Even Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson can't handle the pressure sometimes...
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00:00 So, the life of a movie star is often viewed as glamorous and enviable. Riches, exotic
00:05 locations, fame and adoration. All that stuff is certainly nothing to sneeze at, right?
00:10 But at the same time, there can also be a much darker side to this lifestyle. Some actors,
00:15 from child stars to seasoned veterans, just can't handle the pressure and will begin
00:19 to veer off the rails, their money and adulation just blowing up in their face. Even putting
00:24 those extreme cases to one side, actors of all levels can feel nervousness and uncertainty
00:29 or self-doubt and fear. Like everybody else, they can sometimes have confidence or esteem
00:34 issues and occasionally can be unsure that what they're doing is the right thing for
00:38 them. And these feelings have led actors to seriously consider quitting some rather famous
00:43 movies. From a wizarding world icon getting cold feet in the middle of the franchise,
00:47 to an entire superhero team confronting their director and threatening to bail. Of course,
00:52 they ultimately didn't quit in the end, but for a moment, these stars were deadly
00:55 serious about throwing in the towel. So let's take a look at them as I'm Jules, this is
00:59 WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 actors who threatened to quit famous movies.
01:04 10. Mark Ruffalo – 13 Going on 30
01:08 One of the reasons that actors get paid the big bucks is because they often have to do
01:11 things that are extremely uncomfortable, like dangerous stunts, sex scenes, horse riding
01:16 and almost getting your nipple waxed off, you know, that sort of thing. In Mark Ruffalo's
01:20 case, that discomfort revolved around the dance scenes in his 2004 rom-com 13 Going
01:25 on 30, which almost made him quit the film entirely. According to co-star Jennifer Garner,
01:30 "Ruffalo felt like a bit of an idiot during the rehearsals for a dance scene that was
01:33 set to Michael Jackson's thriller, mainly because the people he was dancing with were
01:37 far more experienced than he was. This, understandably, wasn't a nice situation to be in, and Ruffalo
01:43 contemplated dropping out as a result."
01:45 On the plus side, it all turned out great in the end. That dance scene is one of the
01:48 most memorable moments in the movie, and Ruffalo's career has been absolutely smashing it ever
01:54 since.
01:55 9. Kellen Lutz – The Twilight Saga
01:57 When we think about movie stars, we often think of the red carpet premieres, the huge
02:01 paychecks, the glitz, the glamour and all-around fabulous lifestyle. What we don't think
02:06 about are the cold winter nights on set, where actors will often have to sit around doing
02:10 nothing waiting for the crew to prepare the next shot. It was this waiting around that
02:15 almost made Kellen Lutz walk out of The Twilight Saga during the production of the two-part
02:19 final chapter, with the actor recently revealing that he grew extremely frustrated with that
02:24 part of the process, which in turn caused his passion for the job to diminish.
02:29 He said, "I almost didn't do the Breaking Dawn movies because I was like, 'Guys, mentally
02:32 I need to be doing something,' and it was draining. I only have one life, and if I only
02:36 live to be 30, I just spent a couple of months waiting on set. My agent was like, 'But
02:41 all the money you're making?' And I'm like, 'You can't take it with you. I
02:44 really don't care about money. I've worked enough. I'm grateful we did the movies,
02:48 but it got to the point where my passion, the twinkle in my eye, wasn't there anymore."
02:52 Now, it's easy for someone who's making a lot of money to say, "I don't care
02:55 about money", but his comments are nonetheless a refreshingly candid take on some of the
02:59 downsides of the Hollywood game. And in the end, he did appear in all five Twilight movies,
03:04 so clearly he mustered enough willpower to see the franchise through. Either that, or
03:08 he just phoned it in like the rest of them.
03:10 8. Evangeline Lilly – Ant-Man
03:13 Ant-Man made its way to cinemas in 2015, as the final film in Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic
03:18 Universe. But not before it endured a rather tumultuous production cycle that saw original
03:23 director Edgar Wright replaced with Peyton Reed. Wright, of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz,
03:27 and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World fame, did a lot of pre-production work on the film before
03:31 exiting in May 2014 due to "creative differences", leaving Marvel Studios little time to right
03:37 the ship for that aforementioned 2015 release. As you can imagine, there was a lot of pressure
03:42 on everyone's shoulders, and there were lots of mixed emotions, with lead actress
03:45 Evangeline Lilly even considering leaving the project with Wright, initially believing
03:49 his exit to be an injustice. Considering that it was Wright who cast her in the film, it's
03:54 understandable why she felt that way, but after several lengthy creative discussions,
03:59 she ultimately decided to stick around for Reed's own take on the material.
