Samuel L. Jackson requires two days a week to go golfing
20th Century Fox
Samuel L. Jackson is purportedly the highest-grossing actor of all time, having appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Star Wars” prequels, as well as other blockbusters like “Jurassic Park,” “The Incredibles,” and “Kingsman: The Secret Service.” Given the immense volume of his filmography, one might be mistaken in thinking that the best Samuel L. Jackson performances were easy for filmmakers to get, but that’s not the case. In fact, Jackson’s star is so big that when he’s on the set of any film, it’s hard for directors to truly be the boss.
As Jackson revealed to The New York Times, every film he does includes a contractual two days off a week to play golf, of which the movie star is an avid player. The actor claims that the authority is hard-won after many years as a working professional, saying, “I’m at that point where I can say: ‘Uh, you know, that’s not going to be in the movie, right? We already got it, we got it when we did this, that and that. I’m not going to do that.'”
Jennifer Lopez wouldn’t allow her husband on the set of The Back-Up Plan
CBS Films
Even though her hit song alleges her to still be “Jenny From The Block,” Jennifer Lopez’s reputation in Hollywood is that of quite the diva. One could argue Lopez has earned her right to be one, but some of her ridiculous demands on movie sets come from genuine concern for her loved ones. At least, that’s what the actress claims motivated her banning of then-husband Marc Anthony from the set of her 2010 rom-com “The Back-Up Plan,” co-starring Alex O’Loughlin as her on-screen romantic partner.
There was no trouble in paradise, according to Lopez, even though she and Anthony would be divorced by 2014. Lopez didn’t want Anthony on set due to the numerous intimate scenes she had to film with O’Loughlin, which she felt her husband would be uncomfortable watching. Lots of actors will confirm that shooting those scenes can be quite difficult, but some truly great movie kisses deserve all the love.
Daniel Day-Lewis refused medical treatment while filming Gangs of New York
Miramax Films
You don’t have to see the best Daniel Day-Lewis movies to know the English actor goes to some pretty great lengths to method-act for his performances. Whether it’s requesting to be addressed as the former president for “Lincoln” to learning intricate dress-making for “Phantom Thread,” Day-Lewis can sometimes take his devotion to the roles too far. Case in point: Going method for “Gangs of New York” made Day-Lewis sick, and nearly could’ve killed him.
The 2002 crime drama from Martin Scorsese takes place in 1863 New York City, and Day-Lewis specifically requested that his character wear period-accurate clothes. Unfortunately, the costuming didn’t protect Day-Lewis from the real-life cold of New York City, resulting in him contracting pneumonia. Day-Lewis again tried to stay in character by demanding only period-accurate remedies, although this demand was short-lived, given that Day-Lewis eventually relented to taking modern medicine. If that was us, we’d take only comfy roles to method act in after this experience.
Jennifer Lawrence requested a Kardashian tent on the set of Mother!
Paramount Pictures
Jennifer Lawrence was an Oscar winner at 22 years old, but that didn’t stop her from pushing herself to take on more brutal roles as her career continued on. One such example is “mother!,” Darren Aronofsky’s 2017 horror film that nearly drove Lawrence to total madness. Thankfully, Lawrence pushed for an on-set atmosphere that would accommodate her on days where the film’s content took its toll, and that atmosphere included, strangely, the Kardashians.
A self-proclaimed super-fan of the celebrity family, Lawrence told Vogue that she had the crew create a “Kardashian tent” on-set for her to retreat to between set-ups, saying, “It was a tent that had pictures of the Kardashians and ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ playing on a loop—and gumballs … My happy place.” While it ended up being a helpful way to keep their lead actress sane while shooting something so physically and emotionally draining, the same should’ve been provided to people who experienced emotional distress after seeing “mother!”
Sean Bean insisted on climbing a mountain for Lord of the Rings
New Line Cinema
Sean Bean has been through a lot on-screen, but he’s also put himself through quite a lot of struggle off-camera as well. Before his starring role on “Game of Thrones,” Bean was mostly known for playing Boromir in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, most prominently the first installment, “The Fellowship of the Ring.” Surprisingly, Bean scaled an actual mountain to get to set for “The Lord of the Rings,” though he didn’t have to.
According to co-star Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas, Bean had a crippling fear of heights, which was especially triggered by constant helicopter flights to set. For one scene high up on a mountain, Bean insisted on showing up hours early with all of his costuming and climbing the mountain all by himself, while his co-stars were easily transported up to their shooting location. As a result, Bean may be the only cast member from “The Lord of the Rings” who did any adventuring close to what the titular fellowship did.
