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So much goes into making a television show or a movie. Screenwriters produce polished scripts, and then directors and producers polish them even more. And that’s before the actors get on set and have a chance to look at the lines they’ll deliver. Now, in most cases, the vast majority of actors just read off the scripted lines as intended. They may put a little bit of their personal flair into it as performers, but they don’t have enough clout or social influence in Hollywood to totally rewrite scripts that they don’t like.
Superstars don’t live like the rest of Hollywood’s working actors, though. And those same rules about just saying the lines as the screenwriters and directors expect don’t apply to the world’s most powerful A-listers! In this list, we’ll tell the tales of ten high-profile actors cast in various movies and shows who hated the scripts they received upon casting and rewrote things to better suit themselves. Perhaps you might see this as diva behavior—or maybe you’ll think some of these stars were merely smart to improve lackluster scripts. But regardless, they pushed for total rewrites… and got what they wanted!
10 Daniel Day-Lewis
Famed director Paul Thomas Anderson was the one who first put together the script for Phantom Thread, but wisely, he left it unfinished. PTA felt that instead of writing the full script, it would be better to only complete part of it. Then, when he cast the actor he wanted to play the lead role, he would let that man polish up the script to his heart’s content. And it was a very wise move because the lead role went to none other than the best actor of his era—Daniel Day-Lewis.
When DDL officially got the part, he started looking more deeply into the script. And what he saw was an unfinished gem that was up to him to polish and perfect. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about that dynamic after the fact, Anderson explained: “I’d give [Day-Lewis] things as I was writing. Rather than go away and write a script and try to impress him, I was collaborating with him each step of the way as I was going, which was very helpful in terms of forming the story and the character.” Imagine that—an influential director and a powerhouse actor working in tandem on a script. Sadly, the rest of this list’s rewrite battles weren’t nearly as polite and cordial.[1]
9 Edward Norton
It was a curious move when Edward Norton was cast to star in The Incredible Hulk. But the actor had an ace up his sleeve: He had only agreed to the role in the superhero flick if he was allowed to rewrite screenwriter Zak Penn’s entire screenplay. And indeed, Norton made a ton of changes to the script. He rewrote countless scenes to better suit his needs and what he felt was right for his character. But in the end, a major problem cropped up: The majority of Norton’s rewrites never made the final cut of the movie! Greatly dismayed by that, the Rounders actor eventually had a major falling-out with the screenwriter. And to this day, Norton and Penn will likely never collaborate again.
“I don’t really know the guy,” Penn told Entertainment Weekly about Norton when asked about the major frustrations he felt throughout filming. “He has his own process, and he chose to do it the way he wanted to do it. That said, I kept in touch with the people making the movie—but he, you know, has his own particular way of working and… it was unusual. I really don’t know. I wasn’t there; I was off making another movie, so it wasn’t a situation where I was banging on the door saying, ‘Let me come to the set.’” Penn went on to explain that he wasn’t happy when Norton went to Comic Con and claimed he had written the script.” Ouch![2]
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8 Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman really didn’t care for the original script for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves after he was cast in the movie. So, like any actor who wanted to create a good product that he could be proud of, he rewrote the whole thing! Rickman got together with some of his trusted pals—writers and producers Ruby Wax and Peter Barnes—and the three gave the script a complete overhaul. In the end, the trio came up with something they felt would be a better vehicle for Rickman’s career and a better-finished product for fans and moviegoers. But that’s not to say there weren’t hiccups along the way.
Perhaps most infamously, Rickman was once forced to meet with Barnes in a Pizza Express fast food joint to work on a portion of the rewrite when neither one had any other place to get their work done. Recalling that fateful (and greasy!) moment, Rickman later told The Times about the experience: “I said, ‘Will you have a look at this script? It’s terrible, and I need some good lines.’ So he did, and, you know, with pizza and bacon and egg going all over the script.” Sounds awkward, memorable, messy, and delicious![3]
7 Reese Witherspoon
Without a doubt, Cruel Intentions is one of Reese Witherspoon’s most iconic and lasting acting moments. And while it may have defined much of the early part of her career, that doesn’t mean it was smooth sailing from the start. On the contrary, if she hadn’t spoken up once she got the script to read for her character, Annette Hargrove, things could have turned out very differently for Witherspoon in Hollywood.
