When you're an A-lister in Hollywood, you can get away with a lot. Some actors have had some truly ridiculous demands over the years, like the way Tom Cruise insisted on being the sole lead of The Mummy. But there have been some other demands that were so funny that they ended up making the film better. From Samuel L. Jackson's insistence about the title of Snakes on a Plane to the hilarious reason Liam Neeson had an Irish accent in A Million Ways to Die in the West, let's take a look at some ridiculous actor demands that forced movie details to change.
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00:00The Mummy
00:01When you've got as much clout as Tom Cruise, you can make all sorts of stipulations when
00:05you sign on for a movie.
00:07Reportedly, Cruise's demands for the 2017 Mummy movie included near-total creative control.
00:12As later outlined in a Variety investigation, Cruise was accused of micromanaging almost
00:17every aspect of the film's production, changing everything from the script to the way it was
00:21marketed.
00:22Perhaps most notably, Cruise allegedly insisted that his character, Nick Morton, be given
00:26more screen time than the Mummy.
00:28His presence was beefed up accordingly, effectively turning the horror franchise reboot into another
00:32of the star's blockbuster action vehicles.
00:35Snakes on a Plane
00:37Just like snakes have all sorts of reasons for getting on planes, stars have all sorts
00:41of reasons for agreeing to take on a role.
00:43Samuel L. Jackson, for example, admitted that he only wanted to star in Snakes on a Plane
00:47because of its title.
00:49When executives considered changing the title to Pacific Flight 121, he personally intervened,
00:54telling them it was
00:55"...the stupidest damn thing I ever heard."
00:56Jackson also advocated for more violence and profanity in issue because the studio
01:01envisioned Snakes as a campy PG-13 action movie.
01:04Eventually, they agreed with his more adult-oriented take, and he agreed to reshoots to secure
01:09an R rating, which just served to make the edited TV version all the more ridiculous.
01:13"...I have had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday to Friday plane!"
01:20The Avengers
01:21In the original script for The Avengers, the scene immediately following the near-defeat
01:25of the Chitauri was much less lighthearted.
01:28After sending the bomb through the wormhole and falling back to Earth, Tony Stark simply
01:31asked,
01:32"...what's next?"
01:33after being roused by his comrades.
01:34Robert Downey Jr. felt this line fell a little flat and suggested trying something different.
01:39According to Entertainment Weekly, director Joss Whedon put together three pages of new
01:43lines based on Downey's suggestions.
01:45In the newly revamped scene, Iron Man has a little more banter with his teammates.
01:49Have you ever tried shawarma?
01:51There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here.
01:53I don't know what it is, but I want to try it."
01:56Everyone liked the line so much that Whedon filmed a bonus post-credits scene of the entire
01:59cast eating.
02:01But since production had already wrapped, he had to film the scene when the cast came
02:04back together for the premiere.
02:06According to EW, Chris Evans even had to wear a fake jaw prosthetic to hide the beard he'd
02:09grown.
02:10That's why Captain America isn't eating with the rest of the team, and it was all because
02:14Robert Downey Jr. wanted to spice up his lines.
02:18Jurassic World
02:19Critics were pretty happy with Jurassic World, but that didn't stop audiences from complaining
02:23that Bryce Dallas Howard's character somehow outruns 22 tons of T-Rex in high heels.
02:29Director Colin Trevorrow was completely aware of how ridiculous this was, and reportedly
02:33spent much of the film's production trying to convince her to literally slip into something
02:37more comfortable.
02:38Howard refused, insisting that her character had to wear heels the whole time.
02:42You'll last two minutes in there, less in those ridiculous shoes."
02:49Trevorrow would later admit that he wasn't exactly sure why Howard was so insistent,
02:53but he respected her decision, and the heels stayed in.
02:56Howard herself would later say she never expected wearing the heels to be such a major talking
03:00point, but she was happy to have the effort she put into running through the jungle acknowledged,
03:04noting that no camera trickery was used, she really did wear the shoes in every scene.
03:09Clash of the Titans
03:11Bubo the Clockwork Owl is one of the most memorable parts of the original Clash of the
03:14Titans, so naturally, director Louis Leterrier planned on making it a major part of his 2010
03:20remake.
03:21Unfortunately, Sam Worthington hated Bubo.
03:23Leterrier later recounted that Worthington complained about the owl at every opportunity,
03:27going as far as to accuse the director of trying to ruin his career by making him star
03:31opposite something so ridiculous.
03:33Leterrier goaded Worthington by saying he wasn't trying to ruin his career, just damage
03:37it, which didn't exactly help matters.
03:40Ultimately, to appease his star, Leterrier took the owl out of the film, relegating
03:44it to a brief cameo.
03:46Shrek
03:47Shrek's signature Scottish accent went through a couple of major changes before audiences
03:51fell in love with the big green ogre.
03:54Saturday Night Live vet Chris Farley was originally supposed to voice the character, but passed
03:58away before he could finish recording his lines.
04:00After his passing, Mike Myers stepped in.
04:02It wasn't until after roughly a third of the movie had been animated, however, that Myers
04:06decided Shrek should be Scottish.
04:09Myers' reasoning was that since the movie's villain, Lord Farquaad, spoke with an upper-class
04:13English accent, Shrek should sound more blue-collar, to highlight the difference between them.
04:18Ugh!
04:19It's hideous!
04:20Oh, that's not very nice.
04:23It's just a donkey.
04:25He also felt that the Scottish accent lent itself better to dramatic, abrupt shifts in
04:29tone and would allow him to emote in a more exaggerated fashion.
04:33DreamWorks exec Jeffrey Katzenberg pegged the cost of reworking the already-animated
04:37scenes at $4-5 million, roughly 10 percent of the movie's overall budget.
04:42Star Wars' attack of the clones
04:44After watching a rough cut of the battle for Geonosis with Star Wars creator George Lucas,
04:49Samuel L. Jackson noticed that it was hard to spot his own character, Mace Windu, amongst
04:53the dozens of Jedi on screen.
04:55He asked Lucas if it'd be possible for Windu to wield a purple lightsaber, partly because
04:59it'd stand out more, and partly because purple is Jackson's favorite color.
05:03I said to George, you think maybe I can get a purple lightsaber?
05:06He's like, lightsabers are green or lightsabers are red.
05:09I'm like, yeah, but I want a purple one.
05:11Lucas initially turned down the request, but later decided to let Jackson get his purple
05:15lightsaber.
05:16Because when Samuel L. Jackson asks for something, he gets it.
05:19I have the real one at home that has bad b---- right here.
05:23Really?
05:24Are you serious?
05:26Yeah!
05:27A million ways to die in the West
05:29Family Guy has mocked a lot of people over the years, but one joke in particular came
05:33back to Haunt creator Seth MacFarlane.
05:35Family Guy made a joke about how Liam Neeson would never be able to play a cowboy in a
05:38Western because of his inability to convincingly mask his distinctive Irish accent.
05:43This glen's gonna be tough to traverse, and that river's gonna be 50, 60 meters wide,
05:49and God knows how many fathoms.
05:51Years later, when MacFarlane asked Liam Neeson to star in his comedy Western A Million Ways
05:54to Die in the West, Neeson said he'd do it with one condition.
05:58When Seth called me up to ask would I do this film, I said I'll do it on condition that
06:03I can use my own Irish accent.
06:06MacFarlane agreed, and Neeson's character became an inexplicably Irish cowboy, all because
06:11of a throwaway line in an old episode of Family Guy suggesting that it'd be pretty stupid
06:15for anyone to hire Liam Neeson to star in a Western.
06:19You really do have a death wish, don't you?