Jenna Ortega rewrote entire scenes in defense of her character on Wednesday
Netflix
Jenna Ortega grew up in Hollywood, starring in The CW’s “Jane the Virgin” as well as “Stuck in the Middle” on Disney Channel. However, her career has skyrocketed following the definitive performance of the titular Addams Family character in Netflix’s “Wednesday.” While a lot of people might consider “Wednesday” the best Jenna Ortega TV show, it wasn’t without some trials and tribulations behind the scenes, as Ortega seized a lot of creative control over the character during production of the first season.
As it turns out, the decision that saved Ortega’s character in “Wednesday” may have been the actor’s dedication to getting the character right. In addition to rewriting some scenes she felt didn’t fit Wednesday’s personality, Ortega told The Hollywood Reporter of the now-iconic dance sequence in the fourth episode, “Initially, it was supposed to be a flash mob … And that, I vetoed because why would she be OK with that? I said, ‘Either cut it or have Wednesday knock someone out, and then it’s done.'”
Liam Neeson agreed to do A Million Ways to Die in the West under one condition
Universal Pictures
Seth MacFarlane’s animated series “Family Guy” can still be controversial by today’s standards, as their frequent pop culture references and cutaway gags have often upset certain celebrities. There was one action star with whom one “Family Guy” joke came back to bite MacFarlane, and that’s Liam Neeson. For his 2014 comedy “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” MacFarlane personally called up Neeson to play the antagonist role of Clinch Leatherwood, and after reading the script, Neeson had one condition to star in the movie.
Neeson only agreed to join the cast of “A Million Ways to Die in the West” after demanding that his character speak in the actor’s native Irish accent. As it turns out, this was Neeson’s form of revenge after a “Family Guy” cutaway that mocked the concept of Neeson appearing in a Western movie with an Irish accent. Thankfully, MacFarlane was a good sport about Neeson’s request, making this film one of the few projects where Neeson does not cover up his accent for the role.
Lindsay Lohan agreed to strip nude for The Canyons if the crew stripped down too
IFC Films
Nude scenes can be a very tricky thing to navigate in Hollywood, as some actors believe sex scenes in movies and TV shows are necessary, while others shy away from any projects with that level of intimacy required. However, for many actors, their only gripe with acting in the nude is simply just being surrounded by a crew, which led Lindsay Lohan to make one specific demand of her nude scenes in the 2013 thriller “The Canyons.”
After initially refusing to strip for “The Canyons,” Lohan allegedly agreed to the filmmakers’ requests only if the limited and predominantly male on-set crew would also strip down to their underwear. For what it’s worth, TMZ alleges that the crew was happy to accommodate Lohan’s request, which isn’t all that surprising when the request is coming from a sex symbol like Lohan.
Andy Kaufman demanded his alter ego guest star on Taxi
ABC
To say that Andy Kaufman had a reputation for being difficult to work with is selling short the notorious performer’s style of comedy. Kaufman loved to blur the line between reality and showmanship, which was never more apparent than with his character, Tony Clifton, a loud and obnoxious lounge singer who Kaufman masqueraded as a completely different person from himself. In fact, Kaufman only agreed to be a part of the sitcom “Taxi,” where he re-interpreted his Foreign Man character for the goofy mechanic Latka, if Clifton was granted a guest starring appearance on the show.
In typical Andy Kaufman fashion, his alter-ego almost took down “Taxi,” causing havoc on the set, bringing in sex workers, and eventually getting “fired” from the set, with permission from Kaufman, of course. It was all a part of Kaufman’s grand scheme to stage an actor getting literally kicked off the show, but more importantly, it added to the comic’s allure in the public eye.
Lena Headey refused to share the screen with one of her Game of Thrones co-stars
HBO
The cast of “Game of Thrones” was so large, it’s not entirely unbelievable that two characters never interacted over the course of its eight seasons. However, for two of the actors on the show, never sharing the screen was intentional. Long before the first season, Lena Headey (who plays Cersei Lannister) had been romantically involved with Jerome Flynn (who plays Bronn). However, their relationship seems to have ended quite poorly, and Headey demanded not to share any scenes with Flynn.
As a result, “Game of Thrones” kept the two cast members separate, even though Cersei and Bronn nearly cross paths several times, given Bronn’s closeness to Cersei’s brother Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage). However, it’s possible the media got a little carried away with this drama, considering that there is one singular scene in the entire series where Bronn and Cersei appear together, albeit they still don’t interact that much. Even when Cersei hires Bronn to assassinate Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Tyrion in season 8, it’s Qyburn (Anton Lesser), Cersei’s hand, who delivers the message.
Steven Seagal had disastrous ideas for his SNL episode
NBC
When you read any list of the best guest hosts on “Saturday Night Live,” one name that will certainly never show up is Steven Seagal. The actor had one of the legendarily worst episodes of the show’s 50-year run, in 1991, during a high point in which the cast included Chris Farley, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, and Dana Carvey. However, you’d never know that given how disastrous the episode ended up being.
