male co-star? Which small-screen favorite revealed he refused to cheat on his TV wife?
Uncover the answers to those questions and more.
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- Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
- Paramount Pictures
Don't know Kane Hodder? He is the masked actor who has played serial killer Jason Voorhees in four Friday the 13th movies.
Hodder may not have had a problem with Jason slashing innocent victims to death, but he did have a major issue with his character being cruel to animals. In the script for 1989's Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Voorhees arrives in the Big Apple and cruelly kicks a dog that is barking at him.
Hodder refused to do the dog-kicking scene because he felt that's not something his character would ever do. The actor's protest worked. The scene got cut from the film, and Jason went about just slaying people.
- Age: 69
- Birthplace: USA, Auburn, California
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In 2001, Michelle Rodriguez was an up-and-coming actor with the opportunity to co-star in a big-budget action movie called The Fast and the Furious. Despite the possibility of the film becoming a mega Hollywood franchise, Rodriguez would not stay quiet regarding a love triangle subplot. In the original script, both Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) and Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) fall for Letty Ortiz (Rodriguez). The actor felt the story arc did not ring true to her character.
Rodriguez put her job and perhaps even her entire career on the line when she refused to film the love triangle story scenes. "Is it realistic for a Latin girl who's with the alpha-est of the alpha males to cheat on him with the cute boy? I had to put my foot down," said Rodriguez. "I basically cried and said I'm going to quit and, 'Don't sue me, please - I'm sorry, but I can't do this in front of millions of people.' My whole point in being an actress is that I thought I got to live a dream. And I don't dream about being [promiscuous]! Do you?!"
Thankfully, Diesel agreed with Rodriguez and totally supported her wishes. "Vin was the first one to pull me to the side while I was crying, and he just looked at me and said, 'I got your back,'" recalled Rodriguez. "'Chill out and let me handle this, and you're right - it makes me look bad anyway.'"
The filmmakers listened. The scenes featuring the love triangle were all cut.
- Age: 46
- Birthplace: Bexar County, Texas, USA
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The writers at The Office certainly got a lot of material from Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam's (Jenna Fischer) up-and-down relationship over nine seasons. In order to drum up some drama on the long-running sitcom, the writers decided to throw a major monkey wrench into their marriage.
In a script for Season 8 of the series, the writers penned a scene where Jim kisses Pam’s Dunder Mifflin maternity fill-in Cathy (Lindsey Broad).
However, Krasinski refused to cheat on his TV wife. “That’s the only time I remember putting my foot down... I remember saying things that I never thought I’d say before, like, ‘I’m not going to shoot it,’” Krasinski shared in the book Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office.
“My feeling is there is a threshold with which you can push our audience,” the actor added. “They are so dedicated. We have shown such great respect to them. But there’s a moment where if you push them too far, they’ll never come back. And I think that if you show Jim cheating, they’ll never come back.”The writers ultimately decided to drop the cheating plot. Instead, Cathy tries to tempt Jim while the company is on a business trip to Florida. Jim rebuffs her forward advances and stays true to his wife and marriage.
Seems like Krasinski made the right decision. Fans of The Office were so upset by Cathy's moves they've taken it out on the actor who portrayed her. Broad revealed in 2020 on Twitter, "If anyone is wondering what it was like to be on The Office, the best comedy of this century: I just posted something on Instagram about how my dog was murdered and a bunch of people were like 'F*ck you, Cathy, she deserved it!' So. There ya go!"
- Age: 44
- Birthplace: Newton, Massachusetts, USA
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Emma Watson refused to be a part of a scene in the meta raunchy 2013 apocalyptic comedy This is the End. In the improvised scene, Danny McBride plays a cannibal and Channing Tatum is his gimp on a leash.
The rumors were that the English actor stormed off the set in disgust. Seth Rogen, who wrote and produced the film, later addressed what really happened.
“Emma Watson did not 'storm off the set,' and it's (expletive) that the perception is that she did," Rogen wrote on Twitter. "The scene was not what was originally scripted, it was getting improvised, changed drastically, and was not what she agreed to."
Rogen also added during a 2021 interview with British GQ that he didn't blame the actor for refusing to be in the scene.
"I don’t look back on that and think, ‘How dare she do that?’ You know? I think sometimes when you read something, when it comes to life, it doesn’t seem to be what you thought it was," said Rogen. "But it was not some terrible ending to our relationship. She came back the next day to say goodbye. She helped promote the film. No hard feelings, and I couldn’t be happier with how the film turned out in the end. Besides, she was probably right. It was probably funnier the way we ended up doing it."
