15 Actors and Actresses That Took a Risk to Change the Script and Made the Movies Better

We sometimes think that actors and actresses just need to be able to portray what the script says and follow the director’s orders. But many creative people have their own vision of how their characters should behave. And sometimes, these ideas make the end result much better.

Maya Hawke convinced the creators of Stranger Things to make her character gay.

The Duffer Brothers planned the character of Maya Hawke to have a romance with the character of Joe Keery. But the more the series developed, the clearer Hawke realized that the Robin she played just couldn’t fall in love with Steve.

As a result, she convinced the showrunners to change the script, make the girl gay, and let her come out to her friend. Thanks to Maya, we have a moving scene and some misunderstanding between the characters in the next season.

Jamie Lee Curtis insisted on changing the costume in Halloween Kills.

The writers wanted Jamie Lee Curtis to wear the hospital robe for almost the entire film. And the actress didn’t like the idea. She didn’t want her character to look weak, and walking around the set in that costume seemed silly to her. So, she made director David Green change her clothes.

Matthew Macfadyen added an important touch to the romantic scene in Pride and Prejudice.

One of the most touching moments of the film is when Mr. Darcy first takes Elizabeth Bennet’s hand. It was improvised by actor Matthew Macfadyen. It wasn’t scripted. Keira Knightley was supposed to walk out of the carriage, and Matthew gave her his hand. The director liked the idea and asked the cameraman to make additional shots, focusing on their hands.

Bryce Dallas Howard wears heels in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom for a reason.

The shots from Jurassic World where Howard goes through the jungle in elegant shoes made fans and critics really angry. But the actress thinks it was a nice touch. So, in the next film, when the writers decided to give her sneakers, Bryce insisted on wearing the heels.

Chris Hemsworth insisted on having short hair in Thor: Ragnarok.

Chris Hemsworth told that Thor’s new hair wasn’t scripted in Thor: Ragnarok. The actor was simply tired of having to spend 2 hours in the make-up room every day to make his wig look good. Hemsworth was tired of his character, but the new hair, good script, and working with director Taika Waititi made him see his role in the Marvel universe in a different way.

Russel Crowe came up with a way to make his character in Gladiator more believable.

At the very beginning of the film, there’s a scene where Emperor Marcus Aurelius asks Maximus to describe his home. The writers didn’t actually write this conversation in the script word by word. So, Russel Crowe just described his own farm in Australia. It made the scene look more convincing and showed a new side of Crowe’s character.

David Tennant fought for the right to wear beat-up Converse in Doctor Who.

Costume designers chose elegant shoes that looked good with Doctor’s striped suit. But the actor had a different idea. He wanted to wear old, beat-up Converse. Once, David saw Jamie Oliver in a similar outfit, which was both official and not. He insisted on the shoes and got to wear them.

Emma Thompson improvised the famous scene from Love Actually.

The scene where Emma Thompson is crying, thinking her husband is cheating on her, wasn’t really scripted. The actress was supposed to come up to her room, turn on a record, and show an emotional response. So, Thompson’s memorable acting is improvised. Emma said that playing these emotions convincingly was easy due to her personal experience.

Matt Smith came up with one of the key moments in House of the Dragon on the fly.

In episode 8, terminally ill King Viserys I Targaryen ascended the throne one last time to make peace between the parts of his family. Paddy Considine, playing the king, was so good in his role that he stumbled on his way and lost his crown.

Before he heard “cut”, Matt Smith, plating Viserys’ brother, came up to the king, helped him put the crown back on, and walked him to the throne. It was completely improvised. But the scene was so moving and it showed that the brothers were at peace again, that the creators decided to keep it in the episode.

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone helped write the dramatic scene in La La Land.

One of the key scenes in the film is the romantic dinner of the main characters when the inner contradictions of the couple are so evident that their break-up becomes inevitable. To make this moment realistic, the director asked Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling for help. They improvised a lot and talked to Damien Chazelle about their vision. Thanks to their contribution, the scene was heartbreaking.

Tom Holland came up with the farewell scene in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

In this film, there were 3 actors the played Spider-Man in different movies. Tom Holland decided to thank Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield for coming back to the franchise, and he hugged the actors. The director and the writers of the film saw it and decided to include the scene in the film, realizing it was the perfect ending for the trio.

Zoë Kravitz chose the manicure for her character in The Batman.

For a long time, Zoë Kravitz couldn’t have her nails done. So, she had quite long nails, which gave her an idea for another touch to the look of Catwoman. She called director Matt Reeves and suggested having long nails without nail polish to look like the claws of a wild animal, beautiful and scary at the same time.

Thanks to Oscar Isaac, his character in Moon Knight spoke Spanish.

One of the producers of the series, Grant Curtis, said that many episodes in Moon Knight were Oscar Isaac’s idea. The actor was an active participant in the filming and came up with a lot of great suggestions. Isaac needed to play a character with dissociative identity disorder, so Oscar decided to give different accents to the characters and even spoke Spanish, improvising Jake Lockley.

Dakota Johnson rewrote the script for Fifty Shade of Grey and its sequels.

Dakota Johnson has recently said that filming the trilogy wasn’t easy. The author of the book E. L. James insisted on having literally all the episodes from the book to be on the screen without any changes. Johnson understood that many scenes would look bad, so she rewrote the script, changing her lines and those of other characters, and insisted on doing her version.

Elizabeth Olsen insisted on the canon costume in WandaVision.

Olsen’s character Wanda didn’t appear on the screen in her canon costume because the creators didn’t want her to be associated with the X-Men mutants. Her first chance to wear this costume was on the Halloween episode of WandaVision. Elizabeth took this chance and insisted on wearing this costume in the series.

In your opinion, should actors have freedom in how they play their characters?