10 Times Actors Had Personal Reasons For Taking Film Roles
8. Orson Welles Played And Made Citizen Kane To Piss Off William Randolph Hearst
Straight out of the gate, Orson Welles set out to be an agitator. Even before entering Hollywood, he was staging an all-African American cast of what he called Voodoo Macbeth, changing the setting to a mythical island in Haiti.
From there came the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast, rumoured to be timed to sound like a real newscast as listeners switched around after Charlie MacCarthy on The Chase and Sandborne hour.
But his ultimate prank, one that some still say worked against his stardom in Hollywood despite delivering solid work up until his death, came from his dealings with media mogul William Randolph Hearst. Along with Herman J. Mankewitcz, Welles constructed what could generously be described as a thinly-veiled, mean-spirited attack on the millionaire, including a final word rumoured to be Hearst's pet name for his wife's reproductive organ.
There were plenty of shady rumours surrounding Hearst, most significantly the suspicious death of actor Thomas Ince onboard the newsman's yacht. Legal battles ensued, Hearst unleashed an army of critics and studio heads to block the film from ever being viewed, but ultimately it still has its place on every Top Ten list of all time.