Yahoo Lifestyle 13 Onscreen Looks Actors Refused To Wear Or Quit Their Roles Over
Plenty of actors tolerate wearing uncomfortable costumes for the sake of their roles. Sometimes, they probably wish they could say no — and in rare instances, they actually do.
Here are 13 onscreen looks actors refused to wear or quit their roles over:
1.When Scarlett Johansson was doing Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Marvel was interested in Black Widow "being a shape-shifter." In 2021, she told Fatherly, "This is a really funny thing — the look is fantastic and utilitarian. She first drives up in this beautiful car and picks up Cap, and initially in the script, it was like, she arrives in her tennis whites, with a blonde wig. It was very quickly killed."
She continued, "You work with a lot of male writers. Things were shifting. You have to be a part of the change. Audiences are also demanding stuff, and there's a cultural shift, and it feeds everything into a more progressive direction. It's been a process; it's been a process."
2.In his 2024 Variety's Actors on Actors interview, Paul Mescal said that when he first got the part in Gladiator II, he had "some 'dodgy' wig fittings." He said, "They were big. And it wasn't to do with — we were working with the best hair and makeup team in the world. It was just, I don't have a head for wigs."
He continued, "But it was also a thing when I was looking at it, and I started doing the choreography, I was like, 'I don't want people coming in and fixing the things that have fallen out of the back of my head. I wanna just go for it.'"
3.Amanda Seyfried passed on the role of Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy because she "was just like, 'Ah, I don't wanna be green. It's just so much work.'"
In 2020, she told ComicBook.com, "I remember Jennifer Lawrence talking about once how long it took her to get blue. And I was like, 'That seems like hell on earth,' because then you get to set, and you're only there for a couple hours, and then you have to take everything off. And that was literally the reason."
The role went to Zoe Saldaña.
4.In his 2023 memoir Pageboy, Elliot Page said that, before coming out as trans in 2020, he turned down a "sought after" part in a book adaptation that would've required him to wear women's period clothing. He said no to the role because of the negative effects it would have likely had on his mental health.
They wrote, "I would imagine myself in a woman's costume from the mid-nineteenth century. The dress, the shoes, the hair flashed before my eyes. It was too much after having put 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 clothing. A face would scrunch up and tilt sideways, 'But you're an actor?' Wardrobe fittings for films ripped at my insides, talons gashing my organs.
I cringed at the way people lit up when seeing me in feminine clothing as if I had accomplished a miraculous feat. People would go, 'Well, you're an actor. Just put on the fucking clothes.' You know? But needless to say, it was so much more than that."
5.Emma Watson worked with costume designer Jacqueline Durran to reimagine Belle's iconic yellow ballgown for the live-action Beauty and the Beast. The actor was staunchly against wearing a corset.
In 2016, Jacqueline told Entertainment Weekly, "For Emma, it was important that the dress was light and that it had a lot of movement. In Emma’s reinterpretation, Belle is an active princess. She did not want a dress that was corseted or that would impede her in any way."
6.In 2024, Courtney Thorne-Smith told the podcast Still the Place, that, in a movie she filmed at 17, her 17-year-old character was scripted to sleep with an older man, then to wear "one of his button-down shirts afterwards." However, instead of a button-down, she was allegedly given "a really sexy negligee" to wear. She felt "trapped," and when she refused to wear it, a producer allegedly told her the crew was saying she was "being a baby."
She said that she phoned her agent, who came down to stand by her side. Ultimately, she wore a shirt in the scene.
She said, "I'm so grateful I had that ability to stand up for myself at that age. I'm amazed, actually. I had that ability at that age."
7.Virginia Hey played Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan on Farscape from 1999-2002, but she "requested to leave because the make-up was making [her] very sick."
In 2014, she told BBC, "It was a shame to see Zhaan go, but the make-up made me really ill. My kidneys were suffering. I stayed in for nearly three years, and I started to get the kidney problems after the first three months of the first season...So Zhaan was never really intended to go permanently; it's just that I couldn't be Zhaan every day because the make-up was hurting me."
8.In The Wizard of Oz, Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Tin Man. The costume was made of stiff buckram fabric covered with leather. There was also a great deal of aluminum dust, which reportedly caused him to develop symptoms like aching muscles and shortness of breath. When the studio allegedly refused to believe he was actually ill, he had to get a nurse to corroborate his claims. Only 10 days into production, he wound up in the hospital for two weeks then recovered at home for a month. So, he ultimately had to drop out of the role.
He was replaced by Jack Haley. To prevent the new actor from getting sick too, the aluminum dust was reportedly swapped for a paste. However, it gave Jack an eye infection, and he had to take four days off filming and get a minor emergency surgery.
9.When Waheeda Rehman was filming the 1958 Hindi movie Solva Saal, she allegedly "was given a costume that [she] did not want to wear" for a scene where her character, Laaj, changed out of wet clothes. In 2023, she told Radio Nasha, "The director said, 'If you are not comfortable, then don't wear it, but when you come on the set, you should be happy.' So when I came on the set, I wore what made me comfortable."
She said, "The director was furious. He said, 'This your second or third movie, and it will be your last one because you have too many conditions.' The director was so angry that he packed up for the day.
...[Costar Dev Anand] was sweet. He took my side. He told the director that, 'What she is saying is absolutely right. Her character is a shy girl. Her name in the movie is Lajwanti. She shouldn't be wearing revealing clothes in this scene. What she was saying was right, and you got angry for no reason.'"
10.According to the book The Monster Movies of Universal Studios, in Werewolf of London, the 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 called for.
When the makeup designer disagreed, the actor went to studio head Junior Laemmle, who sided with him.
11.Julie Caitlin Brown played Na'Toth on Babylon 5, but 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 would have stayed a little longer, as the character was so interesting. I didn't know at the time that I could have been released from my contract if I signed it, so I was afraid to sign it."
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 duped him into shaving his mustache.
In the 2001 DVD commentary, Gene reportedly said, "I told him I wanted to keep the mustache. And he said, 'Well, let me think about it, and when you come on the set, we'll discuss it.' The first day I was in England...he says, 'Well, what about the mustache?' And I said, 'Well, I don't know, I'd really like to keep it.' He says, 'If you shave your mustache, I'll shave mine.' And I said, 'Okay.'
So I went back to makeup, and we did all these things; I shaved the mustache off, and I came back on the set, and we were doing the makeup test, and I said, 'Dick! You've gotta shave your mustache off.' And he says, 'Okay.' And he took it, and he peeled it off. And he had set that up, I loved him for doing that."
13.And finally, when Katharine Hepburn worked at RKO, she famously wore jeans to set. When she returned to her dressing room after filming, she reportedly discovered her pants had been taken in a bid to make her wear a skirt. Rather than comply, she decided to return to set in her underwear until they gave back her jeans.
It wasn't long before her pants were returned to her.
Are there any other costumes you’ve heard about actors refusing to wear? Let us know in the comments!
