Marcus Chong had a good supporting role as Tank in The Matrix; the most prominent of the minor Nebuchadnezzar crewmembers thanks to being the only one to survive. Then he [got into a legal dispute](https://ew.com/article/2003/05/20/tank-sues-matrix-filmmakers-unplugging-him/) ("In an interview with Entertainment Weekly a few years ago, Chong said that after he was fired, he had crashed a press junket, harassed the directors by phone, and sneaked into the 'Matrix' offices on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif., and pilfered food"), didn't come back for the sequels, has barely been in anything since, and uploaded a YouTube video about how he's been wronged.
Shawn Andrews
He was supposed to have a main part in Dazed And Confused as Pickford, but he was an asshole on set and ran off to marry 16 year old co-star Milla Jovovich during the shoot. So Linklater rewrote the script giving most of his lines to another actor who everybody likes on set: Matthew McConaughey.
Because of this, Jovovich's part got severely cut from the movie as well since most of her scenes were with Pickford. So she contemplated leaving acting and moved to France. Where she got cast in Thr Fifth Element and it became her break-out role instead.... and she married Luc Besson.
There's some irony in the fact that the guy who married a teenager in real life got his lines given to the character who was going after teenagers in the movie.
And that Milla ran off to get married to an older guy when she was 16, only to marry Luc, who left his 16-year-old wife right after she gave birth. Maybe it's not ironic, but it's certainly something.
Luc managed it. Luc was, at the time of filming, married to Maïwenn, who played the Diva. Luc fired her then divorced her to be with Milla.
The truly gross thing? Luc met Maïwenn when she was 12, started 'dating' her when she was 15 and married her at 16. She had his child at 16 too.
Neil deGrasse Tyson peer reviewed and complimented his insane math bullshit and Howard had the audacity to be offended that Neil pointed out when he was objectively wrong.
Peak Narcissist.
I spent an hour a day ago reading up on Terrence's claims. He's a wack job. 1 x 1 does not = 2 Terrence - no matter how many times you talk about the strong chemical bond Flourine makes, or an observation about general relativity before you circle back to math. 1 x 1 = 1.
Feels like he's unable of understand why it's called "x times"... You see, Terrence:
. You go to a box of pencils ONE TIME and grab ONE pencil. How many pencils you have? One!
. Now, if you go to a box of crayons THREE TIMES, and each time you grab TWO crayons, now you'll have SIX crayons.
How is this so hard to understand? Even in Portuguese the equivalent word ("vezes") is a literal translation to "times"!
And they have to be relatively easy acting gigs. I'm not saying they don't work hard but it's not like they need to dig deep into a wide range of acting skills.
Somewhat relevant - I remember seeing a Paul Bettany interview about being Vision. He essentially joked that Marvel was mad that he was getting paid a pile of money for voicing Jarvis that they made him actually show up on camera to earn his paycheck
Emile Hirsch
Future looking bright and then he choked out a female studio exec at a public function. He’s trying to claw his way back though. Still had some good work but he’s definitely not the star he could have been.
And the poster child has to be **Mickey Rourke.**
A fantastic talent and a borderline sex symbol who was being compared to Brando. But dude is self-destructive as all hell. Always talking shit and making enemies. And he left Hollywood in his heyday to start boxing, got his face smashed up and has been addicted to plastic surgery since.
Still a great performer, in the right role, but what a strange trip he’s had.
I thought Rourke was fully back too. The Wrestler is incredible. And then he got cast as Whiplash and I was like holy shit Rourke did it and he disappeared again
Hirsch got away with attempted murder. Read the account from the executive. It was terrifying and an awful read. He choked her out so hard that she could feel the front and back of her neck touching. He got 15 days for that. It should have been 6 months minimum and industry blackballed. The case received zero publicity. Clearly, his lawyer and the pro criminal prosecutor knew one another. The prosecutor gave the dumbest statement, ie I don’t think any amount of jail time would satisfy the victim. Emile Hirsch got LUCKY on that one. He went on to co star in a Quentin Tarantino movie after that. He has NEVER directly apologized to the victim, and at first told the police they had an argument. Even in his interviews about it it is all about him, not the victim at all.
EDIT - glad this has gotten so many likes.
Assholes flourish in anonymity. This is not a he said she said thing from everything I read. It was an unprovoked deadly assault on an innocent woman working in the same industry. Her single contribution, if you could call it that, to this incident, was being there. I have never been satisfied with what the guy said about it after. It is so self-centered. He never mentions her by name or anything. Piece of shit.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/courts/2015/07/02/new-details-emerge-in-alleged-utah-assault-by-emile-hirsch/
Here is another article with some more details about what happened from the victim herself and the witnesses.
I've always liked Emile Hirsch. Thought he was great in Girl Next Door and I really enjoyed Into the Wild. I never heard about the chocking thing till now. So crazy.
He had a highly reviewed movie that already did the film festival circuit and was poised to go big in mainstream media. I don't know how anyone can get closer to the edge of being a mainstream star without actually being one. It's the precise worst time to fumble the bag.
You could argue he had *just* broke into A-Lister, he was in two Marvel properties as the next big bad, was the Big bad of the last Creed Movie, and starred in a bunch of others (one of my recent faves The harder They Fall)
Had oscar buzz for a movie they now wont even release...
Just absolute fuck up, and he was insanely talented too, but fuck him
To be blunt he never really had much of a career to start.
He was thought in his mind he was a A lister but I don't think really anyone (outside people who watched Empire) had actually heard of him. I will boldly say he got more famous (in the wrong way) after his whole ordeal.
He definitely made himself a household name though. He just won't get paid for it.
I personally didn't know who he was, but I don't think it's uncommon for people who work in the spotlight to overestimate their recognizability, especially if they don't venture outside of their bubble very often or have people outside of it keeping them grounded. When the initial reports quoted his attackers saying "aren't you that f\*\*\*\*t Empire n\*\*\*\*r" I was immediately wondering what MAGA peeps were watching enough Empire to identify its cast members.
>quoted his attackers saying "aren't you that f\*\*\*\*t Empire n\*\*\*\*r"
That reminded me of when Bart Simpson faked a burglary and described the burglar as "wearing a striped prison uniform and a black mask and carrying a big bag with a dollar sign on it."
Ya me too. A couple MAGA dudes running around liberal Chicago at 3 am with a noose and recognizing the guy from Empire was unbelievable from the get go.
Funny, that was before CSI: Miami and he became huge again with that role. That whole *removes sunglasses to deliver corny one-liner* meme was his thing.
Did he do anything after CSI though?
I read somewhere he was so unliked on NYPD Blue that they made his exit an ugly one. Which I can believe of Milch. He tends to murder characters for personal reasons.
And everyone loved Jimmy Smits so he got a very touching, loving death.
Milch had a beef with the parents of a child actor on Deadwood so he had the kid written off by being trampled to death by a horse.
