10 Movie Scenes That Led To Massive Lawsuits - Commenter Edition

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

Ethan Hawke Reality Bites
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 over ten 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 since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!