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Executive meddling strikes again.
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00:00Hello all of you beautiful people, Jules here for WhatCulture.com and, uh, God, imagine this,
00:04right? You've just been signed on to a brilliant new project, you've got an amazing script writer,
00:08you've got a really talented crew, and somebody's forcing you to work with an actor that you really
00:13don't want to work with. Yikes. Well, let's take a look at this. This is WhatCulture.com and these
00:18are directors who were lumbered with actors they didn't even want. Warner Brothers forced David
00:23O. Russell to hire George Clooney, Three Kings. The story of David O. Russell and star George
00:28Clooney's animosity on the set of the 1999 war comedy Three Kings are the stuff of Hollywood
00:33legend, and it apparently all stemmed from the fact that Russell didn't want Clooney to star in the
00:38movie. The director actually liked Nicolas Cage for the role of Major Archie Gates, but when he turned
00:44the offer down, yes it can happen apparently, and Warner Brothers rejected Russell's other picks,
00:49namely Dustin Hoffman, he was effectively strong-armed into casting studio-fave Clooney. Not only did
00:55Russell think the actor was wrong for the part, he apparently wasn't a fan of his head-bobbing
00:59and mugging acting style, which combined with Russell's tough directorial style led to increased
01:05tensions on the set. This culminated in the two getting into a physical altercation after Clooney
01:10defended a cast member who was berated by Russell, and Clooney vowed to never work with the director
01:16again. The resulting movie, though, was pretty great, at least. And though Russell continues to be
01:20an infamous hothead, he did later concede that Clooney was ultimately perfect for the part.
01:25Joss Whedon isn't convinced by bad actor Ray Fisher. Justice League. Acting as perhaps one of
01:31the most public falls from grace in recent moviemaking history, Joss Whedon's all-round dodgy behavior on
01:36the set of Justice League ultimately led to a number of that film's stars calling out the Avengers
01:41Assemble director publicly. Among those DCEU big-screen titans was one Ray Fisher, playing Cyborg in the flick,
01:48who claimed that Whedon was at the center of gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely
01:53unacceptable behavior on set. And now, after staying silent in the face of these various
01:58allegations for some time, the Buffy the Vampire creator has let his true feelings on Fisher and
02:02the matter at hand be known. Speaking in a conversation with New York Magazine, Whedon would
02:07class the claims as false and unjust, before labeling Fisher a bad actor in both senses.
02:13The director would also confess that he cut down Cyborg's storyline due to his feeling that it
02:17logically made no sense. With Whedon going as far as to state that Warner Bros. brought him on board
02:22to fix this originally Snyderham superhero ensemble epic, it's become painfully obvious, if it wasn't
02:28already, that this outspoken director wasn't too happy to work with Fisher and a few of the other
02:32Justice League faces. And his recent, heavily criticized comments have understandably gone down
02:37like a cup of cold sick in general. Jonathan Demme had no faith in Jodie Foster and was persuaded by
02:43the
02:43producers The Silence of the Lambs. Though it might seem absurd today, director Jonathan Demme had enormous
02:49reservations about casting Jodie Foster as FBI agent Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs, after being
02:56unconvinced by her Boston accent for her Oscar-winning role in 1988's The Accused. Before his recent death, Demme
03:02said, I saw her acting all over the place and I wasn't impressed. Demme exhausted numerous other
03:08options before Foster was eventually cast. Michelle Pfeiffer found the material too dark, Meg Ryan was
03:14slightly offended by the offer, and Orion Pictures rejected Laura Dern because she wasn't famous enough.
03:20The movie's producers firmly nudged Demme towards Foster, and with his other enthusiastic options
03:26depleted, he didn't have much choice. It all worked out in the end, of course, with both Demme and Foster
03:31winning Oscars for their work on the film. But Demme said, and look what happened. I fell madly in
03:35love with her. I named our production company Strongheart Productions after Jodie's sense of
03:40character. Oh, it all worked out in the end then. Michael Reeves didn't want Vincent Price, Witchfinder
03:46General. It simply did not matter that Vincent Price was one of the most well-known movie stars gracing
03:51planet Earth at the time. English director Michael Reeves had a vision for Witchfinder General, and it most
03:56definitely did not involve the fly sensation leading his picture. Instead, Reeves was said to
04:01have had Donald Pleasance in mind for the role of Matthew Hopkins, the famous English witch hunter.