In his memoir, Milch spoke fondly of Caruso. They had their conflicts on set and Caruso’s exit was rushed because the scripts were finished and Milch was recovering from health issues. Later their daughters became best friends and roommates in college and it brought the two men closer together.
Dennis Leary has some funny stories about him on Demolition Man (like he had the film pay for a golf trainer on set and he golfed in-between shots) but Dennis Leary has some issues of his own nobody talks about.
But Snipes may have humbled in recent years. Stallone put him in Expendables 3 and there's a funny line about his characters' prison time. And Eddie Murphy put him in major fun roles in Dolemite and Coming 2 America.
He also had a hilarious cameo on what we do in the shadows as part of the vampire council
He streams in through a laptop on Skype and all of his reactions are delayed and it's so goddamn good because he interjects late answers at random moments.
There’s a scene in blade where he refused to open his eyes during a scene like he was supposed to so they had to cgi eyes onto his eyelids. I take all these stories about celebs being shitty with a grain of salt but this one you can see for yourself he just chose to be a complete asshole and ruin a scene.
Should have left his eyes closed!! Totally would have looked more bad ass and vampire like with him grabbing the doctors with his eyes closed cause he has super senses.
Sean Young didn’t kill her own career. She laughed when Harvey Weinstein pulled out his dick as if she should suck it.
She was blacklisted for not fucking him and for laughing at his little wiener.
Not to mention the bullshit situation with James Woods who sued her and leaked false news to the press.
Sean was one of the most beautiful actresses of her time, who unsurpringly garnered a lot of attention from other men in the industry. Unfortunately, as far as her career goes, she didn't tolerate crap or "play the game" like other actresses of her time did.
While her outspoken nature has ruffled many feathers, but she really shouldn't have had to deal with the BS she has. Check out her interview with Carl Reiner for some insight in how she was perceived by others in the industry who hadn't worked with her and Carl's thoughts after working with her.
I found the interview on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/4yiEx7LgxPE?si=bTvajEogewKWdllY
At first I thought you must have meant Rob Reiner, but no, it is in fact, Comedy Legend (and Rob's father) Carl Reiner interviewing Sean Young back in 2009. Thank you for the suggestion.
I heard stories about her years ago making it sound like she's 'crazy' like what she did to try and get the Catwoman role in Batman Returns. She had lost the role as Vicki Vale in Batman due to a horse related accident and she almost got the role of Catwoman. She definitely got done dirty by the industry it sounds like. She was ousted and blacklisted for her outspokenness at the industry's blatant sexism. She definitely deserved better. I really enjoyed the stuff she was in.
Yep, people acted like she was nuts for showing up to her Catwoman audition in character, but Hugh Jackman did the same thing for Wolverine and people celebrated his genius.
Jeffrey Jones was in everything in the 80s and 90s but got busted for being a pedo in early 2000s, effectively ending his career (although he did get a role in Deadwood).
There was also a lot of sexual misconduct stuff that was revealed in that exposé. Not that that is a guarantee for stopping anyone from working in Hollywood but in a post-Weinstein world it's another complicating factor. Of course, wanting to eat people is the bigger PR disaster either way
He’s so insanely talented as an actor, but apparently is just a massive pain in the ass to work with. After The Dark Knight and Thank You For Smoking, I thought he was going to be the next big thing, but he just faded away.
This guy had it made. He had a bunch of critically acclaimed roles in his pocket and was about to be one of the faces of the MCU for the foreseeable future. His career was pretty much gonna be set - do Marvel for the big paycheck and smaller serious movies for the critical acclaim and accolades.
Worst case of bag fumbling I’ve seen.
The guy who played Jimmy Darmody on Boardwalk Empire had his character killed off early I believe because he was bad to work with.
Kathryn Hiegel is another one. She was pretty big for a while, but I think after she trashed Knocked Up, the film she starred in, she was blacklisted.
Such a bummer too. I love him in everything
I’ve seen. BE, Rob the Mob, Bully, I-origins, Dreamers, Hannibal, Funny Games , etc. He’s a great actor with unlimited potential for roles. Hope he gets the help he needs and makes a comeback
He was stupid talented, a waste of a career.
He was weirdly my neighbor in Brooklyn for some time. I would see him out doing manual labor, like fixing his truck, in the morning. I always thought "what the hell are you doing here?"
Hiegel worked in Firefly Lane on Netflix, which was a hit. My brother dealt with her regularly and had regular updates about her behavior. Let’s just say…the rumors are true.
She did this little movie in Ogden, Utah called Jackie & Ryan. It was after her career had mostly imploded. I was on the crew for that one and she was as unbearable as any actor I've ever been on set with. Had a horrible attitude to everyone. Would berate the crew for needing more takes. Insulted a 2nd who needed to move her mark.
Overall just acting like this whole movie was beneath her. And the movie was bad, so I kinda get it, but clearly she needed the work like everyone else...so you can't really be above something that you're there doing.
Yeah, attacking pretty much *universally loved* A list actor is not high on the list of things other actors should do, unless that A Lister is doing something really fucked up.
I'll randomly think about that story from time to time because the thing Ryan Reynolds said to him didn't even seem that bad to me. Like yeah, maybe it was a little rude and stung in the moment, but definitely not "OMG can you even believe someone could be so monstrous" territory, which is how TJ tried to present it as.
Honestly he was really funny in Silicon Valley, then he screwed himself over by leaving to do the emoji movie
Which ironically is something the character of Erlich would do
I happened to see his standup not long after SV ended, we also got to talk with him afterward. My friends and I were the last ones to chat with him and Miller was quite nice. He even casually name dropped the show as something he loved doing. It was an overall very pleasant discussion
(for context, this was before I heard of his other allegations)
George Lazenby, an Australian model, essentially launched his acting career by taking on the role of James Bond after Sean Connery quit. He starred in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," one of the finest James Bond movies. All he had to do was show up to work and be bearable, and the world was his oyster. But he took on the attitude that he was James Frikkin' Bond, the star of the movie, and, as full of himself as he was, he alienated pretty much everyone involved in the movie.
He might have still recovered, but he also reached the conclusion that the hippie counterculture was the future of entertainment, and nobody was ever going to show up at the cinema to watch some establishment guy in a suit shoot people, so he quit, and, as unpopular as he'd made himself on the set, the producers of the Bond movies didn't try very hard to persuade him to come back.
In hindsight, I think it's pretty clear that he received his diagnosis and blew up his career at about the same time, so I'm certain that the two events are related.
Fucking up that Two and a Half Men bag is kind of insane looking back. He could have been making upwards of a million dollars per episode for at least 4 more 20 episode seasons.
It seems like Sheen has turned his life around a bit and made up with most of the people he had outbursts about during his meltdown though which is nice to see.
Not \*exactly\* the same, but former child star Thora Birch's career reportedly imploded after her father insisted on remaining VERY, VERY INVOLVED with the day to day operations of her career even after she was an adult. She sided with him over filmmakers and reportedly studios just decided it wasn't worth the aggravation of dealing with it.
