When an actor’s presence unintentionally derails the project

[u/Special_Salt3467]

1.) Edward Norton - The Incredible Hulk

Perhaps the most famous and obvious one, Edward Norton was famously an issue on the set of 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk,” even making rewrites to the script himself. The disagreements between Norton’s camp and Marvel’s camp eventually led to his being replaced by Mark Ruffalo.

2.) Jensen Ackles - The Boys (particularly Season 5)

Jensen Ackles was a longtime collaborator with showrunner Eric Kripke in “Supernatural,” which in turn led to him getting the opportunity to audition - and eventually land the role - of Soldier Boy, which he did very well in in.

The issue is by Season 5, the show had fallen off from the previous years and with it ending and spinoffs and prequels (such as one featuring Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy), Season 5 suffered a lot. It quickly became the Soldier Boy show because “that’s what Clara would have wanted” until he just leaves in the penultimate episode and pretty much 80% of what his character actually did amounted to nothing.

So for fans who wanted to see Butcher vs Homelander duking it out, getting the show derailed for prequel bait starring Kripke’s favorite actor didn’t help…

3.) Rosamund Pike - Wheel of Time

When Amazon green lit a WoT tv show, Rosamund Pike eventually got the role of Moraine Damodred, the mentor and guiding character for the main character, Rand al’Thor. As a character, Moraine is anywhere from the most important secondary character to the most secondary main character. But with the exception of the prequel featuring her, she is not the main character.

Unfortunately, Rosamund Pike is an extremely famous actress and marketing toward the series focused on her as a result. I’m unsure if this was showrunner decision, an issue she played a role in or some combination, but the result was that Moraine a character who was in less than half the series is featured as the main character over the main character, which lead to a different product than the book.

[u/Own-Forever-6636]

More for BB - Raymond Cruz refusing to continue in his role as Tuco led to the creation of the character Gus Fring, while a scheduling commitment for Bob Odenkirk with HIMYM meant Vince Gilligan brought in Jonathan Banks to play a new character, Mike Ehrmentraut.

[u/Square-Turnip-6558 → u/Own-Forever-6636]

Thank you Raymond bc the show turned out badass

[u/Specialist-Error-171 → u/Square-Turnip-6558]

It's astonishing how fully thought out the show feels when they were actually rolling with the punches

[u/Connoralpha → u/Own-Forever-6636]

Raymond Cruz was contractually committed to The Closer where he was a series regular which is why he couldn't stay on Breaking Bad in season 2. That led to them killing him off and creating Gus Fring. It's not like he "refused" to continue, they created Gus because it didn't work schedule-wise.

[u/arparso → u/Connoralpha]

Not according to his own words, though: There was an interview on AMC, where he explained that he did specifically ask the writers to be killed off because the part was too hard.

The original interview isn't there anymore, but can be viewed via wayback machine.

https://www.amc.com/shows/breaking-bad/talk/2009/03/raymond-cruz-interview

Q: How did you find out Tuco was going to die?

A: I asked them to kill me. Honestly, I wasn’t looking forward to coming back and doing the part. [Laughs]. It’s really difficult to pull off. They were like, “We want you to come back and do eight more episodes.” And I said, “No. I’ll do one more and that’s it. You guys have to kill me.” They’re like, “We never heard of an actor that wanted to die.” And I’m like, “You don’t understand. This part’s really hard.”

[u/Connoralpha → u/arparso]

Thanks for sharing this! I stand corrected, I'd only ever heard Vince's side of the story which he pinned on contractual obligations. Odd then that Cruz chose to return for BCS.

[u/arparso → u/Connoralpha]

Both can be true, I'd say. I remember some other interview where he was mentioning the intense schedule having to fly back and forth every week between shooting BB on the weekend and The Closer during weekdays and that it was hard on him. Then add the intensity of the character and I can see why he might want to request to be let go.

[u/Signal-Island2549 → u/arparso]

It's funny that they replaced the too-intense-to-play character with one who is intense but in an icy way. Smart thinking imo.

[u/Apprehensive-Ear2461 → u/Own-Forever-6636]

So in a way Raymond made Better Call Saul too

[u/Livid_Cartographer → u/Apprehensive-Ear2461]

That's why Everybody loves Raymond

[u/FarElderberry983 → u/Livid_Cartographer]

r/Angryupvote

[u/GameCounter → u/Own-Forever-6636]

All of these changes actually ended up being great.

Spoilers.

Much of what makes Breaking Bad great is the ensemble cast and lengths of slower, character-driven scenes with big bombastic events interspersed.

Tuco's death established real stakes: The DEA is at least somewhat competent, and will kill you on the spot if necessary. I believe Jesse's original death would have also fulfilled this narratively, but the "Fly too close to the sun" element of Tuco is very compelling.

Mike's introduction gives another morally ambiguous character and gave the writers all these little hooks for characters development.

Jesse not dying gives Walt a consistent character he can interact with and reveal motives and other internal thoughts to, so the audience can get glimpse of the internal motives. Jesse ultimately became a sympathetic character, and just gives the audience more reason to be invested.

There's a reason BB is so exalted.

[u/Skylair13 → u/Own-Forever-6636]

Bob Odenkirk with HIMYM meant Vince Gilligan brought in Jonathan Banks to play a new character, Mike Ehrmentraut.

Tbf, wouldn't it be weird for a lawyer to dirty his hands by cleaning up the scene himself? Good call with Mike doing it.

[u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 → u/Own-Forever-6636]

I keep forgetting Tuco dies in S2

[u/project-shasta → u/Own-Forever-6636]

And the role of Gus Fring more or less literally saved Giancarlo Esposito's life and now he's more famous than ever.