- Age: 34
- Birthplace: Paris, France
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Mike Myers was just a few years into his Saturday Night Live career when he made his feature film debut in 1992's SNL popular sketch turned movie Wayne's World. Myers was a co-writer on the film and the titular movie protagonist. However, the Canadian actor nearly walked away from his star-making role.
Myers revealed during a 2014 interview on Marc Maron's podcast that the movie's most memorable scene, the five friends driving around rocking out to "Bohemian Rhapsody," originally featured a Guns N' Roses tune.
The green actor became so adamant about using the 1975 Queen song that he not only refused to film the now-famous scene, but he also threatened to quit. Myers said:
An example of something I fought very, very hard for, and it was my first movie: It was "Bohemian Rhapsody" in Wayne’s World. They wanted Guns N’ Roses. Guns N’ Roses were very, very popular. They were a fantastic band - Queen, at that point, not by me and not by hard-core fans, but the public had sort of forgotten about them. Freddie [Mercury] had gotten sick, the last time we had seen them was on Live Aid, and then there were a few albums after where they were sort of straying away from their arena-rock roots. But I always loved "Bohemian Rhapsody." I thought it was a masterpiece. So I fought really, really hard for it. And at one point I said, "Well, I’m out. I don’t want to make this movie if it’s not 'Bohemian Rhapsody.'"
Myers's instincts proved to be spot on. "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Wayne's World will be forever linked for producing pure comedy gold.
- Age: 61
- Birthplace: Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
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Mahershala Ali Nearly Turned Down His First Major Film Role Because He Would Not Perform A Simulated Sex Scene On Camera Due To His Religion
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- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Paramount Pictures
Now we know Mahershala Ali as a two-time Academy Award winner with an impressive filmography. Ali's acting career was just getting started when he landed the supporting role as Tizzy Weathers in David Fincher's 2008 fantasy romance The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Despite the possibility of getting his big Hollywood break, Ali nearly turned down the role in the high-profile movie. The actor revealed during a 2020 episode of Common's podcast, Mind Power Mixtape, that because he is an Ahmadi Muslim, he could not perform a simulated sex scene with his on-screen love interest Queenie (Taraji P. Henson).
“My old agent called me and said, ‘Mahershala, you got the part.’ And I said, ‘There’s just one thing... There is that one sex scene where they kiss... If there’s a sex scene, I can’t do it,’” revealed Ali.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an examination of a man (Brad Pitt) who ages in reverse. Fincher ultimately did not feel that showing the sex scene between Queenie and Tizzy was important enough to the story to risk losing Ali.
Fincher opted to film the scene in a way that could accommodate Ali's religious beliefs. "Taraji and I begin to kiss, and we fall out of the frame," Ali said. "It wasn’t clear if [Fincher] was trying to have, like, some bumping and grinding... which I doubt he was... At that time, 15 years ago, I was still like, ‘Okay, I can only go up to this point,’ just because of - just trying to hold a space of respect for my religion."
- Age: 50
- Birthplace: Oakland, California, USA
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Isla Fisher was still a relatively unknown actor while filming the R-rated comedy Wedding Crashers. Yet, she stood her ground regarding the comedy’s nude scenes. Additionally, the Scottish actor decided to make her character Gloria Cleary even more unhinged than what was in the original script.
”My argument was, if you see a character’s breast, she’s no longer funny,” said Fisher during a 2009 interview. She added:
You see her as someone sexual rather than as someone funny. I lost that argument with the producers. In fact, they wanted her to be naked, I think, through five scenes. I just stopped talking to them about my performance. I amped up the reality of my character even more. I thought, to combat the fact that you’re going to see her boobs, I have to make her even more extreme for us to still get a laugh.
Fisher used a body double for all of her character's nude scenes. “I had a hand double for the under-the-table scene. I had a breast double for the boob-in-the-face, and I had a butt double. That may have been the same person," added Fisher.
- Age: 48
- Birthplace: Muscat, Oman
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Anna Kendrick revealed she nixed the romantic storyline scenes with music executive Theo (Guy Burnet) that were originally written for Pitch Perfect 3. "Originally the music executive was supposed to be my romantic interest, but I said no to that because I thought that would be kind of f*cking problematic," said Kendrick.
Kendrick felt that because her character Beca already had a professional relationship with Theo it wouldn't be acceptable to engage in a romantic relationship when the music executive tries to get Beca to go solo.
The movie’s filmmakers accepted Kendrick’s point of view. Then, they went back and wrote a version where Beca kisses Theo at the end of the movie. The actor also refused to do that scene. "I was like, 'Can no one else [see it]? Once I said it, everybody was like, 'I guess so,'" she added. "And they still wanted to have a version at the end when we kissed, and I still said no."
