Needing a specific smooch, turning down a hairpiece, and more unusual actor demands.
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00:00 Putting your foot down when it pertains to the wearing of a specific hairpiece, feeling
00:04 the need to put the rest of your castmates through airborne hell for a project, or even
00:09 going out of your way to plant a smooch on, um, yourself, all undoubtedly qualify as slightly
00:15 to seriously strange recent movie set occurrences.
00:18 So with that in mind, I'm Gareth from WhatCulture.com and here are 10 unusual demands made by actors
00:23 on recent movies.
00:25 10.
00:26 Leonardo DiCaprio didn't want the world to see naked Meryl Streep.
00:29 Don't look up
00:30 The iconic Meryl Streep has more than earned her place among the greats and the respect
00:33 of her many colleagues over the years.
00:35 However, it was due to the sheer reverence Leonardo DiCaprio had for the record-setting
00:40 21-time Academy Award nominee that a rather raunchy and jaw-dropping scene in Adam McKay's
00:45 recent end-of-the-world comedy hit, Don't Look Up, was surprisingly deemed somewhat
00:49 unnecessary by the fellow icon.
00:51 The Oscar-winning star of the flick went out of his way to push back against the inclusion
00:55 of Streep's President Orleans, boasting a lower-back tattoo and strutting around naked
01:00 in the film's mid-credits stinger.
01:02 Despite the fact that it was actually a body double seen in the scene, Streep was said
01:05 to have not even blinked or brought up this being any sort of issue, with the fearless
01:09 legend being very much game when it came to playing a character who was ultimately dispatched
01:14 in the buff by a Brontorok.
01:16 9.
01:17 Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst refused to speak.
01:20 The power of the dog.
01:21 Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst's fierce commitment to their roles of Phil Burbank
01:25 and Rose Gordon, respectively, in Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog certainly did not go
01:30 unnoticed.
01:31 And while the same could not have been said for Cumberbatch himself, with the Doctor Strange
01:34 actor infamously holding back on showers for a spell, the film's two leading lights actually
01:39 went to rather extreme lengths to ensure they didn't catch too many glimpses of one another
01:43 over the course of the shoot.
01:45 Explaining to NME his reasoning for largely ignoring Dunst's Gordon whilst filming,
01:49 Cumberbatch would note, "I didn't want to be really mean to Kirsten, but I needed
01:53 to stay in character, so I didn't speak to her on set.
01:56 She was the same.
01:57 We were the negative to each other's positive.
01:59 We were repelled by each other."
02:01 8.
02:02 Nicolas Cage wants to kiss himself, the unbearable weight of massive talent
02:05 Any film boasting the one and only Nicolas Cage playing a fictionalised version of himself
02:10 at the centre of an action-packed comedy tale which focuses on all things Cage was always
02:15 destined to be an utterly balmy affair.
02:17 And sure enough, with this Nick Cage variant of the man behind the moniker routinely finding
02:21 himself at odds with his younger, much more rebellious inner self throughout Tom Gormican's
02:25 flicks.
02:26 Coming during a scene involving Cage's on-screen character bickering with his younger, Nicky
02:30 self, Gormican would reveal to IndieWire that the massive talent himself pulled him to one
02:35 side before the shooting of the scene and declared, "Guys, I have an idea.
02:39 I'll French kiss myself."
02:41 This being in the peak of the pandemic, the director was tasked with figuring out how
02:44 to pull this off without getting anyone sick.
02:47 But when Nick Cage requests to plant a smacker on his inner Cage, you get this man a stunter
02:51 bolt.
02:52 7.
02:53 Jared Leto needs a crutch, Morbius
02:54 Jared Leto was at it again when it was time to morb up for his most recent attempt at
02:59 making a splash in the super pool.
03:00 With the leading vampire tasked with convincingly portraying a character suffering from a rare
03:05 blood disease at points in Morbius, on top of refusing to break the character of Dr Michael
03:09 Morbius over the course of shooting, Leto was said to have insisted on using fake crutches
03:14 to move around set in between takes.
