4 Actors Who HATED Working On Stargate

It's a dubious honour to hold, being the film that killed an actor's interests in staying in Hollywood, but Stargate does in fact hold that title! Jaye Davidson left Hollywood entirely after appearing as Ra in the film, with only a couple of small indie roles under his belt in the years since.

The year prior to appearing in Stargate, Davidson had his breakout role in The Crying Game. He received an Oscar Nomination for his performance, along with the usual media attention that surrounds that. He discovered that after breaking through the barrier, he truly did not enjoy what he found.

Then, along came MGM with an invitation to join the Stargate film. He felt that he couldn't say no, so he instead demanded $1million - which the studio accepted. Left without much choice, he took on the part and struggled from the beginning. He found that he had a very hard time remembering his lines, all of which were written in Ancient Egyptian. Next, the costumes that he had to wear were incredibly uncomfortable - not to mention bulky to hide his various piercings (that he refused to remove, as he had only just pierced his nipples).

It was an unhappy shoot for him and the film's lukewarm reception with critics did nothing to help this. Test audiences too were not sure what to make of him. Initially, all of his scenes came without subtitles (a bizarre choice!) so these were re-edited. Next, he wasn't deemed 'alien enough' and so the post-production team added glowing eyes to highlight this.

Though the film itself went on to be a financial success, and the character of Ra would be mentioned extensively in SG-1, this was the only collaboration that Davidson shared with Stargate. A true shame, because the performance continues to get better with age!