History Main / WagTheDirector

** ''Film/{{The Incredible Hulk|2008}}'': Norton is [[JustForFun/OneOfUs a fan of the Hulk]], and did a rewrite that brought the film closer in line to the comics. The film was better received than the first film. However, Norton's reputation as being difficult to work with was allegedly one of the reasons he was not asked to reprise his role for ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''. Though the more commonly known and accepted one was simply a conflicting work schedule - couple that with how well [[Creator/MarkRuffalo his replacement]] was received, and Norton's chances of reprising the role are slim-to-none.

** He requested that he and Creator/PaulNewman have the exact same amount of lines in ''Film/TheToweringInferno''. Also he insisted that he not appear until 43 minutes in, by which point Newman would have used up a lot of his lines. Creator/WilliamHolden attempted to - demanding he be billed first. But as he'd been in a few flops lately, he gets third billing.

** On ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'', he and Arthur Penn quarreled constantly during filming, as the star questioned almost every one of the director's choices. As a result, the rest of the cast often spent hours waiting for them to settle their differences. One major bone of contention was Penn's insistence that they add a scene in which Bonnie and Clyde pretend to be dead. Beatty insisted the idea was ridiculously pretentious, but Creator/RobertTowne tried to write it anyway. The writer soon realized that Beatty was right, but cautioned him to avoid a confrontation on the matter. In his opinion, Penn was only holding onto the idea out of insecurity - he couldn't admit he was wrong. After a few weeks of filming bolstered Penn's confidence, Towne was sure he'd drop the idea, which is exactly what happened.

* Creator/BrandonLee requested that one character be removed from ''Film/TheCrow'' - an Asian character from the comic who tries to steal Eric's powers - as he felt it was a stereotype.

* It's been rumored that the reason that ''The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest'' wasn't quite as good as the two previous ''Literature/MillenniumSeries'' adaptations was that the director was basically letting Noomi Rapace call the shots when it came to her character - a character that she'd grown to resent so much that she's joked about spending the last day of filming vomiting every last trace of Lizbeth Salander out of her.

* Creator/SusanSarandon objected to how her sex scene with Creator/CatherineDeneuve in ''Film/TheHunger'' originally played out. Originally, Deneuve gave Sarandon something to drink, then Sarandon becomes light-headed and loses her inhibitions. Sarandon didn't like that angle - she stated that it didn't matter if you were straight or gay, no one would [[SlippingAMickey need to be drugged]] to be talked into [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer sleeping with Catherine Deneuve]]!

** He wanted to do a "baseball-type signal" to Creator/EmilioEstevez in a scene where he had to show him where to park a car. Alex Cox - a notorious sports-hater - refused the suggestion. According to Cox on the DVDCommentary, Stanton lost his temper:

* Creator/RobertPattinson did this in ''Film/{{Twilight}}'', having said he purposefully attempted to portray Edward as a creepy, obsessed nutjob because that was how he saw the character in reading the book. Pattinson has been frank about his bafflement with the franchise, explicitly stating in interviews that he finds the books disturbingly personal private fantasies and Edward a repressed, self-hating ball of issues who really shouldn't be a romantic hero. He mostly auditioned for the movie so he could have a chance to hit on Creator/KristenStewart, which is actually pretty appropriate for the character he played.
* Creator/MatthewGoode, who played Veidt in the ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' movie, was unhappy with the character's backstory as presented in the comic, and came up with his own - that Veidt gave up his family fortune because his parents were Nazi war profiteers. It's barely touched on in the movie, though.

** Creator/HollyMarieCombs later detailed times where the execs tried to force her to wear push-up bras - often by having the wardrobe department not give her any other options. She responded by just going braless.
** Creator/RoseMcGowan was fed up of Paige being written as someone who ReallyGetsAround. After one episode where there was just one scene of her on the couch with an extra, she went to the writers and said "Paige isn't a ho" - resulting in Paige getting romance arcs in the next three seasons.

* In ''Series/TheOffice'', Jon Krasinski refused to go along with the producers' idea that he would give into temptation with Cathy in the 8th season. According to the show's producer Brent Forrester, when they further pursued the idea of Jim and Pam's marriage falling apart in Season 9, test audiences hated it, so they didn't continue.

*** A positive example - on the first season episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E13AngelOne Angel One]]", Creator/PatrickStewart sought to have the script changed to remove the sexist elements. He was overruled, resulting in a thoroughly despised episode.