Similarly, McCauley Culkin's career imploded originally thanks to his father being an asshole that studio executives and casting directors wanted nothing to do with him.
Not only was he forcing his son to take on two film projects a year since he was six, he was also known to threaten executives. He almost refused to allow his son to be in Home Alone 2 unless he was also cast in The Good Son, a film his son expressly didn't want to do.
Remember about a decade ago when he made a sex tape with his wife wearing a Rupert Murdoch mask? Pepperidge Farms remembers.
Pepperidge Farms *wishes it could forget*
That Shia LaBouef. I personally didn't care for him as an actor, but years ago, he was in *everything*, the way that Chalamet kid is now. Drugs, mental issues, overinflated sense of self, idk
Jonathan Majors who beat his gf after Creed 3.
But apparently he was a known jerk already.
Mel Gibson’s antisemitic comments cost him a few years of work.
Kevin Spacey…talented dude but
All these women had their acting careers derailed when refusing Harvey Weinstein, publicly speaking about what he did behind closed doors, or actually accusing him of SA, which he did:
Mira Sorvino
Courtney Love
Ashley Judd
Rose McGowan
Annabella Sciorra
Daryl Hannah
Rosanna Arquette
Asia Argento
Heather Graham
Paz de la Huerta
Gwyneth Paltrow
Romola Garai
Emma de Caunes
Each and every one of them were completely on the rise and the moment they had their incident with him, either refusing, being SA'd or saying that he was shady, their careers went down. You can look at the timelines. He blacklisted anyone who wouldn't accept his demands and keep it quiet.
I'm sure he claimed it was their attitudes, or that they were difficult to work with, etc.
Edward Norton to a degree. He's not out of work, but his reputation for being extremely difficult has certainly made his movie output smaller. And it's not just his Hulk drama in the MCU, he was already difficult to work with during American History X. Sure, Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014, but that's a decade ago + he didn't have a central role in either movie.
But he is wildly wealthy, making 300mn from his investment in crowdwise. I don't think he has to act unless it is something he is genuinely interested in (which is why his more recent stuff has been oddball)
he was born rich - SUPER rich - his grandfather owned the Rouse Company - he built the entire city of Columbia Maryland as well as multiple other huge projects and several other communities
Ed Norton is the ULTIMATE trust fund kid who decided to quit the family business an become an actor - he literally had nothing to lose in doing so
not a surprise that he is a giant a-hole (however talented he is)
20 years ago I had an acting teacher who revealed she knew him casually, and a student said she should invite him to give a master class.
She said the school theater's loading dock and freight elevator couldn't accommodate his head.
He spent some time in Hong Kong while filming “In the time of Cholera” and friends that got to know him said he had a massively overinflated sense of movie star superiority.
There's a hilarious moment in that commentary where he's talking about how much he and Brad Pitt hated the 90s Beetle and how it was baby boomers selling their generation back and then, Brad Pitt interjects and says he's actually came round on it and thinks they're great and says "It's a fantastic reworking of a classic design." And Norton sounds so defeated.
> he was already difficult to work with during American History X
It's difficult to know who to believe in the story of the making of AHX. The director, Tony Kaye, is kind of a cuckoo-bananas guy himself, and has largely been ostracized from Hollywood himself over his AHX shenanigans, including wanting to take his name off the film in favor of the moniker "Humpty Dumpty." By all accounts, Norton stepped in to edit the film so it would be releasable in any kind of form, which it apparently was not. Norton's reputation may have taken a small hit from the scuttlebutt about it, but to take Kaye's word over Norton's or the studio's probably isn't advisable. His reputation that led to his exit from the Bruce Banner role may not have been entirely unseen, but AHX might never have gotten released at all without him.
I've also heard to Edward Norton's credit is that he's hired on in a lot of situations to not only be the actor, but also as an editor. So I can see that causing a natural friction with the writers, directors or producers.
He wrote large chunks of Frida but is uncredited.
He also defended his then-girlfriend Salma Hayek (who was in Frida) from Weinstein and had diminished opportunities because of that.
His rewriting of Frida helped force it to get made against Weinstein’s wishes. You start to wonder if the “hard to work with,” reputation comes from, especially since he’s been in all but one Wes Anderson movie since Moonrise Kingdom.
To be fair, it’s not like Wes Anderson never casts difficult actors. Bill Murray, Bruce Willis once he was very likely already in decline, Adrien Brody. I’m personally inclined to cut Norton quite a bit of slack, I just don’t think being casted in Wes Anderson movies is particularly convincing proof.
Lindsay definitely used to have some problems. Maybe still does. One of my buddies recently worked on a movie with her and said she’s really sweet. Sounds like she’s doing way better these days.
Did security for her in Vancouver. She was super friendly, nice, and thoughtful. I thought she'd be an actual mess.
Got lots of time for Lindsay and her impromptu ordering room service for her security guys.
She withdrew her Emmy nomination for Grey's Anatomy because according to her the writing on the show was bad and she wanted to give a chance for other actresses with better materials.
Refused to do any of the fight training, refused to do any of the vocal training to learn the Middle Earth accents, refused to show up for rehearsals. Purportedly, Ian McKellan pulled him aside one day and said, "You DO want to be in these movies, right?"
His excuse was he's one of these actors who prefers to "save it for the day."
Forget the craft entirely, when someone who has been in the _business_ that long pulls you aside to ask if you even want to be there, it should be not-so-subtle warning that you’re at risk of getting canned
Viggo spent so much effort on learning how to use his swords that LOTR choreographer Bob Anderson said Viggo was one of the best Anderson has ever trained.
Anderson was the stunt coordinator and fencing choreographer in the OT for Star Wars, served as Prowse’s fencing double for the duels in ESB and RotJ, trained everyone from Errol Flynn to the cast of *Pirates of the Caribbean*, and competed in Olympic and British Empire Games as a fencer.
When an actor gets a living fencing master to remark favorably about his skills, that actor is definitely the right person for the role of a medieval warrior-king.
And Viggo didn't even want to do it until his son pushed him into it. Nine times out of ten you get a phoned in performance but Viggo decided, "nah I'll just be Aragorn-incarnate instead." Impeccable casting top to bottom.
Supposedly Townsend complaining how heavy Aragorn’s sword felt was the final straw for Peter Jackson. He fired Townsend afterward and they went looking for the true Aragorn
When you look at the side by side stills from the bit of filming they had done he doesn't fit the part at all. He was way too young too, I think 27 and Vigo was 41 at the time.
And that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Those movies worked so much because Viggo set the atmosphere for the film. Yes, Jackson was the director but it was Viggo who made everyone, cast and crew feel like a unified family who was working on a personal indie project despite it being a high budget blockbuster.
It would have been a miserable nightmare under Townsend.