03:16 Literally pushed to his limit due to said mode of transport largely delaying his shoot,
03:21 director Daniel Espinosa would eventually tell Uproxx that he was forced to get someone
03:25 to dump the actor in a wheelchair whenever he required the bathroom as a way of speeding
03:29 up the overall process.
03:30 Yet all of the committed hobbling in the world couldn't save this mob in time from disaster
03:34 on two separate occasions, with Espinosa likely being saved from any further Leto-induced
03:39 delays thanks to the film's deeply underwhelming box office and critical performance.
03:44 6.
03:45 The Rock doesn't want a padded suit – Black Adam
03:47 When the time called for Dwayne Johnson to finally bulldoze his way into the DCEU as
03:51 Black Adam, you had to know that the former WWE star would again put his everything into
03:55 getting into typically ridiculous shape.
03:58 But in a development that most definitely did not go down too well with the Great One
04:01 on the back of said gruelling workout regime, the talented costume designers behind the
04:06 incoming Warner Bros feature pitched a suit which came with the usually accepted levels
04:10 of additional super padding.
04:12 Not content with all his hard graft being masked by the costume, and openly declaring
04:16 he effing hate this costume, The Rock would tell Total Film "Everything was padded,
04:21 so they immediately started tearing and cutting and ripping.
04:24 When I put that costume on the second time with no padding, just cut in a way where it
04:28 was enhancing the work that I had put in, I felt, 'I'm Black Adam.'"
04:32 Whether or not coming into the flick in super shape will be enough to thoroughly change
04:35 the hierarchy of power in the DCEU, though, remains to be seen.
04:40 5.
04:41 Bullock's No-Asshole Policy – The Lost City
04:43 Don't Be An A-Hole is probably the simplest yet easily forgotten unwritten rule when it
04:47 comes to creating a pleasant and productive working environment.
04:51 When it comes to working alongside Academy Award-winning actor and prolific producer
04:54 Sandra Bullock, however, said rule is anything but unwritten.
04:58 It's actually something of a law that will see a cast or crew member given their marching
05:02 orders should they choose to break it.
05:04 During an interview alongside fellow The Lost City star Daniel Radcliffe with Australia's
05:08 The Project TV show, Bullock would note how she is an advocate of the "no a-hole"
05:12 policy when it comes to the sets under her watch.
05:15 Going further, the Loretta Sage actor would even reveal that "we had a couple of them
05:19 and they went home", and when assuming that her fellow iconic co-star Brad Pitt must have
05:23 passed said strict test, Bullock would cheekily respond to her interviewer by joking, "Well,
05:27 I don't know about that.
05:29 Charming."
05:30 4.
05:31 Tom Holland Refused to Wear a Wig – Spider-Man No Way Home
05:33 While the perks that come with becoming a part of the sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe
05:37 no doubt outweigh the few negatives, that still hasn't stopped the odd superhero actor
05:41 from putting their foot down when faced with a particularly frustrating demand from the
05:45 superstudio.
05:46 In the case of Spider-Man star Tom Holland, said annoying request came in the form of
05:50 his hairstyle coming into his most recent spell of web-slinging in No Way Home, with
05:54 the actor being put in an awkward position on the back of changing up his weave for Uncharted.
05:59 As the British Peter Parker actor would reveal to Esquire, his cooler Nathan Drake styling
06:04 initially wasn't deemed suitable for the much nerdier Marvel personality.
06:08 But upon being given a strange wig that was just around the sides, Holland decided to
06:12 push back as an actor for the first time in his life.
06:15 "I'm not effing wearing that wig.
06:17 I'm going to have shorter hair and you're going to have to deal with it," were Holland's
06:20 unwavering orders.
06:22 So all of Marvel's additional surreal side-fuzz wig work ultimately went to waste.
06:26 3.
06:27 Paul Dano Needs 200 Takes – The Batman There's nothing wrong with being something
06:31 of a perfectionist.
06:32 But there's proofreading an important document a few more times just to be safe before clicking
06:37 "send".
