7. Bruce Willis - Cop Out
After the surprise success of Die Hard (1988), he attempted a number of roles to prove his range as an actor: In Country (1989); The Bonfire Of The Vanities (1990); and Mortal Thoughts (1991). Their lack of success, and in the case of The Bonfire Of The Vanities abject failure, resulted in him essentially limiting himself to playing the same role for the next 20 years. He became ever more reliant on that iconic smirk of his as he concluded that he was a movie star rather than an accomplished thespian. As a fellow Jersey boy and having struck a bit of a friendship with Willis on the set of Die Hard 4.0 Kevin Smith had no hesitation in hooking up with him again. The movie was originally called A Couple Of Dicks, but soon became Cop Out when the Warner Bros. marketing department couldn't find any advertisers willing to run with the original title. The movie was intended as a throwback to the eighties buddy-cop movies and even had Harold Faltermeyer on board to provide the score. Kevin Smith is a resolutely independent film maker, but this was a studio movie with a hot, much sought after script, big Hollywood star, a big budget and huge expectations. Directing Bruce Willis was a dream come true for Smith, but those dreams withered and died like the thing of indeterminate origin which lives on Bruce Forsyth's head, and became a wide-awake nightmare. Willis was aloof, lazy and wilfully contrary: deciding when he would come to the set; arbitrarily cutting dialogue he didn't feel like saying; and a scene in which he was required to jump out of a car and run across the street with his gun raised, he opted instead to break into a casual saunter. After the shoot Willis disappeared and performed no press or publicity duties whatsoever, which would have raised awareness for the film. He wouldn't even participate in the photo session for the promotional poster. The end result was a formulaic, by-the-numbers movie which was a flop both artistically and financially. Smith laid the blame squarely at Willis' door, saying that working with him was soul crushing. Had Bruce done more to fulfill his contractual obligations rather than just pick up the Pay-Check, Cop Out might have fared much better. It's of no consolation to Kevin Smith, but Cop Out is his highest-grossing movie to date.