10 scenes actors wanted to cut from movies
Sometimes, the link between a director and their actors is seamless, with the two groups of creatives almost sharing a conscience, such as in the case of the likes of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Wes Anderson and Bill Murray or Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy.
Yet, on other occasions, the actors and directors clash significantly, with performers sometimes even asking for their scenes to be cut entirely.
More often than not, this comes when actors aren’t comfortable with a certain scene they shot and have second thoughts about the moment being broadcast to the world. Wrestling with not only the director but the studio, too, in order to get the scene in question scrubbed from existence, such occasions are rare, but when they do happen, they’re laborious processes that can be compared to the story of David vs. Goliath.
If unsuccessful, this means accepting the existence of a truly regrettable movie role, with the likes of Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tom Cruise and Viola Davis each wishing they hadn’t done respective roles that clashed with their creative wishes.
Nonetheless, let’s explore ten scenes that actors wanted cut from their movies below, which include the likes of Chris Hemsworth, Sharon Stone and Denzel Washington, with some actors being more successful than others.
10 scenes actors wanted to cut from movies:
Marlon Brando – On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)
Thought to be the greatest actor ever to grace the silver screen of Hollywood, Marlon Brando earned two Oscars throughout his career, among a bunch of other nominations, taking home statuettes for his performances in The Godfather and On the Waterfront.
Yet, despite being one of his most celebrated movies, Brando really wanted one particular scene cut from Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront.
Surprisingly, the scene in question was the most iconic part of the movie, when Brando’s protagonist laments his wasted potential. “Brando believed it was unplayable,” writer Budd Schulberg said of the scene, “I said: ‘Marlon, everybody loves that scene except you. Why?’ He said: ‘Steiger has a gun. If someone is pointing a gun at you, you’re not going to make a long speech like that.’ Kazan said, ‘Why don’t you just push his gun aside?’ That was the end of the argument. Apart from that, Marlon was very amenable”.
The scene in question, of course, is the pivotal moment when Terry’s brother Charley threatens him with a gun and tries to force him to accept a job offer. Disappointed by the turn of events and letting his resentment bubble to the surface, Terry laments about his wasted potential in an emotionally devastating manner, giving a voice to everyone who has ever felt that way.
Amber Heard – London Fields (Mathew Cullen, 2018)
You’d be forgiven for having never heard of the 2018 Mathew Cullen movie London Fields, with the crime drama being entirely forgettable if it hadn’t been for the behind-the-scenes drama. The problem came when actor Amber Heard refused to act out the screenplay as planned, demanding rewrites, with there being a specific dispute over several scenes that used a stunt double that made it seem like Heard was nude for longer than she had agreed to be.
Heard wanted the scenes cut, but the movie was eventually released untampered with, going under the radar nonetheless, despite its glittering cast that also included Cara Delevingne, Gemma Chan and Billy Bob Thornton.
Chris Hemsworth – Thor: The Dark World (Alan Taylor, 2013)
The Australian actor Chris Hemsworth hit the jackpot in the 2010s when he was cast as Thor in Marvel’s up-and-coming cinematic universe. Years later, the franchise has become the most successful of all time, and Hemsworth is front and centre, sharing the stage with Chris Evans, Tom Holland and Benedict Cumberbatch. But, when the movies first began, they were far more rough around the edges than they were in the series’ heyday.
Hemsworth was uncomfortable with taking off his shirt in the 2013 sequel Thor: The Dark World, telling The Guardian: “I said, ‘Well, I don’t know. What’s the why? What are we doing?’ The justification was that it was him coming home from battle, washing blood off his hands. It is what it is. How to weigh into that without sounding like an idiot?”.
Taylor Lautner – The Twilight Saga (Various, 2008-2012)
From one muscleman to another, back in the 2000s, Taylor Lautner was the face of the Twilight series, shining beside his co-stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Appearing in every instalment of the Twilight series from 2008 to 2012, fans adored Lautner largely for his good looks, often removing his shirt at every available opportunity, but the actor wasn’t entirely happy doing this.
Speaking with the Express, Lautner stated: “I remember having a conversation with the director before we started filming. I said, ‘Alright, unless it makes complete sense for the character to have his shirt off, then I’m going to keep my shirt on for the whole movie”.