04:07But the feature's American co-financers, American International Pictures, were much more interested
04:12in Price taking up the leading part, and pushed Reeves to cast the unmistakable presence. Reeves would
04:18proceed to openly state to colleagues that Price was without a doubt not his preferred actor for the
04:22role, with the director even going as far as to snub the house of wax face in refusing to meet
04:28him at Heathrow Airport before shooting. Reciprocating the disdain sent his way by Reeves throughout the
04:33course of making the picture, Price would admit, Reeves hated me. He didn't want me at all for the
04:38part. I didn't like him either. Despite all this bad blood, Price would still go on record to confess
04:43that the work he put into the performance of Hopkins seen in the 1968 historical horror was one of the
04:48best performances I've ever given. So there's a silver lining after all. What a life.
04:53Tony Kaye only hired Edward Norton after running out of time to audition anyone else. American History
04:58X. American History X is one of the best films of the late 1990s, though that brilliance was forged
05:04through an increasingly acrimonious relationship between director Tony Kaye, in his filmmaking debut
05:09no less, and star Edward Norton. It all stems from the fact that Kaye didn't want Norton to play
05:15neo-Nazi Derek, initially attempting to snag Joaquin Phoenix for the role, but the actor turned
05:20it down. With precious little time to continue auditioning actors before shooting started,
05:25Kaye had no choice but to bring Norton aboard. And though shooting itself wasn't at all problematic,
05:30considerable issues arose during post-production. Norton attempted to help Kaye shape the film in
05:35editing, which Kaye wasn't all that receptive to, resulting in the director being locked out of the
05:40editing room and Norton helping create a more studio-friendly edit of the film. The volatile
05:45Kaye attempted to have his name removed from the film and publicly trashed the final cut ahead of
05:49its world premiere, despite it ultimately earning rave reviews and scoring Norton a Best Actor Oscar
05:55nomination. Kaye continues to be a controversial figure in the industry, bristling with Bryan Cranston
06:00in his 2011 film detachment, and he hasn't directed a film since. Quentin Tarantino gave Diane Kruger the
06:07role as a last resort, Inglorious Bastards. Despite going on record to admit that her time working
06:12alongside Quentin Tarantino during the making of 2008's Inglorious Bastards was pure joy, and that
06:19the director treated her with utter respect and never abused his power or forced her to do anything
06:24she wasn't comfortable with, Diane Kruger still was very much under the impression that she was something
06:29of a last resort for the Pulp Fiction visionary. Revealing in a conversation on Reign with John
06:33Smith that she knows Tarantino didn't want to audition her, after not being impressed by a film
06:38of hers he'd seen, Kruger would go on to confess he didn't believe in me from the get-go. If
06:43that
06:43wasn't enough, Kruger even went as far as to admit that Tarantino only offered her the chance to audition
06:48because there was no one left to audition. Hammering home just how disinterested the iconic filmmaker
06:54initially was in Kruger for the part of Bridget von Hammersmark, Tarantino also refused to meet
06:59her in the US, with the star paying money out of her own pocket to meet him in Germany. But
07:04knowing
07:04that she wanted to change the narrative and prove Quentin was wrong to snub her for so long,
07:09Kruger jumping through these aforementioned hoops and approaching the process with a you-know-what-f-him
07:14attitude ultimately scored her the job and a vital part in yet another unmissable Tarantino flick.
07:20John Frankenheimer put up with Val Kilmer to work with Marlon Brando, The Island of Dr. Moreau.
07:261996's The Island of Dr. Moreau is one of the most infamously troubled productions in Hollywood
07:30history, and legendary filmmaker John Frankenheimer was hired last minute after original director
07:36Richard Stanley was fired for failing to keep the production on track. The director's primary
07:41motivation for signing on, aside from money of course, was to work with Marlon Brando, though in
07:46order to do so, he had to suffer through a continually tense working relationship with
07:50the notoriously difficult Val Kilmer. Kilmer, who had just learned that his wife had filed
07:54for divorce, was a routinely volatile presence during the six-month shoot, to the extent that
07:59Frankenheimer famously told him, your problem is you confuse the size of your paycheck with the
08:04size of your talent. Woof. Furthermore, when Kilmer wrapped shooting, the director reportedly
08:09implored his crew, now get that s*** off my set, and vowed never to be associated with the actor again.
08:16We sure hope that Brando was worth it, John.
08:18Patty Jenkins' heart sank at Gal Gadot's casting, Wonder Woman.
