15 Actors Who Were Pressured Or Tricked Into Taking Roles They Really Did Not Want

Here's a look into the secrets of being an actor and having to take roles you don't want.

Daphnie

• Published in Film & TV
• June 10, 2022

Acting seems like it's the perfect job but there's actually a lot that goes on behind the scenes and behind the choosing of the roles that's not really talked about. I think all of us love learning about what really happens with actors and the movie process.

You might think that actors never take roles that they wouldn't want, but this actually isn't the case. Some actors have had to take roles that they weren't exactly happy with taking, but they worked with it and did it anyway.

The cool thing about this is that most actors are so great that you might not even notice that they didn't want to take the role in the first place because they act so in character. We are going to look into some of these roles and go into the back story of how these actors were forced into taking roles that they didn't want.

We've gathered 15 actors and times when this has occurred so that we can look into the story of how it happened. This might even make you look at the acting role much differently now that you know that the actor didn't want that role in the first place.

1. The Watcher

Keanu Reeves says that a friend forged his signature on the contract for "The Watcher" but he couldn't exactly prove it and he decided just to take the role rather than take legal action.

2. X-Men:Origins

Ryan Reynolds was connected with Deadpool, so when X-Men was starting production they basically told him to play Deadpool in the X-Men movie or they'll find someone else to. Ryan says he'd "just do it" but he claims that Deadpool isn't portrayed correctly in the X-Men movie.

3. Theodore Rex

Whoopi Goldberg actually faced a $20 million lawsuit because of a verbal pact she made to star in Theodore Rex, so she ended up playing Katie Coltrane. Whoopi had actually claimed that she didn't agree to it, but the producer had a recording of her agreeing to take the role.

4. The Cat In The Hat

Mike Myers wasn't too keen on doing another movie with Universal after their failed attempt at the movie Dieter, however he took on the role playing in The Cat In The Hat.

5. Thor: The Dark World

Natalie Portman basically took on the role in Thor: The Dark World with the knowledge and intentions of Patty Jenkins to direct since she'd be the first female director of a superhero movie, but Jenkins left her role, which left Natalie stuck with her role as Jane Foster.

6. Gulliver's Travels

Emily Blunt was actually offered the role of Black Widow in Iron Man 2, which she wanted to accept, but she'd already taken the role in Gulliver's Travels. She said it was extremely heartbreaking to not be able to take that role.

7. Garfield: The Movie

Bill Murray took the role of voice acting as Garfield in Garfield: The Movie because he accidentally misread the director's names. He thought the director was Jeff Coen, but the director of Garfield was actually Jeff Cohen.

8. Jaws 2

Once Steven Spielberg turned down the directing role for Jaws 2, Roy Scheider actually wanted to get out of his role too but unfortunately was unable to due to contract rules.

9. G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Channing Tatum said that because of his three picture deal with Paramount he was unable to even decline the role of Duke in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

10. Elektra

Jennifer Garner didn't want to play the titular character in Elektra, but she had obligations to as it was part of her contract because she originated the role in Daredevil.

11. Top Gun

Val Kilmer purposely tried to batch his audition for Top Gun, but because of his contract obligations he had to take the role.

12. The Italian Job

Edward Norton had to take on the role in The Italian Job to avoid being sued by Paramount.

13. Dogville

Paul Bettany was coerced by Stellan Skarsgard to take on the role in Dogville by saying it'd be "fun" but Paul really didn't want to take on the role.

14. The Bourne Ultimatum

Matt Damon said that the movie The Bourne Ultimatum's script was "unreadable" and embarrassing." However, this was the third Jason Bourne movie he'd been in so it was a bit of an obligation.

15. Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot

Sylvester Stallone had a rivalry with Arnold Schwarzenegger which actually led to Stalone taking a role in this terrible movie. Schwarzenegger read the terrible script and spread a rumor saying he was interested in it, which prompted Stalone to take a role.

Stalone later said that it was one of the worst films we've seen.

Knowing that these roles were unwanted is pretty interesting considering the popularity of a lot of the films. Some of these actors were tricked, contract bound, and some just didn't really want the role but they took it anyway.

No matter the reasoning it is super awesome to hear the backstory of these roles.

Daphnie