04:02 7. Paul Savino – Goodfellas
04:05 Few actors would turn down the opportunity to appear in a Martin Scorsese movie, and
04:10 even less than that would sign up for one, do four weeks of pre-production, then quit
04:13 three days before shooting was scheduled to begin. But that was the position that Paul
04:18 Savino found himself in while working on Scorsese's 1990 crime epic Goodfellas, with the actor
04:23 finding it difficult to bring out his character's aggressive, brutish nature, which gave him
04:27 cold feet. At a film festival in 2015, Savino stated that portraying Thug Paulie was "so
04:33 far from me. I'm a poet, I'm an opera singer, I'm an author, none of it's gangster."
04:37 So he called his manager and asked for him to be released from the movie, but when he
04:41 found the character after noticing his own stern expression in the mirror, he decided
04:45 to continue with the project.
04:47 Goodfellas is widely considered one of Scorsese's best movies and one of the greatest achievements
04:51 in cinema. It was also nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, so yeah, he was probably
04:56 quite relieved that he didn't jump ship.
04:58 6. Emma Watson – Harry Potter
05:01 We often forget how difficult it must have been for the young stars of Harry Potter to
05:05 spend ten of the most important years of their lives working under that glaring Hollywood
05:09 spotlight, and it really isn't a surprise that the pressure was too much for them at
05:12 some points. In fact, there was even a time where Emma Watson was seriously considering
05:16 quitting the role of Hermione Granger, as revealed during the recent Potter reunion
05:20 special. According to director David Yates, who was at the helm of the franchise from
05:24 The Order of the Phoenix onwards, and has also made all three Fantastic Beasts films,
05:28 it was the fifth movie where Watson wasn't sure whether she wanted to come back. Watson
05:33 herself added that "Order of the Phoenix was where things started to get spicy. I think
05:37 I was scared," with co-star Rupert Grint also claiming that he had similar moments
05:41 of doubt all the way through the series. Again, it isn't surprising that such young kids
05:45 found this arduous ten-year process difficult, so full credit to them for finding the strength
05:49 to see it through.
05:51 5. The Entire Cast – X-Men 2
05:54 The 2000 X-Men movie and its 2003 sequel were instrumental in propelling the comic book
05:59 movie genre to the heights that we see it today, but they were reportedly a pain in
06:04 the arse to make. In a retrospective about the many bits of drama behind those original
06:08 X-Men movies, The Hollywood Reporter detailed a troubling incident that occurred during
06:12 the production of X-Men 2, wherein director Bryan Singer became incapacitated after taking
06:17 a narcotic, which a couple of the crew members also took. Naturally, there were concerns
06:22 that somebody could be injured if Singer continued to work while under the influence, and that's
06:26 exactly what happened when star Hugh Jackman was left bleeding after a stunt went wrong.
06:31 This prompted producer Ralph Winter to halt production, but bizarrely, the studio then
06:35 appeared to side with Singer, essentially telling executive producer Tom DeSanto, who
06:40 was on set during all of this commotion, to get out of Singer's way.
06:44 Enter the majority of the movie's main cast members, who confronted Singer while dressed
06:48 in their full X-Men costumes, and threatened to quit the film if DeSanto was removed. Singer's
06:53 reps deny that this happened, but showing up at your boss' trailer in black spandex
06:56 is certainly a good way to make your voice heard.
06:59 4. Nicole Kidman – The Others
07:02 Actors often have to jump between movies with wildly different tones. One week, you could
07:06 be doing some voiceover work for a family animation, and the next, you could be filming
07:10 a bloodthirsty death scene in an R-rated slasher flick. It was this tonal whiplash that gave
07:15 Nicole Kidman second thoughts about appearing in her 2001 horror film, The Others, with
07:20 the actress finding it difficult to transition from the colourful and upbeat Moulin Rouge
07:24 to the dark and disturbing psychological thriller, which takes place almost entirely inside a
07:29 creepy old house.
