8 Genius Ways Actors Made Sure You Noticed Them In Movies

6. Steve McQueen Demanded The Same Amount Of Lines As Co-Star Paul Newman

Towering Inferno
20th Century Fox

Acting legends Steve McQueen and Paul Newman are remembered as peers and equals today, both just as famous and "A-list" as each other. So it's quite hard to imagine a time when there was a competitive friction between the two, but while filming 1974's The Towering Inferno, McQueen tried as hard as he could to be viewed on the same level as co-star Newman.

While Newman is the lead of the film, McQueen didn't want to be viewed as just another supporting player, and sought ways to make his character - Michael O’Hallorhan, a fire department chief - a more prominent part of the movie.

So, in a no-nonsense move, he demanded that 12 more lines of dialogue should be given to his character, so he and Newman would be on more of a level playing field in terms of screen time and words spoken. In an effort to be noticed even further, he also requested for the brim on his fireman's helmet to be cut back slightly, so that his eyes weren't covered in shadow.

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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. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. 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!