"It's F**king Problematic" — 14 Scenes And Storylines Actors Absolutely Refused To Film

Most of these actually make a lot of sense.

1. John Krasinski straight-up said "no" to letting his character Jim cheat on Jenna Fischer's character, Pam, with Cathy on The Office.

Laura Cavanaugh / FilmMagic / NBC

One episode of The Office was meant to include a scene in which Jim cheats on Pam with Cathy. But Krasinski was having none of it. 

In his book Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office, he wrote that “My feeling is there is a threshold with which you can push our audience. They are so dedicated. We have shown such great respect to them. But there’s a moment where if you push them too far, they’ll never come back. And I think that if you show Jim cheating, they’ll never come back.”

Sorry, but who would risk this???

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2. Matthew Perry didn't like a Friends storyline where Chandler became a regular at a strip club because he loved their sandwiches.

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Speaking on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, the actor said that he "called up and said, 'let's not do this one'." And, to be fair to the show creators, the storyline was written out. 

Watch the video here:

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3. Anna Kendrick refused to let her character, Beca, kiss Theo, a music exec in Pitch Perfect 3.

Universal Pictures

Speaking to Harper's Bazaar UK, the actor said that she didn't want to show the "fucking problematic" complication in a professional relationship between a recent grad and a high-level music executive. Acca-appropriate!!!!

If we're honest, the most important relationship in those movies was the one we all built with this song:

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4. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt refused to let his character, Adam, kiss Anna Kendrick's character Katherine in 50/50.

Lionsgate

In the film, Adam (Gordon-Levitt's character) is given a cancer diagnosis and a 50/50 chance of survival. He develops feelings for Katherine, a trainee therapist, at the hospital. At the end of the film, his tumour has been successfully removed, and he's getting ready for a date with Katherine. She smiles and says "now what?" before the scene fades to black. 

Summit Entertainment apparently wanted the two to kiss at the end of the film, which writer and cancer survivor Will Reiser disagreed with because he didn't want the movie to be about the romance. Eventually, Anna Kendrick says Gordon-Levitt stood up to the execs: "The studio wanted to see us kiss at the end, actually. We were thinking about just trying it as an option... Joe very wisely stood up and said, 'If we give it to them as an option, they will use it.' So we just decided not to do it, because it really just didn't feel right," she told MTV.

Here the pair are in the film:

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5. Morgan Freeman refused to let his character Red play the harmonica in Shawshank Redemption.

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Speaking to The Daily News, Freeman said that writer and director Frank Darabont originally wanted Red to play the harmonica to get Andy's attention when they arrive on the beach of Zihuatanejo (the same harmonica that Andy had given to him in prison earlier on).

Freeman wasn't on board with the choice. “Frank thought I should be blowing that harmonica that Andy gave me. And I refused,” he said, describing the storyline as “sort of asinine, sort of cliched, sort of unnecessary and overkill." 

This was enough of a callback for me, TBH:

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6. Viggo Mortensen refused to make a cameo as Aragorn in the Hobbit movies.

New Line Cinema

The actor is an avid Tolkien fan, so he recognised how much of a reach it'd be for the Lord of the Rings character to appear in the prequels. When asked by The Guardian if he was tempted by the offer, Mortensen said "No. Before they started shooting, back in 2008, one of the producers did ask if I would be interested. I said, 'You do know, don't you, that Aragorn isn't in The Hobbit? That there is a 60-year gap between the books?'"

I mean, he had impressed us enough in Lord of the Rings by that point:

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7. Michelle Rodriguez didn't let her character Letty cheat on Dominic (Vin Diesel) in The Fast And The Furious.

Universal Pictures

Speaking to The Daily Beast, Michelle Rodriguez said that she didn't think it'd be right for Letty to cheat on Dominic with Paul Walker's character Brian.

"It was more of a Point Break idea,” she said. “They just followed the format without thinking about the reality of it. Is it realistic for a Latin girl who’s with the alpha-est of the alpha males to cheat on him with the cute boy? I had to put my foot down.”

“I basically cried and said, I’m going to quit and, ‘Don’t sue me, please — I’m sorry, but I can’t do this in front of millions of people,’” she added.

She had so many great moments in the movie that I understand why she didn't feel she needed THAT storyline:

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8. Jessica Alba said "absolutely not" to swimming with a tiger shark in Into the Blue.