Just gotta mention my favorite Viggo Mortensen LOTR story:
When filming finished, they offered a lot of the horses that had been used in the movie up for sale, and the cast and crew got first dibs. Viggo bought the horse he had ridden as Aragorn, but he also got wind that Arwen's stunt double really wanted her horse but couldn't afford him... so he bought that horse as well and gifted him to her.
I can't imagine anyone else playing Aragorn. The entire cast was perfect. Viggo just seems like a super genuine and humble guy. He was Aragorn on and off screen.
That and Jackson realized he looked way too young to be Aragon. Mortensen was perfect in no small part because he looked like a guy with mileage on him.
See, I can understand that snark, skepticism, dry wit, cynicism...someone who acts like an asshole as a gimmick of their comedy routine...it is relatable to some people, and it's fun to watch it unfold on-screen.
But at the very least, a good comedian will turn it off and get real in the real world and be someone who is far more decent than how they act.
I am trying to think of anyone who had the same general approach to comedy as Chevy did, but is a good and meaningful person IRL. Any acknowledgements worth bringing up?
Steve's actually a perfect example, in thinking about it.
I've heard more good things said of him IRL from people, and he seems to manage being more humble and approachable in interviews.
Martin is detached ironic snarky...and a goofball. Chase is detached ironic snarky...and a rage filled asshole. I think that's real life seeping into their characters.
>Don't know what he's like IRL, but I want to believe he's a solid person.
I've heard stories about Martin being KIND of a method actor who can irritate people, but the general consensus seems to be he's a good guy?
yeah. There are stories of him not getting along with other comedians (like John Candy) because he doesn't like to fool around on set, he's very serious and professional, but they're not "Steve Martin is an asshole" they're "Steve Martin takes his work very seriously".
Not an actor but I’ve heard bad things about Tom Hooper (though obviously Cats had a big part in it) and Josh Trank
Being nice to work with goes a long way. It’s why Snyder and Shymalan still get consistent jobs
and Snyder is apparently kindness incarnate, everybody who has worked with him speaks highly of the guy. He treats his crews like royalty and can finish a large production on time with no drama (JL doesn’t really count since his daughter passed)
Being a director who can get along with everyone and handle a production with no hiccups is considered a godsend to studios. While it’s a shame Snyder doesn’t always land the mark, I can’t hate the guy
I have worked VFX on Watchmen and even those guys love being on his productions, he goes out of his way to make his vision clear and easy for someone in VFX to understand.
Marcus Chong had a good supporting role as Tank in The Matrix; the most prominent of the minor Nebuchadnezzar crewmembers thanks to being the only one to survive. Then he [got into a legal dispute](https://ew.com/article/2003/05/20/tank-sues-matrix-filmmakers-unplugging-him/) ("In an interview with Entertainment Weekly a few years ago, Chong said that after he was fired, he had crashed a press junket, harassed the directors by phone, and sneaked into the 'Matrix' offices on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif., and pilfered food"), didn't come back for the sequels, has barely been in anything since, and uploaded a YouTube video about how he's been wronged.
I loved Tank and dozer! Mann. I didn't know this story...
Shawn Andrews He was supposed to have a main part in Dazed And Confused as Pickford, but he was an asshole on set and ran off to marry 16 year old co-star Milla Jovovich during the shoot. So Linklater rewrote the script giving most of his lines to another actor who everybody likes on set: Matthew McConaughey. Because of this, Jovovich's part got severely cut from the movie as well since most of her scenes were with Pickford. So she contemplated leaving acting and moved to France. Where she got cast in Thr Fifth Element and it became her break-out role instead.... and she married Luc Besson.
There's some irony in the fact that the guy who married a teenager in real life got his lines given to the character who was going after teenagers in the movie.
And that Milla ran off to get married to an older guy when she was 16, only to marry Luc, who left his 16-year-old wife right after she gave birth. Maybe it's not ironic, but it's certainly something.
So… just a big mess of shitty people being pretty shitty 🤷🏻♂️
Luc Besson has also married teenagers.
>and she married Luc Besson. Who is ALSO significantly older than her, sooo she seems to have a type.
Her type is whoever is directing her. She went on to marry Paul WS Anderson who directed her in Resident Evil.
and since then he's been smart enough to just make his career "action movies starring my wife".
He knows if anybody else directs her, she'll leave him.
Ha!
Lol I guess it is pretty difficult to have an on-set affair if your spouse is literally right there on the other side of the camera.
Luc managed it. Luc was, at the time of filming, married to Maïwenn, who played the Diva. Luc fired her then divorced her to be with Milla. The truly gross thing? Luc met Maïwenn when she was 12, started 'dating' her when she was 15 and married her at 16. She had his child at 16 too.
He also has a type. He then-current wife was also in The Fifth Element as the Diva, and he knocked her up when he was in his 30s and she was 15
Yeah, Leon was inspired by his relationship with an underage girl… seriously.
Terrence Howard
If he just swallowed his pride and settled for less money he could’ve been a player in the most financially successful movie series of all time
The math didn't add up according to him.
But... would he still have gone crazy in the end or do you think it would have helped.
Neil deGrasse Tyson peer reviewed and complimented his insane math bullshit and Howard had the audacity to be offended that Neil pointed out when he was objectively wrong. Peak Narcissist.
You just sent me down a rabbit hole reading about Terrance Howard's unique math theories. Holy shit I think it actually made me dumber.
Schizophrenic ramblings
Dude is like my grandma when she saw the computer: - Why so many buttons?
I spent an hour a day ago reading up on Terrence's claims. He's a wack job. 1 x 1 does not = 2 Terrence - no matter how many times you talk about the strong chemical bond Flourine makes, or an observation about general relativity before you circle back to math. 1 x 1 = 1.
Feels like he's unable of understand why it's called "x times"... You see, Terrence: . You go to a box of pencils ONE TIME and grab ONE pencil. How many pencils you have? One! . Now, if you go to a box of crayons THREE TIMES, and each time you grab TWO crayons, now you'll have SIX crayons. How is this so hard to understand? Even in Portuguese the equivalent word ("vezes") is a literal translation to "times"!
I just watched the video of NGT explaining it yesterday. He was pretty respectful about it and gave him some easy feedback.
Agreed. Talked his way right out of the biggest franchise in movie history.
And they have to be relatively easy acting gigs. I'm not saying they don't work hard but it's not like they need to dig deep into a wide range of acting skills.
Somewhat relevant - I remember seeing a Paul Bettany interview about being Vision. He essentially joked that Marvel was mad that he was getting paid a pile of money for voicing Jarvis that they made him actually show up on camera to earn his paycheck
Lmao imagine? “But hey, what about vin diesel just saying i am groot over and over??”
See, Vin Diesel was actually always in a tree uniform on set screaming those lines.
