At certain points in their careers, actors no longer need to audition for the roles they
take. Eventually, if they're good enough, studios offer them roles, and they can pick
and choose as they please. However, the inverse of that happens too. Sometimes actors are
forced to take roles they don't want at all. Here are some of the worst.
Channing Tatum
As the star of Magic Mike and 21 Jump Street, Channing Tatum is probably one of the biggest
names in Hollywood today. So it may come as a surprise that he hated acting in one of
the movies that helped him become so well known: G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In an
interview with Howard Stern, Tatum admitted that he was pushed into doing that movie.
Tatum went on to say that, although he was a fan of the cartoon growing up, the script
was not good. He also really actually wanted to play Snake Eyes instead of the lead character.
But he does admit that he felt blessed for getting the work, even if it didn’t open
up the doors he would have liked.
Ed Norton
Primal Fear was only the first film in a three-picture deal that Ed Norton made with Paramount Studios.
It initially wasn’t a bad deal, because the film got him his start, and an Oscar nomination
too. Soon after being noticed, numerous studios offered Norton parts in their films, and he
never got around to making another movie for Paramount. Finally, Paramount took action,
and in order for Norton to appear in Fight Club, he had to negotiate a new deal with
the studio. Another three years passed, and Norton had yet to agree on a film he wanted
to do, so the company offered him The Italian Job. After Norton told the studio that he
didn't want to do the film, the studio politely informed him that he had to do it, or they
would sue. Norton complied, taking the role, but he refused to do any promotional work
for the film, obviously a bit angry about the situation. And you wouldn’t like him
when he’s angry.
Natalie Portman
By the time Natalie Portman agreed to appear in Thor, Marvel Studios already had big plans.
They were signing just about every actor who appeared in their movies to multiple-movie
contracts. They had even signed Samuel L. Jackson to a multi-picture deal, and his first
appearance as Nick Fury was only a cameo after the credits of Iron Man. Portman must have
missed this part of her contract, as she later wanted nothing to do with the Thor sequel
when it came time time to film it. Of course, we can't blame Portman for not wanting to
appear in Thor: The Dark World. When development began in April of 2011, Portman was still
pregnant, and she had made it known that she wanted to take time off from film work to
care for her child. In addition to that, Marvel fired Patty Jenkins, whom Portman had recommended
to direct the movie, so that didn't sit well with the actress either. While there's ample
evidence to suggest that Portman didn’t want to do the film, she has since denied
that she was forced to appear in it.
Emily Blunt
After appearing in Fox Studios’ The Devil Wears Prada, many studios sought out Emily
Blunt for their films. Even Marvel Studios wanted her to appear in Iron Man 2. However,
Fox Studios preferred that she stay with them and appear in their remake of Gulliver's Travels
instead, starring Jack Black. Luckily for Fox, and unluckily for Blunt, her Prada contract
had a clause that required her to star in another Fox-made movie. And they used it on
a movie that wound up becoming a critical and financial bomb. Fortunately, Blunt's career
wasn't damaged too much by this movie, as she has gone on to make many successful films
since then.
Keanu Reeves
The Watcher is proof that not all of our friends have our best interests at heart, as Keanu
Reeves learned. In this case, the so-called friend was Joe Charbanic, the director of
The Watcher, who had also filmed Reeves' band Dogstar while on tour. Shortly after Reeves'
huge success with The Matrix, Charbanic allegedly forged Reeves' signature on a contract to
appear in his serial-killer flick. Rather than deal with a long and costly legal dispute,
and unable to prove the forgery, Reeves appeared in the The Watcher. Once the movie was released,
Reeves did nothing to promote it, but for 12 months, he was contractually prevented
from talking about how he got involved in it. However, once that contract was up, he
didn't hold anything back, saying, "I never found the script interesting,” and revealing
his damaged relationship with the director.
Whoopi Goldberg
After her success with Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Whoopi Goldberg was riding high
when producers approached her to star in their movie Theodore Rex. At the time, Goldberg
orally agreed to appear in the movie, but over the next two years, something happened
to change Goldberg's mind. Our guess? It was probably the animatronic, talking dinosaur:
(weird dinosaur sounds)
She attempted to back out of it, but a previous court case involving Kim Basinger backing
out of Boxing Helena created a precedent that would have made it very expensive for Goldberg
to duck out. The actress relented and appeared in the movie. The movie did so horribly on
its test run that it was released direct-to-video, and has the distinction of being the only
direct-to-video movie to earn a Razzie nomination. For obvious reasons:
(weird dinosaur singing)
Val Kilmer
Surprisingly, Val Kilmer wanted nothing to do with Top Gun, the movie that arguably shot
him to stardom. It was all the result of a three-picture deal he signed with Paramount.
He had completed the first two films of the deal, Top Secret! and Real Genius, and owed
them one more. In order to get his agent off his back, Kilmer went to meet with the film's
director, the late Tony Scott. According to Kilmer, he went and had the meeting and then
attempted to leave, but wasn’t immediately allowed to:
"Tony ran after me, literally ran after me. He got in front of the elevator doors and
said, 'You've gotta do it man!'"
Scott knew he didn't want to make the movie, but Kilmer took the role anyway. We bet Kilmer's
glad he took that role now. Kilmer worked with Scott again in True Romance.
The Entire Cast of Movie 43
Considered one of the worst movies ever made, Movie 43 has a stellar cast that includes
Bad Catwoman, 300 Abs Guy, House Bunny, Wolverine, Jackass, McLovin’, Stifler, and Titanic
Lady. How the producer Charles Wessler got all of these A-List stars to agree to such
an awful movie is a bit of a scandal. Wessler, responsible for lowbrow films like Shallow
Hal and There's Something About Mary, somehow managed to sign Jackman and Winslet and film
their scene sometime in 2009. Wessler then used their involvement to sign the rest of
the cast. But when the other actors learned what they were involved in, they tried to
get out. Some, like Colin Farrell, and the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt
Stone, did manage to get out of their contracts. And it's been reported that George Clooney
was able to get out of his contract as well, apparently by telling the producers to, and
we quote, "F*** off." The rest of the cast was not so fortunate and were stuck on the
film… allegedly, working at scale rates. Is there any crueler fate?
Maybe just having to actually watch Movie 43.
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