See, once she was cast in the movie, and after she read the script, the then-young Reese worried that her character was too demure in her scripted life and too influenced by the manipulations and tribulations of the men around her. Not wanting Annette to be a total pushover, Reese gathered the courage to mention her concerns to Roger Kumble, who both wrote and directed the movie. And to Kumble’s credit, he listened!
“Annette was the character most removed from me,” Roger later admitted to Entertainment Weekly when asked about Reese helping with a total character overhaul for Annette. “There’s no way the movie would have its success if it weren’t for [Reese’ ’s] talent as a writer.” Good for Reese for speaking up when she did—and good for Roger to put his ego aside and compile the best possible script no matter the consequences![4]
6 Russell Crowe
When Russell Crowe was first cast to star in Gladiator, the script that was to serve as the foundation of the film was nearly non-existent. Producers knew they wanted Crowe to star in the flick, but they didn’t know much else. The script itself was only 21 pages long—less than a fifth of a typical movie script. And with barely any dialogue and nearly no idea about fleshing out any kind of character development, things seemed like an uphill battle. Frustrated with the lack of development before his casting, Crowe took action. He jumped headfirst alongside director Ridley Scott to finish the script and get the movie off the ground.
“It had 21 pages when we started shooting, and your average script is about 110,” Crowe later told BBC Radio 1 about his rewrite work. “Well, it’s me and Ridley working together, but also, you know, it’s the dumbest possible way to make a film… We didn’t know what we were going to shoot, so we had to go back to my house – me, him, and David Franzoni, one of the producers who was also the original writer—and try and work it out.” That they came up with such a solid movie in the end really speaks to their (re)writing abilities![5]
5 Paul Rudd
The movie Ant-Man had a full script and a completely fleshed-out idea of what it was meant to be long before producers cast Paul Rudd to star in it. But then a major monkey wrench was thrown into the fold when the movie’s originally planned director and co-screenwriter Edgar Wright abruptly left the project. Suddenly unmoored from Wright’s initial vision, producers scrambled to get things done. But thankfully, Rudd himself stepped in. Alongside screenwriter Adam McKay, the affable actor took it upon himself to rewrite the script and save the movie.
“I’ve always known Paul Rudd’s a really good writer from improvising with him on set, but I had no idea he was that good,” McKay later told Collider when asked about how Rudd resurrected the movie after Wright’s departure. “He’s really great with dialogue. So, the two of us holed up in hotel rooms on the East and West Coasts, and I think it was, like, six to eight weeks, we just ground it out and did a giant rewrite of the script. I was really proud of what we did. I really thought we put some amazing stuff in there and built on an already strong script from Edgar Wright and enhanced some stuff.”[6]
4 Jeff Bridges & Robert Downey Jr.
It was considered a coup when both Jeff Bridges and Robert Downey Jr. were cast for Iron Man under the direction of Jon Favreau. But during initial rehearsals for the high-budget flick, it quickly became very clear to all involved that the script was not up to snuff. Rather than move forward with a subpar script and risk putting out a lackluster movie, Bridges and Downey stepped up to halt things before it got too bad on set. Over several weeks, the actors convinced Favreau and the producers to stop pre-production and give them time to do a full script rewrite. Things got so complicated, though, and there was so much rewriting to do that the actors were actually still working out bits and pieces as principal filming began!