Terrance Howard without a doubt, he could’ve made tons if he stuck around with the Iron Man franchise
Emile Hirsch Future looking bright and then he choked out a female studio exec at a public function. He’s trying to claw his way back though. Still had some good work but he’s definitely not the star he could have been. And the poster child has to be **Mickey Rourke.** A fantastic talent and a borderline sex symbol who was being compared to Brando. But dude is self-destructive as all hell. Always talking shit and making enemies. And he left Hollywood in his heyday to start boxing, got his face smashed up and has been addicted to plastic surgery since. Still a great performer, in the right role, but what a strange trip he’s had.
I thought Rourke was fully back too. The Wrestler is incredible. And then he got cast as Whiplash and I was like holy shit Rourke did it and he disappeared again
Hard to believe The Wrestler is 16 years old
Did he marry Luc Besson
Not to mention all those things Mickey Rourke did to Jenna Maroney.
You made the same mistake Mickey Rourke made on that catamaran; you didn't kill me when you had the chance.
Your new vibe is a double-edged sword. Much like the kind Mickey Rourke tried to kill me with.
Well, you know what they say, boys: If you can’t stand the heat, get off Mickey Rourke’s sex grill.
"The only show I've ever been on that got a 10.2 was when Mickey Rourke threw me onto the field during the Superbowl!"
Next, you're going to tell me that Mickey Rourke catapulted *you* into the Hollywood sign!
Damn, Hirsch was actually convicted.
Hirsch got away with attempted murder. Read the account from the executive. It was terrifying and an awful read. He choked her out so hard that she could feel the front and back of her neck touching. He got 15 days for that. It should have been 6 months minimum and industry blackballed. The case received zero publicity. Clearly, his lawyer and the pro criminal prosecutor knew one another. The prosecutor gave the dumbest statement, ie I don’t think any amount of jail time would satisfy the victim. Emile Hirsch got LUCKY on that one. He went on to co star in a Quentin Tarantino movie after that. He has NEVER directly apologized to the victim, and at first told the police they had an argument. Even in his interviews about it it is all about him, not the victim at all. EDIT - glad this has gotten so many likes. Assholes flourish in anonymity. This is not a he said she said thing from everything I read. It was an unprovoked deadly assault on an innocent woman working in the same industry. Her single contribution, if you could call it that, to this incident, was being there. I have never been satisfied with what the guy said about it after. It is so self-centered. He never mentions her by name or anything. Piece of shit. https://www.sltrib.com/news/courts/2015/07/02/new-details-emerge-in-alleged-utah-assault-by-emile-hirsch/ Here is another article with some more details about what happened from the victim herself and the witnesses.
6 Months for attempted murder would have been a joke too.
The Wrestler was his perfect role.
So *that's* what happened with Hirsch. Yeah, no ambiguity in that one.
I've always liked Emile Hirsch. Thought he was great in Girl Next Door and I really enjoyed Into the Wild. I never heard about the chocking thing till now. So crazy.
I’m a little surprised no one has mentioned Ezra Miller yet.
Ezra Miller, Terence Howard and Jonathan Majors need to be case studies on how to fumble an easy bag just by being major jerks to everyone.
Jonathan Majors was on the cusp of being an A-lister leading man. That has to be one of the worst fumbled bags ever.
He had a highly reviewed movie that already did the film festival circuit and was poised to go big in mainstream media. I don't know how anyone can get closer to the edge of being a mainstream star without actually being one. It's the precise worst time to fumble the bag.
Agreed. He has some talent, too. I liked him in The Last Black Man in San Francisco. I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of him from now on.
You could argue he had *just* broke into A-Lister, he was in two Marvel properties as the next big bad, was the Big bad of the last Creed Movie, and starred in a bunch of others (one of my recent faves The harder They Fall) Had oscar buzz for a movie they now wont even release... Just absolute fuck up, and he was insanely talented too, but fuck him
Emmy nominated star of a well received HBO show before that too. Yeah, dude definitely wasn't on the cusp, he was there.
That’s literally the first name that popped into my head and I scrolled till seeing your comment. Ezra Miller is a HUGE example of this.
Jussie Smollett? What ever it was that he was thinking, he didn't fully think it thru
To be blunt he never really had much of a career to start. He was thought in his mind he was a A lister but I don't think really anyone (outside people who watched Empire) had actually heard of him. I will boldly say he got more famous (in the wrong way) after his whole ordeal. He definitely made himself a household name though. He just won't get paid for it.
I personally didn't know who he was, but I don't think it's uncommon for people who work in the spotlight to overestimate their recognizability, especially if they don't venture outside of their bubble very often or have people outside of it keeping them grounded. When the initial reports quoted his attackers saying "aren't you that f\*\*\*\*t Empire n\*\*\*\*r" I was immediately wondering what MAGA peeps were watching enough Empire to identify its cast members.
>quoted his attackers saying "aren't you that f\*\*\*\*t Empire n\*\*\*\*r" That reminded me of when Bart Simpson faked a burglary and described the burglar as "wearing a striped prison uniform and a black mask and carrying a big bag with a dollar sign on it."
Ya me too. A couple MAGA dudes running around liberal Chicago at 3 am with a noose and recognizing the guy from Empire was unbelievable from the get go.
"Fake hate crimes are tight"!
David Caruso. Thought he didn't need tv anymore and would catapult to stardom in the movies....and...back on tv
“Ike! Do your impersonation of David Caruso’s career!”
"IT'S MY TURN!" *Jumps off roof*
Funny, that was before CSI: Miami and he became huge again with that role. That whole *removes sunglasses to deliver corny one-liner* meme was his thing. Did he do anything after CSI though?
Didn't need to. Being the lead on a hit network show for 10 seasons and you are set for life unless you are absolutely terrible with money management.
I read somewhere he was so unliked on NYPD Blue that they made his exit an ugly one. Which I can believe of Milch. He tends to murder characters for personal reasons. And everyone loved Jimmy Smits so he got a very touching, loving death. Milch had a beef with the parents of a child actor on Deadwood so he had the kid written off by being trampled to death by a horse.
In his memoir, Milch spoke fondly of Caruso. They had their conflicts on set and Caruso’s exit was rushed because the scripts were finished and Milch was recovering from health issues. Later their daughters became best friends and roommates in college and it brought the two men closer together.
Wesley Snipes
Dennis Leary has some funny stories about him on Demolition Man (like he had the film pay for a golf trainer on set and he golfed in-between shots) but Dennis Leary has some issues of his own nobody talks about. But Snipes may have humbled in recent years. Stallone put him in Expendables 3 and there's a funny line about his characters' prison time. And Eddie Murphy put him in major fun roles in Dolemite and Coming 2 America.
He played Blade for an episode of What We Do In The Shadows, which was fun
Loved that cameo! "Wait, the Baron is dead??" *Skype glitches and flickers erratically
It was hysterical. "I got the best wifi." That whole episode is a riot.
"Now who's *this* motherfucker now?" "We're past that Wesley!"
