10 Movie Scenes That Led To Massive Lawsuits - Commenter Edition

5. Troy Dyer Gets Mad At Troy Dyer - Reality Bites

rebecca hall lay the favorite
Universal Pictures

Ben Stiller's feature directorial debut about a group of college grads navigating their young adult lives, Reality Bites has garnered a cult following over the years, with Ethan Hawke's performance as slacker Troy Dyer being noted as one of its best elements.

But someone who didn't find the actor's role to be all that compelling was a guy named Troy Dyer, who sued Helen Childress (the film's writer) for defamation.

Dyer was disgruntled by the fact that a character who was a bit of a scruffy scoundrel shared a name with him, and even though Childress declared that Dyer gave her permission to use his name (the two attended film school together), Dyer clearly hated the character, and stated that his work as a financial consultant in Wisconsin had been "affected" by way of association with Hawke's portrayal.

In the end, the lawsuit was settled when Childress released a statement saying that Reality Bites' depiction of Troy Dyer was entirely fictitious.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.