10 Actors That Totally Underprepared For A Movie Role
Ewan McGregor's French accent needed a LOT of work in Beauty and the Beast!
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00:00 From clearly talented A-list stars not realising their version of the French accent wasn't up to
00:05 scratch, to debuting heroes not exactly getting off to the best of starts in the super-sphere,
00:10 it's plain to see that this bunch of actors weren't 100% prepared for what was heading their
00:14 way. Gareth here from WarCulture.com and here are 10 actors that totally underprepared for a movie
00:19 role. During the events of Netflix's dance comedy flick Work It, Sabrina Carpenter's Quinn Ackerman
00:28 ultimately goes from awkward mover to dance machine. But in order to convincingly portray
00:33 the fact that her character wasn't initially quite at the same level of those busting a move around
00:37 her, the star who isn't exactly known for being a bad dancer in real life had a clever idea.
00:42 As Carpenter would explain in a Buzzfeed interview with some of her castmates,
00:45 the actor specifically opted to not fully learn the routines she was asked to perform in certain
00:50 scenes. In particular, the moment that saw Ackerman auditioning for a place on the Thunderbirds team
00:55 actually boasted a Carpenter who had no idea what was going on. In fact, Carpenter was actually
01:00 taking her lead from the two girls in front of her, meaning that she intentionally was always
01:04 an awkward count behind as she brilliantly flailed around on stage. For a time, it felt as though
01:13 there wasn't actually a soul walking the earth who hadn't at least picked up one of J.K. Rowling's
01:17 Harry Potter novels for a quick skim to see what all the fuss was about. Surprisingly, though,
01:21 one of the most notable presences in the eventual big screen adaptations of The Wizarding World
01:26 actually never so much as turned a page of the source material during his time in the cloak.
01:30 Not really feeling the need to add this particular element to his preparations for the all-important
01:35 role of Albus Dumbledore, Michael Gambon went on record on a number of occasions to confess that he
01:40 had little desire to comb through Rowling's pages. On top of stating that it's safer to just simply
01:45 follow the script he is handed, the actor who stepped in for the late Richard Harris in the part
01:49 would also note that if he had opted to read them, he'd likely get upset about the scenes
01:53 that were missing in the screenplay. Had Gambon actually given the books a read, however,
01:57 there's a chance he would have potentially been able to dodge the odd backlash sent his way by
02:01 those who felt his version of the character wasn't faithful to the one on the page. With a number of
02:06 upset Potterheads feeling the Brits take on the powerful wizard was far harsher than the one they'd
02:10 spent time with in the novels. Boo hoo. Another star who didn't exactly throw themselves into
02:18 books and various other forms of research when heading into a project, instead opting to take
02:22 the script as gospel like Gambon before him. Kit Harington wasn't exactly an expert on all
02:27 things Pompeii going into the flick of the same name. Largely due to the rather busy Game of
02:32 Thrones star just not having enough time beforehand, Harington actually only got around to taking in
02:36 the remains of the city itself that was destroyed after an eruption from Mount Vesuvius after he'd
02:41 wrapped on the film. And while the star would admit to being ashamed at the lack of historical
02:45 research he did when preparing for the role of Milo, a Celtic slave turned gladiator in the city
02:50 during the year of the fateful event, he was pleasantly surprised to realise just how historically
02:54 accurate the team behind the film actually were when creating the world his character existed in
02:58 on screen. Or the accurate set building in the world. Harington noted that around 30 different
03:03 sets were crafted in Toronto for the shoot. Still couldn't stop this particular historical epic
03:08 going down in history as the wrong sort of disaster flick however.
03:11 7. James McAvoy – Charles Xavier X-Men First Class
03:15 When the star found out that he was being entrusted with bringing to life the earlier
03:18 years of the leader of the X-Men himself, it's not hard to see why James McAvoy quickly assumed
03:23 he needed to perform one rather specific action in the lead-up. So before he first set foot onto
03:28 the set of X-Men First Class all those years ago, the Scottish sensation decided about a month in
03:33 advance of filming that he was going to bite the bald bullet and shave off his precious hair. Only
03:37 when he revealed his shiny preparation to the team behind the X-Men prequel, he soon discovered that
03:42 being bald was most definitely not part of the plan for Charles Xavier at this point in the story.