Not only did Seagal pitch sketch ideas that were incredibly sexist, but he also failed to understand a “Hans and Franz” sketch due to its inability to make him look cool. However, the highlight, according to then-writer Bob Odenkirk, was a sketch that featured no cast members in which Seagal interrupted an Exxon board meeting and beat up executives, then ended with a threat to the camera about pollution. David Spade even alleged that it was the first time in the show’s history that the idea was brought up to fire him and have an episode without a host.
Madonna wanted to be digitally altered for The Next Best Thing
Paramount Pictures
Madonna is one of the greatest pop stars of all time, but her acting career has been divisive. Although she’s stood out in films like “A League of Their Own” and “Dick Tracy,” there are also lots of films she starred in that just flat out didn’t work, one of which being John Schlesinger’s final film, “The Next Best Thing.” Madonna co-stars alongside Rupert Everett, an off-screen friend who claims their relationship was soured based on her behavior on set, despite reserving praise for her performance.
Among the rumored problems that occurred in the film were several demands made by the pop star, which included having scenes cut for being “too gay” and using CGI to digitally manipulate her to look more beautiful. It would certainly be surprising if these allegations of her diva behavior turned out to be true, given how progressive Madonna was with promoting LGBTQ+ rights in the early ’90s.
Mike Myers insisted on re-recording all his dialogue for Shrek after the movie was done
DreamWorks Pictures
It shouldn’t be too surprising by now that a lot of times, actors’ unreasonable demands can jeopardize a movie’s quality, but there are a few cases in which it might’ve saved the final product. For instance, Mike Myers has a reputation for being difficult to work with, based on his behavior on the set of films like “The Cat in the Hat.” The former “Saturday Night Live” star is known to be somewhat of a perfectionist, which played into his motivation to ask DreamWorks to re-record all of his dialogue for “Shrek” after the movie was already finished.
Thankfully, Steven Spielberg supported Myers’ decision to make Shrek Scottish, compared to voicing the character in his normal voice at first. Even though it required Myers to do double the amount of work (and likely more for the animators), it helped define the now-iconic voice for DreamWorks’ biggest franchise. It also separates Myers’ interpretation of the ogre from the work done by his former “SNL” compatriot Chris Farley, who voiced Shrek in a story reel from 1997.
Florence Pugh begged Marvel to let her jump off a building for Thunderbolts*
Marvel Studios
“Thunderbolts*” is a refreshing and emotional gut-punch from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it’s mostly thanks to Florence Pugh’s magnetic performance as Yelena Belova. While Marvel movies often get a poor rap for being easy paychecks for actors, Pugh proved otherwise. For the film’s opening scene in which Yelena leaps off a skyscraper in Malaysia, Pugh insisted on performing the stunt for real, despite objections from Disney’s safety personnel.
Eventually, Disney caved, allowing Pugh to go through with actually jumping off the second-tallest building in the world, feeling like it would at the very least make for a good anecdote during the film’s promo (which, to her credit, it didn’t). For a franchise that gives actors access to the greatest stunt people in the world, it must’ve been very disorienting for executives like Kevin Feige to come across an actor who was not only willing to do their own stunts, but advocated for difficult one to be kept in the script for their own personal amusement.
The Weeknd pushed for The Idol to be refocused on his character
HBO
In 2020, it seemed like nothing could slow the hype train that was The Weeknd’s career as a pop star. However, you don’t need to know the behind-the-scenes story to know that HBO’s “The Idol” was an insecure and miscast series from “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson, but many knew even before the show ever hit TV screens. A Rolling Stone article that was released months before the show premiered clued audiences in to the show’s troubled production, alleging that The Weeknd (real name Abel Tesfaye) felt the show, originally directed by Amy Seimetz, was too female-centric.
As the show endured a massive creative overhaul from Tesfaye and Levinson that saw Seimetz ousted with 80% of the show complete, Tesfaye apparently wanted the entire thing re-focused on his character, the enigmatic nightclub owner who forms a toxic relationship with Lily Rose-Depp’s Jocelyn, a child star-turned-pop seductress. Tesfaye protested the Rolling Stone article’s claims, posting a deleted scene from the show in which his character mocks the publication, which probably wasn’t the righteous comeback the “Blinding Lights” singer thought it would be.
Ultimately, the show was cancelled by HBO after one season, but that hasn’t stopped Tesfaye’s Hollywood ambitions; the musician-slash-actor stars as himself opposite Jenna Ortega in the vanity project “Hurry Up Tomorrow.”