06:38 And then there's requesting to perform a scene a whopping 200 times in the pursuit
06:42 of nailing a cinematic performance.
06:44 According to The Batman director Matt Reeves, that's roughly how many takes it took for
06:47 his chosen riddler, Paul Dano, to deliver the guts in one particular scene in his recent
06:52 version of all things Gotham.
06:54 As revealed in a Hollywood Reporter piece on the Batman central antagonist, Dano would
06:58 routinely request another chance to bring a different variation of his consistently
07:02 captivating performance to the table, while shooting a scene depicting the riddler conversing
07:06 with Robert Pattinson's bats on a phone through video chat.
07:09 But far from being driven mad by the relentless thespian, though, Reeves would confess how
07:13 he admired how he was so inventive and creative, whilst also noting how he's also very critical
07:19 of himself.
07:20 That's one way of putting it.
07:21 2.
07:22 Anya Taylor-Joy's Idea of Self-Defence – The Northman Of the many shocking and deeply
07:26 unexpected beats that can be found raging through Robert Eggers' recent Northman epic,
07:31 arguably the most unsettling of the lot, came in a moment completely devoid of any violent
07:36 Vikings bulldozing through a village with an axe in hand.
07:39 With Anya Taylor-Joy's Olga of the Birch Forest faced with the disturbing prospect
07:43 of being raped by a despicable male, the fierce Slavic sorceress resorts to sticking her hand
07:48 between her legs and wiping her menstrual blood on the potential attacker.
07:51 Yep, it happens.
07:53 Far from being a part of the script from the get-go, however, Eggers would later reveal
07:56 to Vanity Fair that this was actually a moment straight from the mind of the actor herself.
08:01 And when pressed on summing up the effectiveness of this shocking form of self-defence within
08:05 his frequently gritty and savage Viking drama, the visionary director would simply claim
08:10 "it was great".
08:11 With Eggers and cinematographer Jarin Blask being famed for their strict process of largely
08:15 sticking to pre-planned storyboards, the former's willingness to take on Taylor-Joy's inspired
08:20 suggestions – and likely change up the original plans for the scene – tells you all you
08:24 need to know about how much the director trusted his freakishly talented stir.
08:28 1.
08:29 Tom Cruise's Need for Flight School and No CGI – Top Gun Maverick
08:33 Tom Cruise's need for his co-stars to feel the genuine speed undoubtedly paved the way
08:38 for arguably the greatest legacy sequel to date.
08:41 Designing his very own all-encompassing aviation training for all the actors according to Phoenix
08:45 actor Monica Barbero, producer Jerry Bruckheimer would also note in a behind-the-scenes look
08:50 at Top Gun Maverick that the stars were put through three months of gruelling training,
08:55 with everything from being aboard jets at high speed to a challenging underwater programme
08:59 being a part of the process.
09:00 The filmmakers' commitment to throwing the likes of Miles Teller and the gang into the
09:03 jet-fuelled reality of the situation no doubt stemmed from Cruise's initial demand when
09:08 agreeing to return to the role of Maverick.
09:10 In short, as Cruise would reveal to Empire later down the road, after years of wondering
09:14 how in the hell this sequel could ever be achieved, "I'll do it if…", meaning
09:18 "I'm not going to do the CGI stuff".
09:21 In the end, Cruise and co undoubtedly proved their still life in the practical side of
09:24 big screen moviemaking yet, with Maverick now sitting as the star's most successful
09:29 box office endeavour to date.
09:31 What a ride!
09:32 And that's our list!
09:33 Know of any other unusual demands made by actors on recent movies?
09:36 Let us know all about them in the comments section right down below and do not forget
09:39 to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
09:42 Also be sure to head on over to WhatCulture.com and find some more incredible articles just
09:46 like the one this video you're watching right now is based on.
09:49 I have been Gareth from WhatCulture.com, thank you as always for clicking on this lovely
09:53 video today and hopefully I will see your brilliant faces very, very soon.