03:47 Far from it in fact, they actually wanted McAvoy to have long hair in that 2014 outing,
03:52 so the star was ultimately forced to sit in a make-up chair for a grand total of 15 hours
03:56 in order to equip him with hair extensions for his Professor X debut.
04:00 6. Viggo Mortensen – Aragorn – The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
04:03 As Peter Jackson's ambitious journey to bring the epic trilogy of The Lord of the Rings to the big
04:08 screen got underway all those years ago, the director initially rewarded Stuart Townsend
04:12 with the meaty role of Aragorn. However, it soon became clear that Townsend was just too
04:17 darn young for the role of the future King of Gondor, so a replacement in the form of Viggo
04:21 Mortensen was swapped in rather late in the casting day. After being convinced by his
04:25 Lord of the Rings loving son that it was a role worth taking, the actor who would eventually
04:29 become synonymous with the badass ranger-turned-leader of men, arrived on set and immediately felt
04:34 underprepared, as he put it. And with the rest of the cast already beginning shooting,
04:38 and some of them being out in New Zealand for weeks or months at the point of his arrival,
04:42 it's not hard to see why the gifted thespian felt as though he was playing some serious catch-up in
04:46 those early days on set. If that wasn't enough to deal with, Mortensen also confessed to feeling
04:51 understandably awkward about the concept of replacing another actor for the first time too.
04:55 Despite these early concerns, however, Viggo soon found his human-sized feet,
04:59 and went on to produce one of the most gripping performances the critically acclaimed series had
05:03 to offer. Due to the fact that original Wolverine actor Dougray Scott was forced to drop out of the
05:11 first X-Men movie due to scheduling conflicts later on, Hugh Jackman was eventually thrown
05:16 into the mutant party three weeks into the film's shoot. And as the eventual megastar would
05:20 ultimately explain years later, he was asked by the studio if he could get into shirtless Logan
05:24 shape for the 2000 flick in just three weeks, eventually noting how he might have overpromised.
05:30 Not exactly nailing the physique they were looking for, director Bryan Singer swiftly
05:33 decided to push his topless moments back four months to the end of the shoot.
05:37 Now expecting any actor to get into the sort of freakish shape Jackman ultimately would in
05:42 later mutant entries in such a small space of time was always going to be unrealistic,
05:46 but assuming they are completely aware of the existence of the animal their on-screen
05:50 character is named after, that's not too much to ask right? Well as it goes, Jackman was actually
05:54 under the impression that Wolverines weren't a real thing during his early days in the role,
05:59 and his call to heavily research wolves instead soon backfired after being informed by Singer
06:04 that not only was he not playing that type of furry creature, but that those make-believe
06:08 Wolverines were anything but. All those hours spent howling at the moon and for what?
06:12 Marlon Brando, Doctor Moreau The Marlon Brando spotted popping up in the
06:18 likes of The Island of Doctor Moreau and Free Money towards the end of his career,
06:22 was a far cry from the legendary performer who'd captivated generations with his mesmerising work
06:27 in everything from A Streetcar Named Desire to The Godfather. By the time he'd rocked up on set
06:31 for that aforementioned Moreau project, the iconic thespian seemed very much bored with the world of
06:36 filmmaking, according to the film's screenwriter Ron Hutchinson. And the mind behind the script of
06:40 The Island of Doctor Moreau would even go as far as to say that the overweight, unprepared,
06:44 mocking, dismissive star seemed as though he was here to sabotage this movie.
06:48 Now, it is worth noting how the star's daughter had tragically committed suicide in the lead-up to
06:52 shooting on the 1996 sci-fi flick, something that must have no doubt impacted his preparations and
06:58 overall state of mind whilst working on the ultimately doomed picture. But between reportedly
07:02 having to have the lines he didn't want to learn read out to him through an earpiece,
07:05 and often even refusing to leave his trailer altogether, it's clear that Brando simply
07:09 wasn't prepared to play ball when it came time to unleash what would ultimately go on to be branded
07:13 as perhaps his worst film by critic Roger Ebert.
