5 Actors Who Refused Major Roles

August 25, 2015 By Theresa Carrion Leave a Comment

The movie industry is filled with this kind of stories, but we chose the most interesting 5 actors who refused major roles. For some of them the timing was bad, while others simply didn’t feel invested enough in the script. Whether they deeply regretted it later, only they can know. Accepting and refusing roles can go either way for actors. You can strike gold and get your hands on the role of that will consecrate you and bring you buckets of money. Or you can get a Golden Raspberry Awards Nomination. You can’t know from the beginning, so you have to take a leap of faith and hope for the best.

5. Leonardo Dicaprio – “Boogie Nights”

Back in the 90s Leonardo Dicaprio wasn’t very famous yet. But his luck turned and he was put face to face with the biggest decision of his life: he had to choose between playing Jack Dawson in James Cameron’s “Titanic” or Dirk Diggler in Paul Thoman Anderson’s “Boogie Nights”. You already know what he chose. No one could now say he didn’t do the wise thing. “Titanic” instantly brought him in the limelight and he was suddenly overwhelmed with requests for new roles. However, in 2010 Dicaprio admitted he regretted not working with Anderson, calling the 90s movie the only film he wished he had made.

4. Charlie Hunnam – “50 Shades of Grey”

Hunnam actually said yes to playing Christian Grey in “50 shades of Grey”, but he withdrew from the role only a few weeks after he was cast. According to the “Sons of Anarchy” star, the timing was bad and all he wanted to do by turning the role down was avoid a nervous breakdown. At the moment, Hunnam was caught between filming for Guillermo del Toro’s “Crimson Peak” and shooting for “Sons for Anarchy”, so he felt he had bitten off more than he could chew.

3. Chris Pratt – “Guardians of the Galaxy”

Did you shiver in terror when you read that as well? It appears Chris Pratt had some serious second thoughts before going in for auditions. Last year he confessed to Esquire magazine why he hesitated. According to Pratt, he was doubting his acting skills after a bad experience on “G.I. Joe” auditions, when the director didn’t pay him much attention. So he was feeling a bit under the weather and thought he’d skip embarrassing himself again for “Guardians of the Galaxy”. Lucky for us, he plucked up the courage, killed it in the auditions and got cast as Star Lord.

2. Rachel McAdams – “The Devil Wears Prada”

We’re all a bit angry at her for refusing to play alongside queen Meryl Streep herself and saying yes to “True Detective” season two. “The Devil Wears Prada” is not the only high profile movie she said “thanks, but no thanks” to. She turned down “Mission Impossible 3” and “Casino Royale” as well. If your eyebrow is raised by now, let’s see what McAdams had to say in her defense. Back in 2007 she told Elle magazine that she values passion above everything else. Since she didn’t feel invested in any of the roles that were offered to her, she preferred to take the back seat instead of just doing movies for the sake of doing movies.

1. Christina Applegate – “Legally Blonde”

You might’ve already spotted the similarities between Elle Woods from “Legally Blonde” and Kelly Bundy from “Married… With Children”. This is what held Christina Applegate back, ultimately driving her to refuse the role that later went to Reese Whitherspoon. After 1997, when the Bundy family was off the air, Applegate had her pick of the litter, but she turned down Elle Woods, in what she now calls a stupid move. Applegate confessed she regrets her decision and her fear of being stuck in the same role time and time again.

Image sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

5 Celebrity Pranks That Went Wrong

August 24, 2015 By Anne Burwell Leave a Comment

If you’ve ever been pranked by your friends, you know it’s a good laugh. You get really scared believing someone irreversibly damaged your car, they laugh their heads off and then you feel the sweet relief of finding out it was all only a joke. That’s the scenario the TV show “Punk’D” had in mind. But not everything always went according to plan. As you’ll see in these 5 celebrity pranks that went wrong, whether they were being filmed or not, pranks can be very unpredictable and can take the “prankee” by complete surprise. How would you have reacted if you were in the shoes of these celebrities?

5. Zach Braff Punches a kid on Punk’d

Ashton Kutcher’s MTV show was all about making fun of rich people and taping it all so we can all get a good laugh out of it. They even managed to get Justin Timberlake and Kanye West freak out because of false reasons. But when they set out to prank Zach Braff, no saw this coming. Donald Faison, Braff’s BFF from “Scrubs” and from real life, thought it would be neat to trick his friend into thinking his brand new $100,000 Porsche was destroyed with spray paint. When the two of them got out of a shop and Braff saw the actor kids damaging his precious car, he chased after a twelve year old and started pummeling him. The hidden camera men ran to the kid’s aid. Needless to say, the fighting scene never aired on Punk’d.

4. The set of “Titanic” was slipped PCP

To this day it remains a mystery who was the prankster who had the bright idea to lace the lobster chowder for dinner that night with phencyclidine, also known as PCP or angel dust. More than fifty people on the crew were rushed to the emergency room. Bill Paxton remembers that he originally intended to eat Italian food alone in his trailer but changed his mind and joined the others for chowder. He said that after fifteen minutes of eating, some of the crew were in tears, others were laughing and a few were throwing up. Paxton didn’t experience any of this, but something even worse: he got so paranoid all he wanted to do was breath in a paper bag.