07:30 She said, "When I got there and was just about to start rehearsals, I really didn't
07:33 want to do it. My whole being, my whole psyche, was rejecting it and I was desperate to try
07:37 and get out of it. I begged them to let me out. All I wanted to do was make love stories
07:41 and musicals and be happy." Spoiler alert for a 20-year-old movie, but considering that
07:46 The Others involves Kidman's character murdering her own children by suffocating them with
07:50 a pillow, it's not hard to understand why she couldn't enter that headspace easily.
07:54 3. Chris Hemsworth – Ghostbusters 2016
07:58 Chris Hemsworth received a ton of praise for his fun performance in the 2016 reboot of
08:03 Ghostbusters, but the actor himself was terrified that he just wouldn't be any good. The role
08:07 of hunky receptionist Kevin required a lot of on-screen improvisation, primarily because
08:12 the script didn't flesh the character out at all. Naturally, this was a major concern
08:16 for Hemsworth, who touched base with the director and was promised that Kevin would be written
08:20 up before shooting officially began, but that didn't happen. Nervous at the prospect of
08:25 having to build his character on the fly, Hemsworth then strongly considered pulling
08:28 out of the project the night before production started, but was convinced at the last minute.
08:33 Hemsworth later told Variety, "I had no real plan and I just felt ridiculous, so I
08:37 just used that." So his lack of preparation actually helped him in the end.
08:41 2. Dave Bautista – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
08:45 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the only movie on this list that actually hasn't
08:49 come out yet, and that's because production has been plagued with setbacks. Initially
08:53 set for 2020, the movie was delayed when writer-director James Gunn was fired in 2018, but then when
08:58 he was rehired in 2019, he signed a deal to direct The Suicide Squad, which pushed back
09:03 Vol. 3 even further.
09:05 Fortunately though, the movie finally started shooting in 2021, so everything kind of worked
09:09 out in the end. But during that time when Gunn was fired and everything was up in the
09:13 air, certain cast members, namely Dave Bautista, weren't too chuffed with Disney in the least,
09:18 and even threatened to quit the film if Gunn's script wasn't used. He said, "Where I'm
09:22 at right now is that if Marvel don't use that script, then I'm going to ask them
09:25 to release me from my contract, cut me out, or recast me. I'd be doing James a disservice
09:30 if I didn't." Bautista was by far the most outspoken cast member in the wake of
09:34 Gunn's firing, even accusing Disney of empowering a smear campaign by cyber-Nazis. Jeez, Dave,
09:39 come on, tell us how you really feel.
09:41 1. Dwayne Johnson - Pain and Gain
09:44 Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson doesn't seem like the type of guy to throw in the towel
09:48 on anything he does, and yet, according to director Michael Bay, the star came surprisingly
09:53 close to quitting his 2013 movie Pain and Gain. In fact, Bay claims that Johnson did
09:58 actually quit the project roughly one week before shooting was scheduled to begin, forcing
10:02 Bay to give him a pep talk to bring him back on board. He told Johnson, "You are my secret
10:07 weapon," and assured him that the movie would be worth his time. He said, "He literally
10:11 quit the week before, and he goes, 'I can't do this.' And I'm like, 'Dwayne, you are
10:14 my secret weapon on this movie.' And I wrote him this long letter of all the actors I worked
10:19 with who said that they were scared to do something and how it turned out. And he goes,
10:23 'Okay, okay, all right.'"
10:25 So joining a Michael Bay movie is something of a gamble in terms of the final product's
10:29 quality. I mean, for every Armageddon, there's also a Transformers 2. Johnson's gamble
10:33 definitely paid off here. Not only is Pain and Gain one of the better Bay movies, it's
10:37 also one of the best performances of Johnson's career.
10:40 And there we go, my friends. Those were 10 actors who threatened to quit famous movies.
10:43 I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in
10:46 the comments section below. As always, I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter
10:49 @RetroJWithA0, or you can swing by Liv and Let's Dice, where I do all of my streaming
10:54 outside of work, and it'd be great to see you over there. But before I go, I just want
10:58 to say one thing. Hope that you are treating yourself with love and respect, my friend,
11:02 because you deserve all of the best things in life, like love, happiness, and success.
11:06 And I don't want anything or anyone else to tell you otherwise, all right? You're
11:09 a massive legend. Now go out there and absolutely smash it today. As always, I've been Jules,
11:14 you have been awesome. Never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.