In Birdman, Edward Norton plays a selfish, pretentious actor whom nobody wants to work
with because he's so difficult...which allegedly may not be too far from the truth.
At least Norton has a sense of humor about his reputation, but it hasn't helped his career
too much.
Here's why Edward Norton doesn't get many movie offers.
The Incredible Hulk
In 2008, Marvel Studios approached Norton to star in their Hulk reboot, but he initially
turned it down.
After meeting with director Louis Leterrier, Norton signed on, but with a ridiculous condition:
any suggestions he made to the screenplay had to be incorporated into filming.
Norton evidently did a substantial rewrite of the movie just weeks before filming started.
Leterrier shot as much of Norton's script as possible, alongside the original script.
The resulting mess was too convoluted for theaters.
Marvel executives hated the edit and ordered a new one with more action.
Norton more or less Hulked out in real life…
"Raaaaaggghhhhh!!!"
...and Marvel resented Norton's meddling so much that Norton got the boot in favor of
Mark Ruffalo when it came time for The Avengers.
Marvel took the rare step of issuing a statement about why Norton was dropped, saying they
wanted "an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented
cast members."
In short: they were sick of him and didn't like him when he was angry.
Or at all.
Red Dragon
The LA Times reported that in 2002, during the filming of the Silence of the Lambs prequel,
Red Dragon, Norton showed up on set with brand-new, totally unsolicited script pages that he'd
written for himself.
Director Brett Ratner and his producers didn't take kindly to Norton's demands to film the
scenes, and an argument ensued.
It's just one of many instances where Norton ignored the basic chain of command that makes
movie sets run smoothly.
So, it's easy to see how Norton was beginning to set up his career to crash and burn, even
back in 2002.
Frida
In the 2002 bio-pic about artist Frida Kahlo, Norton played Nelson Rockefeller, the billionaire
who commissioned Kahlo's husband, Diego Rivera, to paint a mural in New York's Rockefeller
Center.
Norton's then-girlfriend, Salma Hayek, had been trying to get the movie made for years.
Wanting to get every detail perfect, she asked Norton to conduct additional research and
use whatever he found to rewrite the Frida screenplay that had already been completed.
Norton has since taken credit for the final cut, but the Writer’s Guild refused to credit
him, since he violated their rules.
Norton trashed the WGA in a 2007 interview with The AV Club, saying,
"I wrote Frida.
I wasn't a member of the Writer's Guild, and I didn't get paid.
[...] I just got sort of shafted by them, quite frankly."
Death to Smoochy
Not even the costume department is safe from Norton's interference.
During production of the 2002 dark comedy Death to Smoochy, the film's costume designer,
Jane Ruhm, presented Norton with a wide variety of clothes for his character.
But that wasn't good enough for Norton.
Without anyone's knowledge, Norton commissioned Armani to design him the ultimate in hippie
chic: a suit made of actual hemp.
Ruhm later told Premiere Magazine that Norton made her deal with all the paperwork associated
with getting the suit made and sent to set, rather than, you know, letting her do her
job to begin with.
American History X
Norton was nominated for an Oscar for the 1998 drama American History X, but he didn't
just star in the movie: he also edited it, not that anybody had asked him to.
During the shoot, Norton and director Tony Kaye reportedly clashed about Norton's character
and dialogue, but things got really bad during the editing phase.
Kaye had created a tight 95-minute cut of the film, but when Norton saw it, he thought
that Kaye had cut too much.
Not wanting to upset their star, the production company relented to Norton's demand that he
make his own Norton-centric cut of the movie, which clocked in at well over two hours.
That's the version that made it to theaters, which upset Kaye, prompting him to ask the
Directors Guild to remove his name from the film's credits and replace it with "Humpty
Dumpty."
His request was denied, and his $200 million lawsuit against the production didn't fly,
either.
Kaye took out 40 ads in trade papers eviscerating Norton, and told a reporter the actor was
"a narcissistic dilettante who raped the film."
Jeez...
It goes without saying that the two haven't worked together again.
"Jee wizz"
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