6 Directors Who Were Lumbered With Actors They Didn’t Even Want

Executive meddling strikes again.

Kate Mara Fantastic Four Sue Storm
Fox

Filmmaking is a tough racket at even the best of times: no matter how great a script is, how talented the cast and crew are and how much money you have, there are literally dozens of things that can go wrong at any errant moment.

As such, the chemistry between a director and their cast is important for the success of just about any movie, bar those rare projects which thrive on the adversarial tension between filmmakers and actors.

While not all of these director-actor pairings resulted in fist-fights and grey hairs - though several of them certainly did - each of them saw a director saddled with a star they really didn't want.

Either due to studio mandate, a lack of time to find alternatives or for awkward business reasons, these filmmakers had undesirable performers foisted upon them, more often than not leading to considerable tensions on set.

Thankfully most of the movies actually turned out pretty well, and the directors themselves were perhaps even proven wrong, but while deep in the trenches of shooting, things didn't seem quite so sunny...

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.