07:16 Scottish acting powerhouse Ewan McGregor has proven time and time again that he's
07:23 more than capable of mastering another accent. Despite utterly nailing everything from a smooth
07:28 RP to an American twang, one particular accent McGregor wasn't quite as confident with,
07:33 ultimately left him with a bit of egg on his face during the recording of a little Disney remake by
07:37 the name of Beauty and the Beast. As the star himself would explain on The Graham Norton Show
07:41 a few years back, the fact McGregor had been married to a French woman for 20 years left him
07:46 feeling foolishly confident about his ability to unleash a French-sounding voice as Lumiere.
07:51 Unfortunately for him, though, the folks capturing the Scot's voice didn't want the "er" sounds he
07:56 was delivering throughout, leaving him sounding entirely Mexican as he then again attempted to
08:00 speak the candelabra lines. In fact, his delivery was so disastrous, the star would confess to having
08:05 to go back and redo some of his lines in order to cover up his initial lack of proper prep.
08:11 Tom Hardy Bronson, Bronson
08:13 Very few would question Tom Hardy's ability to entirely transform into another human being at
08:18 this current moment in time. However, back before he was the household acting icon he is today,
08:23 it's safe to say that one person in particular wasn't entirely convinced that the person tasked
08:27 with bringing him to life in a movie had what it took to play him convincingly. In fact, when none
08:32 other than real-life bare-knuckle boxer and criminal Charles Bronson first laid eyes on
08:35 Hardy, he complained and couldn't see how the actor, who probably weighed about 11 stone,
08:40 drenched with stones in his pockets, would be able to play the meaty figure in 2008's Bronson.
08:45 After not being able to look at Hardy without feeling that he'd been hard done by,
08:48 Bronson ultimately changed his tune the minute he saw the rising star put his mind to packing
08:53 on the pounds, however. And after telling Charlie that he'd fix it, the stacked Hardy that turned
08:57 up in front of him during a meeting two weeks later ended up leaving Bronson thoroughly impressed.
09:02 As the infamous figure himself put it, "You won't want to meet him in a dark alley at 3am."
09:07 Taika Waititi - Adolf Hitler, Jojo Rabbit
09:10 When it comes to playing any real-life historical figure, no matter how despicable and infamous,
09:14 there's usually a level of research most actors will commit to in order to understand the person
09:19 they're playing. Taika Waititi had other ideas, though, and instead of scanning through many a
09:24 book or documentary to piece together vital information in the lead-up to playing a version
09:28 of Adolf Hitler in his 2019 flick Jojo Rabbit, he did the complete opposite, claiming that he
09:33 didn't even do so much as a lick of research for his part of Jojo's imaginary pal Hitler.
09:37 The fact this was also a version of the vile figure dreamed up by a 10-year-old ultimately
09:42 resulted in a portrayal of himself that just so happened to boast a bad haircut, a sh*tty little
09:47 moustache and a mediocre German accent. The mind behind the movie was also very much aware how
09:51 folks likely wouldn't enjoy the imaginary friend version of the character as much had he played him
09:56 like the actual Hitler, because as Taika effectively summed up, he was such an f*cking c-word and
10:01 everyone knows that as well. So why waste your time researching such a prick, eh?
10:04 And that's our list! Know of any other actors that totally underprepared for a movie role?
10:08 Let us know all about them in the comments section right down below,
10:10 and do not forget to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
10:14 Also, if you like this kind of thing, then head on over to whatculture.com and find some more
10:17 fantastic articles just like the one this video you're watching right this second is based on.
10:21 I've been Gareth from WhatCulture.com, thank you as always for watching this lovely video today,
10:25 hopefully I'll see your faces very, very soon, but in the meantime,
10:28 bigger to yourself and have the best of days. Bye!