Hilarious Acts of Hollywood Sabotage
No one would accuse Hollywood of being rife with level-headed, even-tempered, morally upstanding types. As a result, it’s a rare film set that’s above a little sabotage. These are mostly sad BoJack Horseman-y outmaneuverings, but occasionally, they’re just hilarious.
The Studio Did Everything They Could to Not Cast Jeff Daniels in ‘Dumb and Dumber’
In the early ‘90s, Jeff Daniels was known exclusively as a dramatic actor, so when Jim Carrey and the Farrelly Brothers declared him their choice to play Dumb to Carrey’s Dumber, the studio freaked. They decided to offer him the insultingly low salary of $50,000 — in comparison, Carrey got $7 million — sure that he would turn it down. When he didn’t, they spent the first week filming only his scenes without Carrey, expecting to have to replace him. Of course, they didn’t have to, because Daniels somehow didn’t let all that hostility stop him from delivering a truly toilet-busting performance.
The Entire ‘Titanic’ Set Got Dosed
Listen, drugging people without their consent is never funny, unless it’s James Cameron shouting, “There’s something in me! Get it out!” while a conga line forms around him. That’s what happened after a “psychedelic clam chowder” contaminated with PCP was served to the cast and crew of Titanic in 1996, sending about 80 people to the hospital. To this day, we don’t know who did it. “Of course, the operating theory was that I was such a psycho maniac that (the perpetrator was) trying to get back at me,” Cameron has said, but he also suggested a frame job of the catering team, which is the most intriguing thing that could happen on a craft services table.
Tyrin Turner Intentionally Chewed ‘Belly’s Scenery (and a Banana)
After he appeared in a Hype Williams music video, Tyrin Turner says Williams offered him the lead role in Belly, so when the role eventually went to DMX and Turner was downgraded to the role of rival dealer Big Head Rico, he was pissed. “‘I’m gon’ fuck this movie up,’” he recalled thinking. “‘I’ma put on some glasses, I’ma be the worst country snitching dude that I could ever be.'” Unfortunately, he did too good of a bad job, and his banana-smacking performance is one of the most iconic parts of the movie.
Bruce Willis Boated Through ‘Game of Thrones’
Game of Thrones was shot on location in many grand European vistas, which meant they had to share those vistas with, you know, the people who owned them. For example, during the filming of the legendary fight scene between Oberyn Tyrell and Gregor Clegane, the crew had to ask the owners of the yachts parked on the Croatian coast to move, and one person — identified by multiple people on the set as Bruce Willis — refused. In fact, he started circling the amphitheater, apparently just to ruin the shot. At least he kept the Viper alive for another few precious hours.
The Mafia Tried to Take Down ‘The Godfather’
Publicly, Joseph Colombo was the head of the Italian-American Civil Rights League, an organization dedicated to busting the myth that all Italians were mob bosses. Privately, he was totally a mob boss, and he didn’t like the fact that Francis Ford Coppola was making a movie that perpetuated stereotypes about Italians as mobsters, which, again, was exactly what he was. Coincidentally, the film’s producers soon began receiving threats, being followed and finding their car windows shot out. In a subsequent but completely unrelated meeting with Colombo, they found out he just wanted them to drop the word “mafia” from the script. That was it. All that trouble for a word that was only spoken once anyway.
It was a win-win: The producers got to keep their script almost entirely intact, and nobody had any idea The Godfather is about the mafia.