"There Was No Humor In It, And It Was Just So, So Horribly Offensive" — 14 Lines Actors Flat-Out Refused To Say

"There was no humor in it, and it was just so, so horribly offensive."

We've written before about actors who mocked or absolutely hated their TV and movie roles, but what about the lines actors despised so deeply, they flat-out refused to say them?

Paramount+

We thought we'd round up some of our favourite examples of actors who really, really wanted to change (or fully remove) lines from a script.

1. Jenna Ortega decided not to say "oh my god, I'm freaking out over a dress, I literally hate myself" in Wednesday.

Netflix

It was one of many lines the actor chose to leave out when playing the iconic character, but it's the one she specifically named in a Netflix Q&A. "And I was blown away because that sounded like… It was just a bunch of little things like that", the actor said. "Where I felt like we were able to avoid a lot of dialogue in an attempt to make her sound human".

Here she is talking about it:

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2. Patrick Warburton said he wouldn't take part in an episode of Family Guy if a "horribly offensive" line stayed in.

Michael S. Schwartz/Fox / Via Getty Images

"This has only happened once in 20 years of being on the show — the episode was so offensive I can't repeat it now. It had to do with Christ on the cross but there was no humor in it, and it was just so, so horribly offensive. It wasn't a Joe line, but I said, 'Guys, I can't participate in this episode if that line is in it. It's a personal thing'", the actor told Digital Spy.

He also said he thinks the show crossed the line "a number of times," though they respected his decision with that particular episode.

3. Robert Downey Jr. didn't want his character to conclude The Avengers with the line, "what's next?".

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The actor was supposed to wake up at the conclusion of The Avengers and say, "What's next?", but Downey Jr. didn't like the line, and asked writer Joss Whedon for something "snappier". That's why his final line became "have you ever tried shawarma?"

Here's the line:

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4. Crispin Glover originally had lines in Charlie's Angels, but he refused to say any of them.

Columbia Pictures

The Thin Man was actually originally a speaking role, but Cripsin Glover didn't like his character's lines, so he asked for them to be removed from the script. "The dialogue was just expositional", he told The Guardian.

The film's director and producer agreed to make the role silent.

Here he is delivering his non-lines:

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5. Meryl Streep's iconic line, "Everybody wants to be us" was originally "Everybody wants to be me" in The Devil Wears Prada.

20th Century Studios

Okay, okay, so we don't know if the actor refused to say the line — but she did alter it in a table read, leading to one of the most iconic quotes of all time.

I mean, this is perfection:

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6. Robert Reed refused to say the words "smells like strawberry heaven" in The Brady Bunch.

ABC

In season four, Carol Brady and Alice, the family's housekeeper, had been cooking strawberry jam. Robert's character, Mike, was meant to say "it smells like strawberry heaven in here", but the actor refused to say the line because he had read that the berries weren't meant to give off a scent when cooked, the New York Post said.

Series creator Sherwood Schwartz cooked strawberries in front of the actor to prove they do, in fact, have a smell, but Redford still refused to say the line. Eventually, he agreed to say "It looks like strawberry heaven in here", though the line that made it to the final edit was "I do believe I've died and gone to strawberry heaven."

7. Tom Payne didn't want his character to support the killing of Negan in The Walking Dead.

AMC

Paul "Jesus" Rovia was a peace-loving character in the show, so Tom Payne didn't deliver the scripted line "yeah, we will" very enthusiastically when agreeing to Negan's death. The line was later cut from the show.

"I told them at the time, 'I'm not gonna lie. Like, I can't lie on camera because you'll be able to tell.' And I spent the whole season being against war and against all this kind of stuff, and as much as my character would support Maggie, I felt like it was a bit of a weird thing for him to do. I couldn't do it truthfully as an actor", he said during a panel.

Watch the video here (it starts around 34:48):

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8. Ian Wright, a former Arsenal footballer, refused to say that Tottenham "are a great side" on Ted Lasso.

Apple TV +

Co-star, Phil Dunster, shared the story. "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', the actor told hosts of the podcast Dish.

"He was like, 'I can't go back to north London if I said that', Phil Dunster added.

Look, you can't say he's not committed:

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9. Jane Fonda didn't feel comfortable saying "Jesus Christ" as an exclamation in Grace and Frankie.

Netflix

The actress is devoutly Christian, so she didn't want to read the scripted line on the show. Marta Kauffman, a co-creator of the show, said "We've had little things, like Jane didn't feel comfortable saying — honestly, it was 'Jesus Christ.' Jane didn't feel comfortable saying, 'Jesus Christ.'"

"When [the actors] have an issue, it's not that they're being divas. It's not that they're being self-important. They have a real issue", she added.

10. Alan Rickman edited the script of Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves to avoid reading its "terrible" lines.

Warner Bros. Pictures

The actor hated the original script, telling The Times that he asked his friends  Ruby Wax and Peter Barnes to edit it with him in his local Pizza Express. 

"I said, 'Will you have a look at this script because it's terrible, and I need some good lines.' So he did, and, you know, with kind of pizza and bacon and egg going all over the script", the actor shared.

The changes were clearly worth it:

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11. Arnold Schwarzenegger almost refused to say "I'll be back" in The Terminator; he originally wanted to go with "I will be back".

Orion Pictures

In a Netflix documentary about Schwarzenegger's life, James Cameron, the director of the film, revealed that he disagreed with the actor about the line. "The line is, 'I'll come back.' It wasn't meant to be like a big moment at all. It was literally meant to be, on its face, 'No problem, I'll come back.' For some reason, Arnold didn't say, 'I'll come back.' I said, 'Well, just say 'I'll be back.' Keep it simple'", the director said.

Schwarzenegger himself added that he wanted to change the line to "I will be back" in order to sound more machine-like. But Cameron fought back: "[Cameron] says, 'Are you the writer?'" And I said, 'no', and he said, 'Well, don't tell me how to f***ing write.' It became the most quoted movie line, I think, in the history of motion pictures. So this just shows to you who was right and who was wrong", Schwarzenegger added.

I'm just glad it worked out the way it did:

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12. Kathy Bates refused to read lines in which her character explicitly prayed to Satan in American Horror Story.

FX

In season eight of the show, the actor was cast as a Satanist. She played the role, but refused to read any dialogue in which she explicitly prayed to Satan. 

"I was quite serious about it because I'm a two-time cancer survivor and I'm not gonna screw around with that! It's bad enough I have to say 'hail Satan' a couple of times. I know it's entertainment, but I just didn't want to do it", she told Entertainment Weekly.

It's certainly an *intense* role:

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13. James Cagney flat-out refused to say "I'm your baby, ain't I?" in Sinners' Holiday.

Warner Bros. Pictures

"There was a line in the show where I was supposed to be crying on my mother's breast... [The line] was 'I'm your baby, ain't I?' I refused to say it. Adolfi said 'I'm going to tell Zanuck.' I said, 'I don't give a shit what you tell him, I'm not going to say that line'", the actor said. Well, then. 

14. Julia Roberts hated paraphrasing Rita Hayworth's "They go to bed with Gilda, they wake up with me" in Notting Hill.

Universal Pictures

Alright, so she didn't flat-out refuse to say the paraphrased line, but she really, really didn't like it. "I hate to say anything negative about what Richard wrote, because he's a genius, but I hated saying that line," Roberts said. "To me, it was nails on a chalkboard. I don't really believe any of that." 

I mean, I love the scene:

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Do you think we left our any great examples? Let us know in the comments below!