- Age: 39
- Birthplace: Portland, Maine, USA
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On-screen couples do not always get along in real life. Usually, actors can remain professional and finish the production. Sometimes, a feud gets intense enough that it affects the movie.
Holiday romantic comedies are supposed to be funny and sweet. The set of the 2008 rom-com Four Christmases starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn playing an unmarried couple who has to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas was anything but funny and sweet.
The two lead actors reportedly did not get along. A lot of the conflict came from their vastly different approaches to work.
A source told The Daily News:
Vince rolls onto set in the morning looking like he just came in from a night out, while Reese will arrive early looking camera-ready. Then Reese tries to force Vince into blocking out each scene and running through their lines as Vince tries to convince her that he's an ad-libber and wants to play around and see where the scene goes.
Witherspoon reportedly detested Vaughn to the point she refused to film a sex scene with her on-screen boyfriend. The scene was then cut from the comedy.
- Age: 48
- Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
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Over the course of 10 seasons of Friends, a joke regarding Chandler Bing's (Matthew Perry) sexuality would periodically get dropped in. Chandler happily married Monica Geller (Courteney Cox) on the show, so the character was likely straight. However, Chandler would occasionally partake in stereotypically "less than masculine" behavior like enjoying a bubble bath. An early episode of the series centered on one of his co-workers trying to set him up with a male friend.
Plus, his father, Charles Bing (Kathleen Turner), a drag artist who performed under the name Helena Handbasket, came out as gay.
In 2017, during an episode of Watch What Happens Live, Perry played a game called "Plead the Fifth." Host Andy Cohen asked whether or not there was a storyline that Perry refused to do.
"There was a storyline on Friends where Chandler went to a male strip joint because he really liked the sandwiches, and I called up and said, 'Let's not do this one,'" replied Perry. "Yes, I did [prevail]."
- Age: Dec. at 54 (1969-2023)
- Birthplace: Williamstown, Massachusetts
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In 1993, Will Smith was a TV star who showed off impeccable comedic timing on the popular series Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Smith decided to test his acting mettle on the big screen by playing against type in the 1993 dramedy Six Degrees of Separation. In the film, Smith portrays a gay con artist trying to grift a wealthy New York City family.
When it came time for his character Paul to kiss Trent (Anthony Michael Hall), Smith outwardly refused. He told the director Fred Schepisi he couldn't go through with it. Schepisi adjusted on the fly by using a stand-in and shooting the scene from behind.
Smith later regretted his decision. "It was very immature on my part," Smith admitted. "I was thinking, ‘How are my friends in Philly going to think about this?’ I wasn’t emotionally stable enough to artistically commit to that aspect of the film. In a movie with actors and a director and writer of this caliber, for me to be the one bringing something cheesy to it..."
He added, "This was a valuable lesson for me. Either you do it or you don’t."
- Age: 56
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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Amber Heard signed on to play Nicola Six in the 2018 mystery thriller London Fields knowing the script contained scenes that required the actor to be nude. The filmmakers agreed to give Heard final cut approval. However, when it came time for Heard to film the scenes, she refused.
The filmmakers were forced to completely rewrite or cut those scenes. She also did not participate in contractually agreed-upon publicity to promote the film. The movie's producers subsequently sued the actor for a $10 million breach of contract.
In London Fields, Heard plays a sexually promiscuous femme fatale. The lawsuit claims Heard and director Matthew Cullen rewrote the sex scenes without prior authorization.
Heard and the film's producers reached a settlement in 2018, and the movie was finally released. It became a massive box office and critical flop.
- Age: 38
- Birthplace: Austin, Texas, USA
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In the uber-successful Fast & Furious franchise, the two bald brawny alpha male lead characters Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) do not always get along. In a case of art imitating life, neither do the actors who portray them.
The breaking point between the men apparently crossed the line in 2016 when Johnson posted a not-so-cryptic message regarding Diesel on his Instagram account: "Some [men] conduct themselves as stand-up men and true professionals, while others don't. The ones that don't are too chicken sh*t to do anything about it anyway. Candy *sses."
It became fairly obvious to any astute spectator watching 2017’s The Fate of the Furious that through clever editing and filming, Diesel and Johnson did not appear together on screen. Johnson corroborated that rumor during a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone. “That is correct,” said Johnson. “We were not in any scenes together.”
Not a single scene.
Their beef also meant cutting a scene where Hobbs and Toretto physically fight it out. Instead of seeing their battle, the audience has to just hear about it through clumsy dialogue.
- Age: 57
- Birthplace: Alameda County, California, USA
Understandable?
