10 More Actors Tricked Into Appearing In Movies

Halle Berry was tricked into X-Men 3 with a fake script.

By Jack Pooley /

Generally speaking, filmmakers want actors to be as enthusiastic as possible about the projects they're starring in, because if a performer cares about what they're doing, they're almost certainly going to give a better performance.

Advertisement

Yet there's no denying that many acting jobs are just that - gigs to pay the bills and keep their name in the news, rather than something they're deeply passionate about.

But every so often, actors end up working on projects for neither passion nor money, but because they were actually deceived about the film's true nature.

Sometimes filmmakers, producers, and studios outright lie about a role in order to secure the services of an actor who might otherwise have no interest, and that's absolutely the case with these 10 parts.

Following up our previous article on the subject, these actors were all duped into appearing in these movies with half-truths at best, promising them juicier material and concessions to all of their requests, and perhaps even flat-out misrepresenting what the film really is.

Most of the actors involved were unsurprisingly less-than-thrilled about the deception, with some taking it on the chin while others clearly still harbour plenty of resentment about it...

10. Rebecca Hall Was Promised The Lead Villain Role - Iron Man 3

Rebecca Hall appears in the third Iron Man movie as Maya Hansen, a geneticist who helps villain Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) create the dangerous Extremis serum.

Advertisement

In the final film she's portrayed as a well-intentioned character who falls in with Killian but ultimately betrays him, resulting in him killing her ahead of the third act.

But Hall has been vocal about Hansen's role being both different and significantly larger in the original script.

In earlier drafts Hansen was Iron Man 3's overarching villain, but then-Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter forced writers Shane Black and Drew Pearce to relegate her to a supporting character because he felt that a female villain wouldn't sell as many action figures.

Hall told Collider that Hansen would've been an outright antagonist who nevertheless had a change of heart by film's end. She said:

"In the first script that I read she was in it to the end and she created [Extremis] and then she sort of saved it by doing an act of martyrdom at the end and there was a whole like, she was evil but then she tries to be good at the end situation. It was a better part."

It's an especially bad look given that the Marvel Cinematic Universe received significant flak at the time for its lack of substantial female characters, and that certainly extended to villains too.

It's the MCU's loss, though - Hall's a terrific actress and would've knocked it out of the park if given the opportunity.

Advertisement