13 On-Screen Looks Actors Refused to Wear or Leave Their Roles

Many actors tolerate wearing uncomfortable costumes for the sake of their role. Sometimes they probably wish they could say no – and in rare cases, they actually do.

Here are 13 on-screen looks that actors refused to wear or leave their roles:

1.When Scarlett Johansson did Captain America: The Winter SoldierMarvel was interested in Black Widow “being a shapeshifter.” In 2021, she told Fatherly: “It’s a really funny thing – the look is fantastic and utilitarian. First she comes in this beautiful car and picks up Cap, and initially in the script it was like she arrived in her white tennis shoes, with a blonde wig. He was quickly killed.

She continued: “You work with a lot of male writers. Things have changed. You have to be part of the change. Audiences are demanding things too, and there’s a cultural shift, and that’s fueling everything in a more progressive direction .it’s been a process; it’s been a process.

Zade Rosenthal/©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

2.In his Variety 2024 Actors on Actors interview, Paul Mescal said that when he first got the role in Gladiator IIhe had “‘questionable’ wig fittings.” He said: “They were big. And it had nothing to do with the fact that we were working with the best hair and makeup team in the world. It was just that I don’t have the head for wigs .”

He continued: “But that was also one thing when I was watching it, and I started doing the choreography, I was like, ‘I don’t want people to come and fix things that fell off the back of my body.’ I just want to go.'”

3.Amanda Seyfried passed on the role of Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy because she “just said, ‘Ah, I don’t want to be green. It’s so much work.'”

In 2020, she told ComicBook.com: “I remember Jennifer Lawrence once talking about how long it took her to turn blue. And I was like, ‘That sounds like hell on earth.’ , because then you can settle in, and you’re only there for a few hours, and then you have to take everything off and that’s literally the reason.”

The role went to Zoe Saldaña.

Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for the Museum of Modern Art, ©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

4.In his 2023 memoirs SquareElliot Page has said that before coming out as trans in 2020, he turned down a “wanted” role in a book adaptation that would have required him to wear period women’s clothing. He turned down the role due to the negative effects it would likely have had on his mental health.

They wrote: “I imagined myself in a mid-19th century woman’s costume. The dress, the shoes, the hair shone before my eyes. It was too much after putting on the mask for awards season.

…It wasn’t easy to explain to my reps that I couldn’t take on a role because of my clothes. A face would wrinkle and tilt to the side: “But you’re an actor? Wardrobe props for movies tore my insides apart, claws cut into my organs.

I cringed at the way people lit up when they saw me dressed in women’s clothing, as if I had accomplished some miraculous feat. People were like, “Well, you’re an actor. Just put on these damn clothes. You know? But needless to say, it was much more than that. »

Jeremychanphotography / Getty Images

5.Emma Watson worked with costume designer Jacqueline Durran to reimagine Belle’s iconic yellow ball gown for live-action. Beauty and the Beast. The actor was strongly against wearing a corset.

In 2016, Jacqueline told Entertainment Weekly: “For Emma, it was important that the dress be light and have a lot of movement. In the reinterpretation of Emma, Belle is an active princess. She doesn’t didn’t want a dress that was corseted or that would hinder her in any way.

Laurie Sparham /© Walt Disney Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

6.In 2024, Courtney Thorne-Smith told the podcast Always the placethat, in a movie she made at age 17, her 17-year-old character had to sleep with an older man, then wear “one of his button-down shirts afterwards.” However, instead of a button-down shirt, she was reportedly given “a really sexy negligee” to wear. She felt “trapped” and when she refused to wear it, a producer reportedly told her the crew was saying she “was a baby.”

She said she called her agent, who came to stand by her. Finally, she wore a shirt on stage.

She said: “I’m so grateful that I had this ability to stand up for myself at that age. I’m amazed, actually. I had that ability at that age.”

Rachel Luna/Getty Images

7.Virginia Hey played Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan in Distant landscape from 1999 to 2002, but she “asked to leave because the makeup was making her very sick.”

