15 Times Actors Weren't Happy With How Their Characters Were Written
Misty Layne started as an actor and sketch comedy writer before deciding to concentrate mainly on writing. Utilizing both her love of television and film and her behind-the-scenes knowledge, she began a website reviewing films in 2013, with a focus on horror and indie media. Eventually, she began writing about all things television and film for other sites as well. Misty shares a home with five cats, a ton of books, and a fairly impressive vinyl collection.
Acting, like any job, comes with a lot of ups and downs. Sometimes storylines and filming go exactly the way the actors want, while other times things can take a turn. When it comes to how their characters are written, actors don’t always have much to say, but if they truly dislike something, they’re often willing to push back.
Sometimes an actor dislikes a single piece of dialogue, feeling like it isn’t something their character would say. Other times, actors feel certain storylines don't fit their character or might cause immense backlash. Occasionally, an actor hates everything about how their character has been written, from plot points to personality to dialogue (in fact, many actors hate the characters that made them famous).
Luckily, pushing back against a perceived bad characterization can work (though not always) and save a show from going downhill. Whatever reason an actor might dislike their character's journey, it's often valid, showing that actors can know their characters better than the show’s writers and showrunners.
Matthew Perry As Chandler On Friends
Chandler and Monica ended up together at the end of Friends season 4 and became the anti-sitcom couple fans loved. However, Friends guest star Lisa Cash told TMZ that the season 5 finale included a scene where Chandler cheated on Monica with her character, a Las Vegas hotel worker. According to Cash, the scene had already been rehearsed, but Matthew Perry felt it wasn’t right for the character (and knew fans would never forgive Chandler), so he talked to the writers, and they cut the scene.
Amber Riley As Mercedes On Glee
Amber Riley from Glee (which is officially getting a reboot) revealed during an episode of the podcast And That’s What You Really Missed that she refused to shoot a sex scene that would have seen Mercedes lose her virginity to boyfriend Sam. The script was already written, but when Brad Falchuk approached her about it, she said no. Even when he offered to change it from a sex scene to a fade-to-black situation, she still refused. She explained that it “just wasn’t something my character would’ve done,” considering Mercedes had been open about staying a virgin until she married.
William Daniels As Mr. Feeny On Boy Meets World
William Daniels spent seven seasons playing the beloved Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World, but, according to People, he almost left the show before its first episode. When he was first approached about the role, he told executive producer Michael Jacobs he didn’t want the character written as a fool for laughs because Daniels deeply respected the hard work teachers did. Jacobs reassured him that Feeny wouldn’t be. However, after the first table read, Daniels was so unhappy with Feeny’s storyline that he promptly tried to quit. Jacobs rewrote the script overnight, though, leading Daniels to stay.
Katherine Heigl As Izzie On Grey's Anatomy
Katherine Heigl starred as Izzie Stevens in the hit medical drama Grey’s Anatomy until the character abruptly left the show in its sixth season. While much has been written about why Izzie left, part of it was because Heigl disliked the material she was given to work with in one season (via HuffPost). Her disappointment with how her character was being written led her to skip submitting her work for an Emmy nomination, which the producers and writers took poorly (especially considering she had won an Emmy in 2007).
John Krasinski As Jim On The Office
In season 8 of The Office, a scene was suggested in which Jim cheated on his wife, Pam, with Cathy, the temp covering her maternity leave (via SlashFilm). The plot was that Cathy would make advances toward Jim and eventually kiss him. John Krasinski put his foot down and refused. The show’s creator argued that this plot would make fans believe Jim and Pam were going to break up, so they'd be even happier when the couple got a good ending instead. Krasinski, however, felt that showing Jim cheating would have pushed the audience away for good.
Robert Reed As Mike Brady On The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch aired for five seasons from 1969 to 1974, with Robert Reed starring as Mike Brady, the blended family's patriarch. Reed infamously hated not only the character he played (who admittedly had aspects that never made sense) but the show itself. He constantly clashed with showrunners over scripts and stories, believing them unserious and pushing for more realistic characterizations. He found his character, in particular, to be lacking realistic flaws. Reed was cut from the series finale because of a disagreement over his hatred of a storyline about a lucky hair tonic (via Parade).
Evangeline Lilly As Kate On Lost
Evangeline Lilly played Kate on the twisty sci-fi hit Lost, and once explained on The Lost Boys podcast how obnoxious she felt the character became throughout the show’s run. She thought Kate was pretty cool at the beginning, but she became more predictable over time. Additionally, Lilly didn’t love what she described as, "I felt like my character went from being autonomous—really having her own story and her own journey and her own agendas—to chasing men around the island." She became so frustrated by it that she often threw scripts across the room after reading them.
Jenna Ortega As Wednesday On Wednesday
Jenna Ortega is the face of Netflix's mega-hit Wednesday, playing Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family, but she's had issues with how the character was written, especially the dialogue she was given, and kept rewriting it without consulting the show’s writers. On the podcast Armchair Expert, she explained that several original scripts made no sense from a character perspective and included dialogue she didn’t think the character would ever say. She also disagreed with director Tim Burton’s assessment that the character should never show emotion because she didn’t want the character to lack growth and depth.
Chevy Chase famously had several issues on the set of Community, which led to his character, Pierce, leaving the show. However, while he was reportedly difficult to work with, Chase wasn’t happy with the way his character was written. He later explained in an interview that he didn’t find things funny enough and felt constrained by the writing. The show eventually killed off his character after he left.
Joseph Fiennes As Fred On The Handmaid's Tale
Joseph Fiennes played Commander Fred Waterford in The Handmaid’s Tale, a character who was, by nature, evil and predatory. However, a planned scene where Waterford rapes his wife Serena while the two are in Canada was a step too far for the character, Fiennes believed. He explained that it didn’t track for the character and refused to do it (via Entertainment Weekly). It took several long emails and a lot of pushing, but the scene was finally cut.
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