14 Actors Who Decided to Change the Movie Script and Got Away With It

Actors are artistic people who have their own creative ideas and are not always ready to follow instructions from film directors. And this may cause some hassle on set. But sometimes it happens that the ideas offered by actors become so relevant that we now can’t imagine our favorite movies without them.

At CHEERY, we decided to find movies and cartoons where actors managed to introduce their own ideas.

1. The Harry Potter film series

We got used to the idea that Lucius Malfoy is an arrogant man with long blond hair and a cane. But his looks were created by Jason Isaacs, not the scriptwriters. As the actor recalls, Lucius was supposed to wear short, black-and-white hair. But it didn’t really fit his character. So, Isaacs suggested instead that he wear a long white wig, “In order to keep the hair straight, I had to tip my head back, so I was looking down my nose at everyone. There was 50 percent of the character.”

He also insisted that his character had a walking stick and spoke with an accent. As a role model, he used his teacher in drama school, “I just wanted to find a voice that made him drip with the millennia that his family had been in power, complete disdain and contempt for anybody and everything else.”

2. Lost In Translation

Film director Sofia Coppola wrote the part of Bob Harris with Bill Murray in mind. The actor didn’t disappoint her and made his character alive with a lot of improvisations. For example, the scene where he’s talking about an awful Shiatsu massage that he got was improvised entirely by Murray. The director also confessed that the words Murray whispered in Johansson’s ear were not scripted, and only these 2 actors know what was really said.

3. Shrek

Originally Chris Farley was meant to voice Shrek, recording nearly all of the dialogue in a light New York accent. When Myers replaced him, he insisted that the entire script be rewritten and recorded the lines in a Scottish dialect. The reason was the fact that Shrek’s nemesis Lord Farquaad spoke with a posh English accent. Myers’ idea was to emphasize a class struggle between the fairy-tale kings and queens and the common people, and Shrek was raised working class.

4. Rampage

Dwayne Johnson was adamant against letting his character die in the end. “I don’t like a sad ending,” the actor said. He managed to convince the film director and producers because real life is hard. “I don’t want it in my movies. When the credits roll, I want to feel great.” The discussions went on for 2 months and, eventually, the studio had to yield to Johnson’s demands. The actor stayed true to his principle — to make movies only with a happy ending. Otherwise, studios will “have to find another actor.”

5. The Fast and the Furious

Michelle Rodriguez played in the Fast & Furious film series for 14 years, even though she had to admit that nobody in her family was happy that she was an actress. “My brother was just happy that I had a life outside of the ghetto.” However, at one point, she almost quit her biggest break.

At first, the actress agreed that her character Letty Ortiz would cheat on her boyfriend Dominic Toretto (Diesel) with Brian O’Conner (Walker). But later she reconsidered and decided that the love triangle just wasn’t right for her character, “I basically cried and said, ‘I’m going to quit. I’m sorry, but I can’t do this in front of millions of people.’” Vin Diesel supported her and convinced the studio to change the script.

6. Mean Girls

The charismatic character Damian was played by Daniel Franzese. In an interview, he confessed that there wasn’t much room for improvisation because the script was already funny. However, the actor managed to make his character even funnier. For example, it was he who came up with one of Damian’s most iconic lines, “I want my pink shirt back!” He also used Christina Aguilera’s remark “don’t look at me” while talking to Tina Fey’s character.

7. Sense and Sensibility

Actress Emma Thompson complained in the 1990s, “There are a lot of highly intelligent women who can act, and there are not too many roles to fill — that’s the problem.” Thompson decided to change it and adapted Jane Austen’s novel for the big screen. Critics praised her script and her acting, and she won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. “I wrote and then I bloody well played it.”

8. Midnight Cowboy

The studio didn’t have the money to close down a New York street during filming. So, it’s no wonder there was real traffic. When Dustin Hoffman was crossing the street, he was almost hit by a car. The actor didn’t lose his head and yelled, “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” Hoffmann recalled during an interview that he had to explain to the film director why he’d done that. Eventually, Schlesinger started laughing, clapped his hands, and said that they had to keep it.

9. Jaws

Roy Scheider’s line in the iconic Spielberg movie, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” became legendary in cinematic history. In fact, it wasn’t written in the script and was improvised. The line originated from an inside joke that the cast had behind the scenes. They used it every time anything went wrong on set.

10. Forrest Gump

Tom Hanks got into character so much that he improvised a lot on set. For example, he added a special move to the scene where he proposed to Jenny, “I know what love is.” He slammed the door and put his hands on his hips. The film director asked Hanks, “Why’d you put your hands like that? It’s kind of goofy. Pretty serious scene. It’s kinda like a silly pose.” But the actor replied that he copied the pose from Michael Humphreys who played Forrest as a little boy. The scene appeared to be really emotional and conveyed the feelings of the main character.

11. Good Will Hunting

One of the funniest scenes was completely improvised by Williams. This is the scene where his character relays a story about how his deceased wife used to fart in her sleep. Even though it was completely made up, the moment fitted in so neatly with the wider narrative that the moviemakers decided to leave it in. It is actually easy to see that Damon burst out into uncontrollable laughter while the camera began to subtly shake as a result of the crew getting the giggles.

12. Gone Girl

Ben Affleck was great in the role of the desperate husband. The curious fact is that he refused to play a Yankees fan. According to the script, he was supposed to don a Yankees cap during the airport scene. But Affleck, being a native Bostonian, refused to do it. This little disagreement even shut down production for 4 days, after which they finally compromised on a Mets cap.

13. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Kate Hudson conspired with the film director that she would be improvising without McConaughey knowing this. It was she who made up the line “You can’t watch Meg Ryan for 2 hours and not be thinking about another girl” in the scene where she threw the platter of veggies during Ben’s “boys’ night”.

14. Spider-Man 2

The film’s producer tried to convince the actress that she needed to change her teeth. Kirsten’s natural smile was not as perfect as the filmmakers wanted it to be. However, Dunst insisted on her opinion, trusted her intuition, and refused to put the teeth like a Barbie doll, which she was supported by close people: “I had very good influences personally of women who were like, ‘You’re great, love your teeth, don’t change a thing’”.

What do you think of actors improvising in movies?