Olivia Munn – The Predator (Shane Black, 2018)
The American filmmaker Shane Black was supposed to inject a hit of adrenaline into the Predator franchise back in 2018, which was kicked off with the 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, but things didn’t exactly work out as planned, with the movie being critically panned.
But, one particularly shocking behind-the-scenes event that occurred was when Black gave a role to a friend who was a convicted sex offender, with actor Olivia Munn having a massive problem with this.
Vocalising the actor’s history, Munn demanded that the scene be removed from the movie. Thankfully, it was, and Black later apologised to fans and the production team for his decision.
Ryan O’Neal – Tough Guys Don’t Dance (Norman Mailer, 1987)
After directing several avant-garde movies in the 1970s, writer Norman Mailer was given the chance to adapt his book Tough Guys Don’t Dance into a Hollywood movie. However, Mailer proved to be much better equipped with a pen than a camera, and the result was a cinematic disaster.
The movie starred Ryan O’Neal and Isabella Rossellini, yet the former manages to give one of the worst performances of his career. In one now-infamous scene, O’Neal reacts to a letter with a stilted, emotionless “Oh god, oh man.”
O’Neal was desperate for the scene to be cut because of his terrible line delivery, yet Mailer left it in, much to the actor’s embarrassment.
Michelle Rodriguez – The Fast and Furious Saga (2001 -)
Michelle Rodriguez is well-known for playing Letty Ortiz, a character married to Dominic Toretto, played by Vin Diesel, in the bombastic action movie Fast and Furious franchise. She has starred in eight of the movies, debuting in the first instalment, 2001’s The Fast and the Furious.
Naturally, playing the character for so long has meant that Rodriguez has become rather attached to her character. The actor was successful in getting a scene cut from the script that involved Letty cheating on Dominic with Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner.
She explained to Daily Beast, “Is it realistic for a Latin girl who’s with the alpha-est of the alpha males to cheat on him with the cute boy? I had to put my foot down.”
Molly Ringwald – The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985)
Molly Ringwald, a frequent collaborator of John Hughes, spoke out against some of his movies’ questionable depictions of race and gender in a 2018 New Yorker essay. Despite John Hughes revolutionising the teen movie genre in the 1980s, presenting adolescents realistically and authentically for the first time in cinema history, they have since been retrospectively criticised for much of their outdated and offensive content.
Ringwald revealed that she successfully got Hughes to remove an outdated scene she found to be unnecessary, which involved a male character spying on a female gym coach swimming naked.
“The scene wasn’t in the first draft I read, and I lobbied John to cut it. He did, and although I’m sure the actress who had been cast in the part still blames me for foiling her break, I think the film is better for it.”
Sharon Stone – Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992)
Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct is best remembered for its iconic scene in which Catherine, played by Sharon Stone, crosses her legs, revealing that she is not wearing any underwear.
However, the actor has since revealed that she was unaware her vagina would be shown in the shot.
The scene shocked audiences worldwide, but not as much as it did Stone herself. In her recent memoir, she recalled watching the completed film back for the first time: “After we shot Basic Instinct, I got called in to see it. Not on my own with the director, as one would anticipate, given the situation that has given us all pause, so to speak, but with a room full of agents and lawyers, most of whom had nothing to do with the project,” she wrote. “That was how I saw my vagina shot for the first time, long after I’d been told, ‘We can’t see anything — I just need you to remove your panties, as the white is reflecting the light, so we know you have panties on.’”
She revealed that she “went to the projection booth” and “slapped Paul across the face.” However, Verhoeven refused to do anything about Stone’s discomfort, leading to the notorious scene staying in.
Denzel Washington – The Pelican Brief (Alan J Pakula, 1993)
Alan J Pakula’s 1993 movie The Pelican Brief starred Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts, yet the latter has constantly received flack for failing to kiss her co-star on screen, despite the pair playing love interests. However, the reason for the couple’s lack of intimacy is down to Washington’s request not to be involved in such scenes.
Roberts told Newsweek in 2002, “I have taken so much shit over the years about not kissing Denzel in that film. Don’t I have a pulse? Of course I wanted to kiss Denzel. It was his idea to take the damn scenes out.”
Washington’s decision not to kiss Roberts was due to his worry that he would upset black female audience members. He explained to the same publication, “Black women are not often seen as objects of desire on film. They have always been my core audience.”