Bridges recalled that complicated process later in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. “We read the script, and it wasn’t really right,” he said. “We had two weeks’ rehearsal, and we basically rewrote the script. And the day before we were going to shoot, we get a call from the Marvel guy saying, ‘Oh no, no, no. None of this is right.’ So we would muster in my trailer and rehearse while the guys were in the studio tapping their feet, saying, ‘When are they going to come?’ We were still trying to figure out the [scenes] we were going to shoot.” That seems like a very complicated and stressful way to shoot a movie![7]
3 Jenna Ortega
Jenna Ortega was a very young woman when she was cast to star in Tim Burton’s Netflix series Wednesday. (Heck, she’s still a young woman now—she’s only 22 years old!) But her immaturity may have hurt her a bit once she took on the lead character of that streaming series. On set, Ortega quickly became very possessive of her character and the script. She later admitted that things became so bad that she was “almost unprofessional” when it came to rewriting lines and altering the script. And while it frustrated the series’ producers and screenwriters to no end, Jenna did it with the express motivation to put out the best show possible for her very demanding fans.
“Everything that I had to play did not make sense for her character at all,” Ortega later argued during an interview for the “Armchair Expert” podcast. “Her being in a love triangle? It made no sense. There was a line about a dress she has to wear for a school dance, and she says, ‘Oh my god, I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ I had to go, ‘No.’ There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines.” Taken one way, Ortega exhibited some serious diva behavior. But seen in a different light, well, perhaps she saved the show from being panned.[8]
2 Tom Cruise
When it came time for Tom Cruise to film The Mummy, he reportedly exerted quite a bit of creative control. Even for an A-list star like Cruise, this was on another level—if insiders close to the production are to be believed, at least. As the story went at the time, Cruise wanted to rewrite nearly the entire script after he was first cast in the flick. Instead of trusting the screenwriters to improve it, though, he struck out on his own. He supposedly hired two outside writers (on his own dime!) to rework the script and get it up to his liking.
Among other things, the rewrites ensured that Tom’s character had more screen time—and a much improved dramatic arc that would keep him as the movie’s main focus. “This is very much a film of two halves,” supervising art director Frank Walsh told Variety about how Cruise affected The Mummy and its production. “[It was] before Tom and after Tom.”
But even after that eyebrow-raising quote, Walsh refused to throw Cruise under the bus. The art director continued: “I have heard the stories about how he drives everything and pushes and pushes, but it was amazing to work with him. The guy is a great filmmaker and knows his craft. He will walk onto a set and tell the director what to do, say, ‘That’s not the right lens,’ ask about the sets, and as long as you don’t fluff what you’re saying to him… he’s easy to work for.” Sure he is, Frank. Sure he is.[9]
1 Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds
Blake Lively may have both produced and starred in It Ends with Us when it came out earlier in 2024, but did you know she also had a hand in the screenplay? Of course, the movie is based on the famous Colleen Hoover novel of the same title. However, adapting the book into a screenplay took far more work for Blake (and also for her husband, Ryan Reynolds) than you might have expected. In fact, it was Reynolds who stepped up big to give the script the perfect finishing touches. It all ended climatically with a memorable rooftop scene—one written by Blake and Ryan and not the original screenwriter Christy Hall.
“The iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it,” Lively revealed to E! News after the movie came out. “Nobody knows that but you now. We help each other. He works on everything I do; I work on everything he does. So his wins, his celebrations are mine, and mine are his.”
As for the screenwriter Hall, she amazingly didn’t take offense to the rewrites. While trying her best to honor Hoover’s original novel and work it into a usable screenplay, she was also okay with Lively (and Reynolds) making as many changes as they did. “There were a few little flourishes that I did not write, but I assumed that they had been improvised on set,” Hall explained to People Magazine. “But the moments that I felt like needed to be honored are there. So I recognize the scene and I’m proud of the scene. And if those flourishes came from Ryan, I think that’s wonderful.” What a carefully crafted, politically correct way of putting it.[1]
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fact checked by
Darci Heikkinen
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