In 2014, she told the BBC: “It was a shame to see Zhaan go, but the makeup made me really sick. My kidneys were suffering. I stayed there for almost three years and started to have kidney problems after the first three months of the first season… So Zhaan was never really planned to go there permanently it’s just that I couldn’t be Zhaan every day because; makeup made me wrong.”

Hulton Archives/Getty Images

8.In The Wizard of OzBuddy Ebsen was originally cast as Tin Man. The costume was made of stiff buckram fabric covered with leather. There was also a lot of aluminum dust, which reportedly caused him to experience symptoms such as muscle pain and shortness of breath. When the studio allegedly refused to believe he was actually sick, he had to call in a nurse to corroborate his claims. After just 10 days of production, he ended up in the hospital for two weeks, then recovered at home for a month. So he ultimately had to abandon his role.

He was replaced by Jack Haley. To prevent the new actor from getting sick, the aluminum dust would have been replaced by a paste. However, this caused Jack to develop an eye infection and he had to take four days off filming and undergo minor emergency surgery.

MGM courtesy of Everett Collection

9.When Waheeda Rehman was filming the 1958 Hindi film Solva SaalShe was reportedly “given a costume she didn’t want to wear” for a scene where her character, Laaj, was changing out of her wet clothes. In 2023, she told Radio Nasha: “The director said, ‘If you’re not comfortable, then don’t wear it, but when you come to the set, you should be happy.’ So when I got on set, I wore whatever made me comfortable.”

She said: “The director was furious. He said, ‘This is your second or third film, and it will be your last because you have too many conditions.’ The manager was so angry that he packed his bags for the day.

…(Costar Dev Anand) was nice. He took my side. He told the director: “What she says is absolutely true. Her character is a shy girl. Her name in the film is Lajwanti. She shouldn’t wear revealing clothes in this scene. What she said was right and you got angry for no reason.'”

Chandra Films / Via youtube.com

10.According to the book Universal Studios monster moviesIn Werewolf of Londonthe monster makeup that Jack Pierce designed for actor Henry Hull (who played Dr. Wilfred Glendon) was originally more animalistic. However, Henry wanted it to be more human so that the other characters could still recognize Dr. Glendon, as the script intended.

When the makeup artist disagreed, the actor went to studio head Junior Laemmle, who sided with him.

Universal images courtesy of Everett Collection

11.Julie Caitlin Brown played Na’Toth in Babylon 5but she left after season 1 because “her face was very sore from the makeup and (she) was afraid there would be permanent damage”.

In 2006, she told The Scifi World: “I wish I had stayed a little longer, because the character was so interesting. I didn’t know at the time that I could have been released from my contract if I “I had signed it, so I was afraid to sign it.”

Babylonian Productions / courtesy Everett Collection

12.Gene Hackman reportedly refused to shave his head or wear a bald cap (for the majority of his scenes) to play the famously bald Lex Luthor in Superman (1978).

However, director Richard Donner tricked him into shaving his mustache.

In the 2001 DVD commentary, Gene was quoted as saying, “I told him I wanted to keep the mustache. And he said, ‘Well, let me think about it, and when you come on set we’ll discuss it .’ The first day I was in England… he said, ‘Well, what about the mustache?’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t know, I’d really like to keep it.’ He said, “If you shave your mustache, I’ll shave mine.” And I said, “Okay.”

So I came back to makeup, and we did all these things; I shaved my mustache, and I came back on set, and we were doing the makeup test, and I said, ‘Dick! You need to shave your mustache. And he says, “Okay. » And he took it and he took it off. And he organized that, I loved him for doing that.”

Warner Bros. courtesy of Everett Collection

13.And finally, when Katharine Hepburn worked at RKO, she wore jeans to show off. When she returned to her dressing room after filming, she reportedly discovered that her pants had been stolen to make her wear a skirt. Rather than comply, she decided to return to her underwear until her jeans were returned.

It wasn’t long before his pants were returned to him.

Bettmann / Bettmann Archives / Via Getty

Have you heard of other costumes that actors refused to wear? Let us know in the comments!