Sony Pictures Releasing

It's a pretty reasonable response to the demand if you ask us. Speaking on Hot Ones, the actor said that "For some reason, they caught a wild tiger shark. ... And they were like, 'It's in this cage, so it's docile!' And I'm like, 'It's a fucking tiger shark.' And it was like a seven-foot tiger shark."

"I was on Flipper, we had fucking rubber dolphins, you can do this with a goddamn rubber dolphin, you don't need a real-ass shark in the middle of the fucking ocean with chum in it. And maybe I lost my mind, and maybe I yelled all of that," she added. 

You can watch the whole video here:

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9. Isla Fisher refused to shoot a nude scene in Wedding Crashers because she thought it'd make her comic character, Gloria, less funny.

New Line Cinema

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, the actor said "It is not like I have a problem with nudity, but I didn't think there was anything funny about seeing a woman's nipple. I feel like if you have a female comic character and then you see her nipples, then she is no longer funny, which is clearly wrong, but that was my theory, and that's why I didn't want to do it." The crew ended up using a body double for the job.

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The movie was the first comedy role she went for after advice from husband Sacha Baron-Cohen:

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10. Emma Watson allegedly left This Is The End after Channing Tatum danced in her face wearing nothin' but a G-string.

Sony Pictures Releasing

Channing Tatum allegedly "decided to do some of his breakdancing in front of [Emma Watson] but alas he was in nothing but a thong", one source said. after that, the actor seemed a little put off by the project.

Seth Rogan told GQ that the incident wasn't acrimonious. "I mean, I don't look back on that and think, 'How dare she do that?' But it was not some terrible ending to our relationship. She came back the next day to say goodbye. She helped promote the film." And he later Tweeted to explain that the scene diverged from the script. "The narrative that she was in some way uncool or unprofessional is complete bullshit," he said.

pic.twitter.com/ZJV0iM22sn

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) March 30, 2021

Twitter: @Sethrogen

11. Ben Affleck refused to wear a Yankees cap, even as his character Nick in Gone Girl.

20th Century Studios / Getty Images

It's pretty simple; the actor is a huge Boston Red Sox fan, so he flat-out refused to wear a New York Yankees cap in the film. Speaking to The New York Times, the actor said that he and director David Fincher got into "a legitimate fight" over the cap -- "a one-man riot against the Yankees."

"I said, 'David, I love you, I would do anything for you,'" Affleck recalled telling Fincher. "'But I will not wear a Yankees hat. I just can't. I can't wear it because it's going to become a thing... I will never hear the end of it. I can't do it and I couldn't put it on my head," he said. He ended up wearing a New York Mets cap instead.

At least he's a dedicated man:

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12. In a similar vein, Ian Wright (a former Arsenal footballer) refused to let his character say that Tottenham "are a great side" on Ted Lasso.

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"It was in the script that [Ian's character] says, 'You know, it’s gonna be a tough game for Richmond because Tottenham are a great side.' And [Ian] was like, 'I can't say it. I’m just not going to say it. I'm sorry.' And he was really lovely. He was just like, 'You're going to have to change it because I can't say that', Wright's co-star Phil Dunster told hosts of the podcast Dish.

It's an impressive lesson in hateration:

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13. Joaquin Phoenix chose not to rub mud into a woman's eyes when playing Jesus Christ in Mary Magdalene.

Universal Pictures

Though this was how the healing miracle was performed in the Bible, Phoenix says that it just didn't feel right on set. “I knew about that scene from the Bible, but I guess I had never really considered it,” the actor told CNN.

“When I got there, I thought: I’m not going to rub dirt in her eyes. Who the f*!# would do that? It doesn’t make any sense. That is a horrible introduction to seeing.” Instead, he licked his thumb in the movie and used that for the scene.

“It freed me up, in some ways, to discover what is truthful in the moment,” he said. “That moment is not so much about a real miracle. It’s about someone who has been dismissed by society finally being seen, embraced, and encouraged to join the broader community. To me, that is a miracle. There’s something profoundly beautiful about that sentiment.”  

14. Thandiwe Newton said "no, thanks" to kissing Gerard Butler for RocknRolla for, well, bacterial reasons.

Warner Bros.

"Gerry was very unwell indeed. So I wouldn't kiss him. Guy [the director] had to improvise. I don't know how he coped with those problems but it ended up being one of the most brilliant scenes", Newton said of the non-kiss. Fair enough, really.

This was romantic enough for me, TBF:

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Do you know any other TV and movie scenes actors flat-out refused to film? Let us know in the comments below!