10 Actors Whose Movie Character Requests Got Rejected
6. Nichelle Nichols Wanted Uhura To Be A Klingon Expert - Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is generally regarded to be a return to form for the franchise, while offering an affecting farewell to the cast of the original Star Trek series.
However, Uhura actress Nichelle Nichols clashed with writer-director Nicholas Meyer over one major aspect of her characterisation in the film - her ability (or lack thereof) to speak Klingon.
The original script called for Uhura to use her expert grasp of the Klingon language to bluff the Enterprise out of a combat situation with the Klingons.
But script revisions saw this changed to a more comedic scene in which the crew hastily used translation books to communicate with the Klingons, resulting in Uhura speaking in sloppy, garbled Klingon instead.
Right up until shooting Nichols protested, explaining to Meyer that Uhura, being the Enterprise's communications officer, would reasonably have a strong grasp of Klingon, and demanding that the original version of the scene be restored.
Meyer refused to budge, and though the final scene is pretty funny, Nichols' frustration is also completely understandable.