3. Leonardo Dicaprio was tricked into getting ill

It all happened on the set of “Wolf of Wall Street”, where Jonah Hill was waiting for the right moment to prank Dicaprio. His long waiting paid off in the end. Towards the last scenes their two characters are eating sushi when it strikes them that their journey together is about to end. Hill was supposed to have the last morsel of sushi, but he left the honor to Dicaprio, who took that last bite for around seventy times. Apparently, it took Leo that many takes to get the perfect sushi bite on film. By the end, he was feeling so ill after eating so much raw fish, he threw up on Hill’s shoes. No, just kidding, he didn’t do that, but he should’ve.

2. Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross are the Devil

Back in 2009, Andrew Sachs, a British actor, couldn’t participate as a guest on Brand’s radio show. So the latter, together with his co-host, Jonathan Ross, thought to leave some prank calls on Sachs’ voicemail in which they claimed Russel had a love affair with Sachs’ granddaughter, Georgina. The two pranksters didn’t shy away from offering juicy details on their calls. The two presenters’ idea of a joke attracted the wrath of the public. Over 37,500 complaints flooded BBC, while Brand and Ross had to pay a 150,000 pound fine. As to Georgina, she had to suffer the most. Her grandfather still won’t talk to her to this day and she even got disinvited to her grandma’s 80th birthday.

1. Mel Gibson’s pranks

Besides being a renowned actor, Gibson is also known among his fellow coworkers for the pranks he used to pull on set. When he was filming “Forever Young” he showed up at Jamie Lee Curtis’ trailer wearing a hockey mask and pretending to be a murderer with a knife. Gibson sent Helen Hunt a frozen rat as a gift on the set of “What women want”. To illustrate exactly how much of a lunatic he is, here’s what he did to Nancy Meyers. He started a fake report about a madman running around the studio, printing memos and posting them here and there. After panic was somehow induced among the crew members, he dressed as the lunatic and attacked Meyers in her office. She started screaming and even stabbed Gibson with a pencil when she thought she was actually being attacked by a murderer.

Image sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

4 Badass Real People Played by Leonardo DiCaprio

January 15, 2014 By Fred Mitchell Leave a Comment

You know Leonardo DiCaprio is this generation’s blazing gun and shooting star, as since Titanic, the man proved more than once that he can play a dramatic character at the art level. There are some people who also say that basically Leo is playing the same persona over and over again, in all his movies, you know, the guy that gets seduced by the promises of rampant capitalism, and gives us a bite, over and over again, of the same bitter cookie that represent the drama of the American dream. Perhaps these commentators are right and Leo is stuck in the same role with a different director, but to narrow his acting career to a few stereotypes is just like saying that Samuel L. Jackson plays only badass characters. Which is true. And we hope he sticks to them until the end of time. Because Samuel is badass.

But we divert. Leonardo DiCaprio can play whatever role he wants, even if it’s the same. But the topic of today is the four badass real people played by Leonardo DiCaprio, because these particular roles added yet another stone to the foundation of Leo’s career, which can pride itself with a very recent Golden Globe award for the character of real person Jordan Belfort. So let’s take a look back in history and reminiscence on the other badass people that got onto the silver screen and to world wide fame grace to Leo’s acting talents.

1. Frank Abaganale Jr. – Catch me if you can (2002)

Mr. Frank Abagnale Jr. gave headaches and nightmares to the authorities back in the sixties, as he was a genius criminal mastermind and such a charming presence, the law enforcement just couldn’t keep him in jail. Forger, impersonator, trickster, hoaxer, you name it, he assumed identities and he could have faked anything that would serve his purposes. He escaped from police custody twice and by 21, he was the con artist du jour and du monde. Now, as you probably know, he is a consultant with authorities and whomever is interested in safety and security strategies. Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for the Golden Globes Awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. And the movie is awesome.

2. Howard Hughes – The Aviator (2004)

We believe it’s not the case to explain you in detail who was Howard Hughes, but in all fairness, he is the most badass real people played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Hughes was larger than life and in 71 years he managed to do things other people would do in five lives. This American historical figure is beyond monumental and in honesty, the movie we know as the Aviator was pretty badass too back in the day. Maybe you don’t believe in the validity of the 5 Oscars, but the movie scored them nonetheless, but it is a Scorsese – DiCaprio happy match that will prove extremely valuable in the future.

3. J. Edgar Hoover – J Edgar (2011)

Yep, Leonardo seems to be quite peckish when it comes to choosing badass real characters to bring back to life on the silver screen. You will say that this movie ranked low in IMDB stars, but we have not only another great historical American figure, but we also have a Golden Globe Nomination for Leonardo for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. So maybe some disagree with Hoover’s political visions, some may even disagree with this particular movie, but as we approach our final destination, we can’t dismiss the fact that Leo really knows how to pick his lottery tickets.

4. Jordan Belfort – The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Nominated for 5 Oscar Awards (and if you didn’t see Leo’s Golden Globe Award acceptation speech, it’s a fun thing to watch), the movie itself sky rocks. But Jordan Belfort is the fourth badass real people played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Mr. Belfort, well… he is quite the character. You know what? Here is a short biography of this ex – stockbroker turned motivational speaker and since we all know this is the type of “rise and fall” movie we won’t spoil the fun of those who didn’t see it yet. But go see it.

So these are the four badass real people played by Leonardo DiCaprio and let’s have one thing clear: he played a lot of other badass fictional characters too, and we say only this: Blood Diamond. Or Shutter Island. Or Inception. Or… Calvin Candie.