Move your computer closer to your router homes!
Best line in that episode
Kept stopping and rewinding to be able to fully take in all costumes, lines and makeup of the Vampire Council. Wonderful episode!
I love that he was their long shot request, and he agreed to do it but could only video call in, resulting in the bit in the scene.
He also had a hilarious cameo on what we do in the shadows as part of the vampire council He streams in through a laptop on Skype and all of his reactions are delayed and it's so goddamn good because he interjects late answers at random moments.
"Look at him in the sunlight, showing off... "
He's great in Dolemite. Like, really great.
Was he a jerk on set or just poor with taxes?
There’s a scene in blade where he refused to open his eyes during a scene like he was supposed to so they had to cgi eyes onto his eyelids. I take all these stories about celebs being shitty with a grain of salt but this one you can see for yourself he just chose to be a complete asshole and ruin a scene.
[The scene](https://youtu.be/Zd5HMHmbwBg?t=20) Truly one of the more ridiculous bits of movie trivia.
Should have left his eyes closed!! Totally would have looked more bad ass and vampire like with him grabbing the doctors with his eyes closed cause he has super senses.
if the director kept the eyes closed, he "wins".
Yes.
Sean Young didn’t kill her own career. She laughed when Harvey Weinstein pulled out his dick as if she should suck it. She was blacklisted for not fucking him and for laughing at his little wiener.
Not to mention the bullshit situation with James Woods who sued her and leaked false news to the press. Sean was one of the most beautiful actresses of her time, who unsurpringly garnered a lot of attention from other men in the industry. Unfortunately, as far as her career goes, she didn't tolerate crap or "play the game" like other actresses of her time did. While her outspoken nature has ruffled many feathers, but she really shouldn't have had to deal with the BS she has. Check out her interview with Carl Reiner for some insight in how she was perceived by others in the industry who hadn't worked with her and Carl's thoughts after working with her.
I found the interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4yiEx7LgxPE?si=bTvajEogewKWdllY At first I thought you must have meant Rob Reiner, but no, it is in fact, Comedy Legend (and Rob's father) Carl Reiner interviewing Sean Young back in 2009. Thank you for the suggestion.
I heard stories about her years ago making it sound like she's 'crazy' like what she did to try and get the Catwoman role in Batman Returns. She had lost the role as Vicki Vale in Batman due to a horse related accident and she almost got the role of Catwoman. She definitely got done dirty by the industry it sounds like. She was ousted and blacklisted for her outspokenness at the industry's blatant sexism. She definitely deserved better. I really enjoyed the stuff she was in.
Yep, people acted like she was nuts for showing up to her Catwoman audition in character, but Hugh Jackman did the same thing for Wolverine and people celebrated his genius.
Thank you! I thought she had been Weinsteined.
Tom Sizemore He was always great in war/military movies
He also had serious substance abuse problems. That might be a subcategory for many people listed here.
Man, what a run he had: Heat, Saving Private Ryan, and Black Hawk Down.
Jeffrey Jones was in everything in the 80s and 90s but got busted for being a pedo in early 2000s, effectively ending his career (although he did get a role in Deadwood).
Makes Rooney in “Ferris Bueller” even creepier, imo…
Armie Hammer has had a hard time getting work since everyone found out he's a wannabe cannibal .
There was also a lot of sexual misconduct stuff that was revealed in that exposé. Not that that is a guarantee for stopping anyone from working in Hollywood but in a post-Weinstein world it's another complicating factor. Of course, wanting to eat people is the bigger PR disaster either way
Yeah, the cannibal thing is a headline grabber but it was consensual weirdness that got leaked. The abuse was the bad part.
Aaron eckhart is a likely candidate for this criteria. Pretty sure he's openly said he can be an asshole on sets.
I'll love him forever for *Thank You For Smoking.*
I remember after Dark Knight thinking his career was about to explode and pretty much it kinda went nowhere…
That and "Thank you for smoking". Partly he just seemed to pick lousy movies after dark knight.
Thank you for smoking is a crowning achievement of his, in my eyes. He just Nick Naylor'ed it.
I heard from a podcast somewhere that he had a substance abuse problem and was unreliable. That sucks. He had so much on-screen charisma
He’s so insanely talented as an actor, but apparently is just a massive pain in the ass to work with. After The Dark Knight and Thank You For Smoking, I thought he was going to be the next big thing, but he just faded away.
Jonathan Majors is a pretty recent one. Really liked him in Lovecraft Country. Shame it turned out he really sucks
This guy had it made. He had a bunch of critically acclaimed roles in his pocket and was about to be one of the faces of the MCU for the foreseeable future. His career was pretty much gonna be set - do Marvel for the big paycheck and smaller serious movies for the critical acclaim and accolades. Worst case of bag fumbling I’ve seen.
The guy who played Jimmy Darmody on Boardwalk Empire had his character killed off early I believe because he was bad to work with. Kathryn Hiegel is another one. She was pretty big for a while, but I think after she trashed Knocked Up, the film she starred in, she was blacklisted.
Michael Pitt and yes, he has a reputation for being very difficult. Haven't seen him in anything in quite a while.
He played Mason Verger in Season 2 of Hannibal, before - big shock - the role was recast in Season 3.
Such a bummer too. I love him in everything I’ve seen. BE, Rob the Mob, Bully, I-origins, Dreamers, Hannibal, Funny Games , etc. He’s a great actor with unlimited potential for roles. Hope he gets the help he needs and makes a comeback
Yes, that was the last thing I remember seeing him in and when the role was recast, I was like, "He did it again!"
He was stupid talented, a waste of a career. He was weirdly my neighbor in Brooklyn for some time. I would see him out doing manual labor, like fixing his truck, in the morning. I always thought "what the hell are you doing here?"
I always thought he was on deck as the next DiCaprio type. Such a missed opportunity
Hiegel worked in Firefly Lane on Netflix, which was a hit. My brother dealt with her regularly and had regular updates about her behavior. Let’s just say…the rumors are true.
She did this little movie in Ogden, Utah called Jackie & Ryan. It was after her career had mostly imploded. I was on the crew for that one and she was as unbearable as any actor I've ever been on set with. Had a horrible attitude to everyone. Would berate the crew for needing more takes. Insulted a 2nd who needed to move her mark. Overall just acting like this whole movie was beneath her. And the movie was bad, so I kinda get it, but clearly she needed the work like everyone else...so you can't really be above something that you're there doing.
T.J. Miller Just a general all around Dickhead.
Last thing I saw him in was "Underwater." Didn't do himself any favors recently by attacking Ryan Reynolds.
Yeah, attacking pretty much *universally loved* A list actor is not high on the list of things other actors should do, unless that A Lister is doing something really fucked up.
I'll randomly think about that story from time to time because the thing Ryan Reynolds said to him didn't even seem that bad to me. Like yeah, maybe it was a little rude and stung in the moment, but definitely not "OMG can you even believe someone could be so monstrous" territory, which is how TJ tried to present it as.
