There’s nothing better than seeing an actor brimming with enthusiasm, energy and passion for a role; most of the time it will show through, and the end product will benefit as a result.
Conversely, though, it’s blatantly obvious when an actor doesn’t much care for the work they’re doing, either churning out another mindless knock-off sequel for the easy money (we’re looking at you, Bruce Willis), or sometimes appearing for more nefarious means.
We might think of famous actors and actresses as above being told what to do, but think again. These 10 actors, most of a highly famous degree, were manhandled by the studio system and bullied into appearing in films either due to “contractual obligations” (a dreaded phrase that will appear many times in this article), being guilt-tripped by a filmmaker, or some more bizarre actions that frankly defy any business sense whatsoever.
Here are 10 actors bullied into roles they never wanted…
10. Emily Blunt – Gulliver’s Travels
This one must really hurt. Emily Blunt was all set to play Black Widow (a role that eventually went to Scarlett Johansson) in Iron Man 2, which naturally would have led to her appearing in the third-highest-grossing film of all time, The Avengers, last summer.
Fox, however, were up to their usual bastardry, and decided to activate an option they had with the actress dating back to her work on The Devil Wears Prada. So, what role were the studio so desperate for her to take?
She wound up playing Princess Mary in the execrable Jack Black star vehicle Gulliver’s Travels, and though she was easily the best thing in it, one has to wonder why Fox were so keen on Blunt to take the part, other than someone at the studio having something against her and wanting to deny her the juicy superhero part?
Though Scar-Jo excels in the Black Widow role, we’ll forever be left wondering what Blunt would have been like, and which poor sap would have been saddled with this terrible role instead.
Still, Blunt was a sport, and looking at her enthusiastic performance, you wouldn’t know she was being basically held at gunpoint by Fox.
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6 Comments
Let’s not spend too much time pitying millionaires who were forced to stand in front of a camera.
If you don’t want to be contracted to do a job, don’t sign the damn contract!
I thought Norton didn´t want to do Hulk neither. refused to promote it and was consequently fired from The Avengers. The Italian Job was considerably better in comparison. I can´t believe Whoopi Goldberg wasn´t forced to do any of her films…
No. Edward wanted to do the part. The negotiations for The Avengers broke down bc Edward is notoriously hard to work with. But his participation in The Incredible Hulk was totally voluntary. He wanted to be there.
Another example for contractual obligations: Whoopi Goldberg in “Theodore Rex”. She agreed to do the film, but then read the script, and tried to back out, but New Line Cinema threatened her with a lawsuit if she tried to walk away. Goldberg eventually chose to stay on, and after filming was completed, the movie was received so badly during test screenings, New Line gave “Theodore Rex” a direct-to-video release, making it one of the most expensive ($33.5 million) at that time.
Boxing Helena-Kim Basing wanted out of the title role—eventually Basinger was the subject of an adverse jury verdict for over $8.1 million dollars. This caused Basinger to enter bankruptcy. The verdict was then set aside on appeal in 1994,but the actress later settled for $3.8 million.
pierce brosnan’s bond films were the worst on the whole? Don’t think that is true