08:22Along with just about every comic book fan taking up residence on the internet at the time, Patty
08:27Jenkins was hell-bent on making sure Wonder Woman was done justice, upon beginning talks to come on
08:33board to helm the then-incoming 2017 DCEU standalone feature. But having a vision of an out-and-out
08:39all-American figure for the part of Diana, Jenkins would later admit to Playboy that her heart sank
08:45when news first broke that Warner Brothers had finally found their Wonder Woman in 2013,
08:50that being the elegant Gal Gadot. This coming before Jenkins had fully confirmed her commitment to
08:55bringing Diana's story to life. Jenkins would admit, I had been talking to the studio for so long about
09:00doing it, and I was like, well, that's that. I'm sure we wouldn't have made the same choice.
09:05But after really paying attention to her and watching her and looking at her,
09:09Jenkins would eventually confess, frankly, I think they did a better job than I could have,
09:13because I don't know that I would have scoured the earth as hard to find her.
09:17In the time since discovering exactly what Gadot brought to the DC dance, Jenkins has since taken
09:22to labelling her star as the greatest, and even brought another super flick into being with
09:26her as the lead once again in 2020's Wonder Woman 1984. Gadot may not have been Patty's first choice,
09:33but this unwanted superhero definitely had the director and just about everyone else blasting
09:37her casting from the get-go, eating their words before long. What a Wonder Woman!
09:42Kate Mara was studio-mandated casting, and Josh Trank hated it. Fantastic Four. There will hopefully be a
09:49warts-and-all documentary one day about the flaming train wreck that was the production of 2015's Fantastic
09:55Four reboot, which saw in over his head director Josh Trank becoming increasingly erratic amidst major
10:01tensions with Fox. The cast member to take the lion's share of the heat from Trank, though,
10:05was reportedly Kate Mara, who was a studio-mandated casting choice after Trank also screen-tested
10:11Margot Robbie and Emmy Rossum. There have been extensive claims about Trank's suspected drug use
10:17while directing the film, which may somewhat explain his reportedly aggressive and abusive
10:21behaviour to not only Mara, but numerous crew members as well. Ironically, the director even
10:26ended up embattled against star Miles Teller, who Trank had to fight with the studio to get cast in the
10:31first place. Though all parties involved have been pretty cagey about discussing the on-set troubles,
10:36the disastrous end product definitely speaks for itself.
10:40Louis Leterrier wanted Mark Ruffalo instead of Edward Norton, the Incredible Hulk. Edward Norton
10:45once again arrives on the scene as an actor that was undoubtedly not the director's first choice for
10:49the role of leading man. Much like in the case of American History X, Norton was brought on as
10:54something of a second choice in the mind of Louis Leterrier, with the Incredible Hulk's director
10:58ironically feeling that Mark Ruffalo was better suited to the role of Bruce Banner than the
11:02Academy Award-nominated star. Marvel Studios, on the other hand, felt that Norton was a much more
11:07popular choice for the face of one of their first MCU offerings, with Leterrier confessing to the
11:13Huffington Post that when he suggested Ruffalo for the part, he was met with the response of,
11:17No, you should get Edward Norton because he's more famous. On top of this,
11:22Marvel claimed that Ruffalo was only in the market for smart, intellectual movies.
11:26In the end, Norton was infamously dropped as Banner in the MCU post-Leterrier flick,
11:31with Ruffalo taking up the reins in stared girl figure.
11:34Laurence Olivier only hired Marilyn Monroe because she actually owned the movie rights,
11:39The Prince and the Showgirl. And finally, stage and screen icon Laurence Olivier decided to helm a
11:45film adaptation of Terence Rattigan's 1953 stage play, The Sleeping Prince, which Olivier himself
11:51originally directed and starred in on The West End, though it did come with a compromise of casting
11:57Marilyn Monroe in the lead role of Elsie. Because you see, Monroe had purchased the film rights to
12:02the play, putting Olivier in something of an awkward position when it came to casting the attractive blonde
12:07lead actress for the movie. Monroe was reluctantly cast as Elsie, and the starlet reportedly clashed
12:13repeatedly not only with the director, but also numerous other cast and crew members due to her
12:18unprofessional and difficult behaviour. According to supporting player Jean Kent,
12:22the difficult shoot caused Olivier to age 15 years. The final film received broadly positive reviews,
12:29with many praising Olivier for ringing a decent performance out of Monroe, though considering
12:33the director-slash-star's passion for the source material, it clearly didn't turn out quite how he'd hoped.
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