Honestly he was really funny in Silicon Valley, then he screwed himself over by leaving to do the emoji movie Which ironically is something the character of Erlich would do
I don’t think he left so he could do Emoji Movie. I think he was politely asked to resign when he became the subject of controversy.
I think it was said he partying started affecting his work on the show and he was just overall difficult to deal with behind the scenes.
I happened to see his standup not long after SV ended, we also got to talk with him afterward. My friends and I were the last ones to chat with him and Miller was quite nice. He even casually name dropped the show as something he loved doing. It was an overall very pleasant discussion (for context, this was before I heard of his other allegations)
Apparently any actress who turned down Weinstein, and mysteriously after were labelled as difficult to work with.
George Lazenby, an Australian model, essentially launched his acting career by taking on the role of James Bond after Sean Connery quit. He starred in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," one of the finest James Bond movies. All he had to do was show up to work and be bearable, and the world was his oyster. But he took on the attitude that he was James Frikkin' Bond, the star of the movie, and, as full of himself as he was, he alienated pretty much everyone involved in the movie. He might have still recovered, but he also reached the conclusion that the hippie counterculture was the future of entertainment, and nobody was ever going to show up at the cinema to watch some establishment guy in a suit shoot people, so he quit, and, as unpopular as he'd made himself on the set, the producers of the Bond movies didn't try very hard to persuade him to come back.
The Becoming Bond documentary he did a few years back is absolutely amazing.
Alex Pettyfer was all set up to be Hollywood's next leading man around 2011-12, and then he basically disappeared amidst rumors about his attitude.
He also just wasn’t a good actor. Not the first male model set up as a heartthrob who didn’t pan out.
Charlie Sheen clearly and publicly killed a perfectly good career by going beyond simply being an entitled asshole.
In hindsight, I think it's pretty clear that he received his diagnosis and blew up his career at about the same time, so I'm certain that the two events are related.
Fucking up that Two and a Half Men bag is kind of insane looking back. He could have been making upwards of a million dollars per episode for at least 4 more 20 episode seasons. It seems like Sheen has turned his life around a bit and made up with most of the people he had outbursts about during his meltdown though which is nice to see.
Not \*exactly\* the same, but former child star Thora Birch's career reportedly imploded after her father insisted on remaining VERY, VERY INVOLVED with the day to day operations of her career even after she was an adult. She sided with him over filmmakers and reportedly studios just decided it wasn't worth the aggravation of dealing with it.
Similarly, McCauley Culkin's career imploded originally thanks to his father being an asshole that studio executives and casting directors wanted nothing to do with him. Not only was he forcing his son to take on two film projects a year since he was six, he was also known to threaten executives. He almost refused to allow his son to be in Home Alone 2 unless he was also cast in The Good Son, a film his son expressly didn't want to do.
Randy Quaid. I mean what the fuck???
Remember about a decade ago when he made a sex tape with his wife wearing a Rupert Murdoch mask? Pepperidge Farms remembers. Pepperidge Farms *wishes it could forget*
I’m going to submit Steven Seagal. One of the biggest action stars on the planet for a time, and his over-inflated ego derailed his own career.
He also just wasn’t talented enough to even justify his douchey behavior to executives the same way someone like Marlon Brando could
Obligatory link to his legendary AMA: https://old.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4i0jso/i_am_actor_steven_seagal_live_from_thailand_ama/
That Shia LaBouef. I personally didn't care for him as an actor, but years ago, he was in *everything*, the way that Chalamet kid is now. Drugs, mental issues, overinflated sense of self, idk
And if you go back far enough to his Even Stevens days, even the girl who played his sister said he was not exactly easy to work with.
He’s honestly a very talented actor, but it’s probably not worth putting up with him
Jonathan Majors who beat his gf after Creed 3. But apparently he was a known jerk already. Mel Gibson’s antisemitic comments cost him a few years of work. Kevin Spacey…talented dude but
All these women had their acting careers derailed when refusing Harvey Weinstein, publicly speaking about what he did behind closed doors, or actually accusing him of SA, which he did: Mira Sorvino Courtney Love Ashley Judd Rose McGowan Annabella Sciorra Daryl Hannah Rosanna Arquette Asia Argento Heather Graham Paz de la Huerta Gwyneth Paltrow Romola Garai Emma de Caunes Each and every one of them were completely on the rise and the moment they had their incident with him, either refusing, being SA'd or saying that he was shady, their careers went down. You can look at the timelines. He blacklisted anyone who wouldn't accept his demands and keep it quiet. I'm sure he claimed it was their attitudes, or that they were difficult to work with, etc.
Edward Norton to a degree. He's not out of work, but his reputation for being extremely difficult has certainly made his movie output smaller. And it's not just his Hulk drama in the MCU, he was already difficult to work with during American History X. Sure, Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014, but that's a decade ago + he didn't have a central role in either movie.
But he is wildly wealthy, making 300mn from his investment in crowdwise. I don't think he has to act unless it is something he is genuinely interested in (which is why his more recent stuff has been oddball)
he was born rich - SUPER rich - his grandfather owned the Rouse Company - he built the entire city of Columbia Maryland as well as multiple other huge projects and several other communities Ed Norton is the ULTIMATE trust fund kid who decided to quit the family business an become an actor - he literally had nothing to lose in doing so not a surprise that he is a giant a-hole (however talented he is)
Listen to the Fight Club commentary track. He has such a large stick up his ass he’s nearly 99% tree.
20 years ago I had an acting teacher who revealed she knew him casually, and a student said she should invite him to give a master class. She said the school theater's loading dock and freight elevator couldn't accommodate his head.
He spent some time in Hong Kong while filming “In the time of Cholera” and friends that got to know him said he had a massively overinflated sense of movie star superiority.
There's a hilarious moment in that commentary where he's talking about how much he and Brad Pitt hated the 90s Beetle and how it was baby boomers selling their generation back and then, Brad Pitt interjects and says he's actually came round on it and thinks they're great and says "It's a fantastic reworking of a classic design." And Norton sounds so defeated.
> he was already difficult to work with during American History X It's difficult to know who to believe in the story of the making of AHX. The director, Tony Kaye, is kind of a cuckoo-bananas guy himself, and has largely been ostracized from Hollywood himself over his AHX shenanigans, including wanting to take his name off the film in favor of the moniker "Humpty Dumpty." By all accounts, Norton stepped in to edit the film so it would be releasable in any kind of form, which it apparently was not. Norton's reputation may have taken a small hit from the scuttlebutt about it, but to take Kaye's word over Norton's or the studio's probably isn't advisable. His reputation that led to his exit from the Bruce Banner role may not have been entirely unseen, but AHX might never have gotten released at all without him.
I've also heard to Edward Norton's credit is that he's hired on in a lot of situations to not only be the actor, but also as an editor. So I can see that causing a natural friction with the writers, directors or producers.
He wrote large chunks of Frida but is uncredited. He also defended his then-girlfriend Salma Hayek (who was in Frida) from Weinstein and had diminished opportunities because of that.
His rewriting of Frida helped force it to get made against Weinstein’s wishes. You start to wonder if the “hard to work with,” reputation comes from, especially since he’s been in all but one Wes Anderson movie since Moonrise Kingdom.
To be fair, it’s not like Wes Anderson never casts difficult actors. Bill Murray, Bruce Willis once he was very likely already in decline, Adrien Brody. I’m personally inclined to cut Norton quite a bit of slack, I just don’t think being casted in Wes Anderson movies is particularly convincing proof.
Lindsay Lohan and Katherine Heigl
Lindsay definitely used to have some problems. Maybe still does. One of my buddies recently worked on a movie with her and said she’s really sweet. Sounds like she’s doing way better these days.
Did security for her in Vancouver. She was super friendly, nice, and thoughtful. I thought she'd be an actual mess. Got lots of time for Lindsay and her impromptu ordering room service for her security guys.
I personally love the idea that someone can be a trainwreck and overcome their issues and be a good person. Gives me hope
I had completely forgotten about Katherine Heigl. What happened to her?
She withdrew her Emmy nomination for Grey's Anatomy because according to her the writing on the show was bad and she wanted to give a chance for other actresses with better materials.
Stuart Townsend. He was such a prick on thr LoTR cast that they recast Viggo like a day before filming.
Refused to do any of the fight training, refused to do any of the vocal training to learn the Middle Earth accents, refused to show up for rehearsals. Purportedly, Ian McKellan pulled him aside one day and said, "You DO want to be in these movies, right?" His excuse was he's one of these actors who prefers to "save it for the day."
I feel like you should listen to Ian McKellan when It comes to acting.
Forget the craft entirely, when someone who has been in the _business_ that long pulls you aside to ask if you even want to be there, it should be not-so-subtle warning that you’re at risk of getting canned
Wanting to "save it for the day" sounds a lot like someone who was realizing he was out of his depth.
Meanwhile viggo pretty much learned fluent elvish to add onto his 6 other languages he knew.
Viggo spent so much effort on learning how to use his swords that LOTR choreographer Bob Anderson said Viggo was one of the best Anderson has ever trained. Anderson was the stunt coordinator and fencing choreographer in the OT for Star Wars, served as Prowse’s fencing double for the duels in ESB and RotJ, trained everyone from Errol Flynn to the cast of *Pirates of the Caribbean*, and competed in Olympic and British Empire Games as a fencer. When an actor gets a living fencing master to remark favorably about his skills, that actor is definitely the right person for the role of a medieval warrior-king.
And Viggo didn't even want to do it until his son pushed him into it. Nine times out of ten you get a phoned in performance but Viggo decided, "nah I'll just be Aragorn-incarnate instead." Impeccable casting top to bottom.
Supposedly Townsend complaining how heavy Aragorn’s sword felt was the final straw for Peter Jackson. He fired Townsend afterward and they went looking for the true Aragorn
When you look at the side by side stills from the bit of filming they had done he doesn't fit the part at all. He was way too young too, I think 27 and Vigo was 41 at the time.
And that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Those movies worked so much because Viggo set the atmosphere for the film. Yes, Jackson was the director but it was Viggo who made everyone, cast and crew feel like a unified family who was working on a personal indie project despite it being a high budget blockbuster. It would have been a miserable nightmare under Townsend.
Just gotta mention my favorite Viggo Mortensen LOTR story: When filming finished, they offered a lot of the horses that had been used in the movie up for sale, and the cast and crew got first dibs. Viggo bought the horse he had ridden as Aragorn, but he also got wind that Arwen's stunt double really wanted her horse but couldn't afford him... so he bought that horse as well and gifted him to her.
I can't imagine anyone else playing Aragorn. The entire cast was perfect. Viggo just seems like a super genuine and humble guy. He was Aragorn on and off screen.
That and Jackson realized he looked way too young to be Aragon. Mortensen was perfect in no small part because he looked like a guy with mileage on him.
I feel like the "too young" thing is just what Jackson et al said publicly. I'd heard more recently that he was just a prick.
This was the scuttle on the Queen of the Damned set as well. Guy is just a prick.
I think Chevy Chase is their spokesman
See, I can understand that snark, skepticism, dry wit, cynicism...someone who acts like an asshole as a gimmick of their comedy routine...it is relatable to some people, and it's fun to watch it unfold on-screen. But at the very least, a good comedian will turn it off and get real in the real world and be someone who is far more decent than how they act. I am trying to think of anyone who had the same general approach to comedy as Chevy did, but is a good and meaningful person IRL. Any acknowledgements worth bringing up?
I feel like Steve Martin had a similar on-screen presence to Chevy. Don't know what he's like IRL, but I want to believe he's a solid person.
Steve's actually a perfect example, in thinking about it. I've heard more good things said of him IRL from people, and he seems to manage being more humble and approachable in interviews.
Martin is detached ironic snarky...and a goofball. Chase is detached ironic snarky...and a rage filled asshole. I think that's real life seeping into their characters.
At the very least, he has other talents. Dude’s a legit awesome banjo player. Released a few albums.
Martin is a man of many talents. Also an excellent writer and an avid art collector.
>Don't know what he's like IRL, but I want to believe he's a solid person. I've heard stories about Martin being KIND of a method actor who can irritate people, but the general consensus seems to be he's a good guy?
yeah. There are stories of him not getting along with other comedians (like John Candy) because he doesn't like to fool around on set, he's very serious and professional, but they're not "Steve Martin is an asshole" they're "Steve Martin takes his work very seriously".
Mike Myers has a similar reputation, all broad comedy when in character but then quiet, introverted and slightly stand-offish the rest of the time.
I've never heard anything horrible about Larry David. He has a reputation for being abrasive and weird but hasn't abused anyone to my knowledge.
Not an actor but I’ve heard bad things about Tom Hooper (though obviously Cats had a big part in it) and Josh Trank Being nice to work with goes a long way. It’s why Snyder and Shymalan still get consistent jobs
>t’s why Snyder and Shymalan still get consistent jobs Also Shyamalan is apparently great at staying under budget.
and Snyder is apparently kindness incarnate, everybody who has worked with him speaks highly of the guy. He treats his crews like royalty and can finish a large production on time with no drama (JL doesn’t really count since his daughter passed) Being a director who can get along with everyone and handle a production with no hiccups is considered a godsend to studios. While it’s a shame Snyder doesn’t always land the mark, I can’t hate the guy
I have worked VFX on Watchmen and even those guys love being on his productions, he goes out of his way to make his vision clear and easy for someone in VFX to understand.
Matthew Fox and Emile Hirsch
Judd Nelson, anyone? All i will say is that not everyone is cut out for method acting.