*** Creator/NanaVisitor, who played Kira Nerys, was horrified when the writers began to overtly ShipTease her character with [[FoeYayShipping Dukat]], and protested to the producers that there was no way that the character would ever develop romantic feelings for somebody who had personally overseen the brutal occupation and genocide of her culture. In her own words: "I remember Ira [Steven Behr, the showrunner] and I on opposite ends of that ops table yelling at each other". As a result, the plotline was abandoned. Most of the fandom thinks that this was on balance a good thing. The episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E17WrongsDarkerThanDeathOrNight Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night]]" was the result of Visitor's campaigning - with the producers teasing Visitor that "no, ''you'' aren't having a relationship with Dukat, [[spoiler:''but your mother did'']]."[[note]]she was blackmailed into becoming his comfort woman during the Occupation in exchange for ensuring her family's safety - which, given Kira's BlackAndWhiteMorality, made her a collaborator[[/note]] Visitor had the last laugh, though - the script originally called for Kira to forgive [[spoiler:her mother]] for what she had done, but Visitor insisted that Kira would not be so sympathetic that soon after finding out ("Maybe she could be sympathetic about the subject in 20 years."), and she got her wish.

* If Wrestling/LunaVachon is to be believed, Wrestling/{{Sable}} allegedly talked her way out of dropping the Women's Championship to her multiple times - sometimes just claiming she'd forgotten to bring the belt with her.
* A positive example with Wrestling/SashaBanks and Wrestling/{{Bayley}} - who lobbied for Women's Tag Team Championships so hard that Vince eventually gave in.
* Wrestling/EveTorres was originally going to drop the Divas' Championship to Kaitlyn at the 2013 ''Royal Rumble'', but she pushed for it to happen earlier at the 15th anniversary of Raw - which was in Kaitlyn's hometown of Houston. She also claims that the creative team just wanted to [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome remove her without explanation]] (as she'd be retiring once she dropped the title), but she insisted on having a segment where she quits in kayfabe.

** When Connie Mack's family announced their Athletics club was for sale in 1954, the buyers came down to a group promising to keep the club in Philadelphia - and Arnold Johnson, a former business partner of Webb's who owned Yankee Stadium's lease and the ballpark in Kansas City that housed one of the Yankee's minor league clubs. The owners rejected the Philadelphia group's bid and approved Johnson's, who proceeded to move the club to KC and give Webb's construction company the contract to expand the KC stadium, while the Yankees moved the minor league team to Denver with no complaint. The Yankees and Athletics proceeded to work so many player deals between each other, which mostly benefited the Yankees, that the Athletics would be frequently referred to as a Yankees farm club.

** When baseball finally relented to expansion in 1960 to end the threat of the Continental League's formation, the original deal was to give New York a new NL club - the Mets - and the other three expansion teams to cities that didn't have major league teams. However, one of the new American League clubs went to Los Angeles despite them already having the Dodgers. This was because Topping raised such a snit that, since the Mets were "invading" the Yankees' territory, the American League deserved a Los Angeles club, while Webb wanted his construction company to be able to build a ballpark in LA (he had been denied the contract to build the Dodgers' stadium).

* While recording lines for the game ''Star Trek: VideoGame/JudgmentRites'', William Shatner's Canadian pronunciation of the word "sabotage" - "sabba-taj" - riled the director, who suggested he pronounce it as "sa-bo-tawj". Shatner refused, saying, "I don't say 'sabotage'. ''You'' say 'sabotage'. I say 'sabotaaage'." He quickly followed up with, "Please don't tell me how to do it. It sickens me." The recording got passed around and the lines became a meme of the early internet. Sometimes the quote is misattributed to a recording for an episode of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'', from twenty years earlier, in which Shatner ''also'' pronounces "sabotage" distinctively, as he does even in the original series itself.

* Discussed in [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony's]] review of ''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} Breaking Dawn Part 2]]'', where he theorizes that Creator/MichaelSheen's over the top performance was the result of a bet he had with the other actors to see how far he could go before the director would try and stop him.

** Creator/LawrenceTierney guest starred as Don Brodka in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E11MargeBeNotProud Marge Be Not Proud]]". Then showrunner Josh Weinstein, called Tierney's appearance "the craziest guest star experience we ever had". In addition to yelling at and intimidating employees of the show, Tierney made unreasonable requests such as abandoning his distinctive voice to do the part in a southern accent and refusing to perform lines if he did not "get the jokes" (for example, he originally refused to do the answering machine gag because he couldn't understand [[RuleOfFunny why Brodka was having a one sided conversation with a machine]], forcing Weinstein to improvise dialog from Marge at the other end of the call to play off of him which got deleted afterwards).

*** On the other hand, Visitor knew when to pick her battles: she and Creator/ReneAuberjonois both opposed the Kira/Odo romance, believing the two characters were better off as friends, but neither of them ultimately stood in the way of them getting together.

And yes, there are occasions when this trope actually ''[[Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad improves]]'' the production. However, this trope differs from the typical creative (and collaborative) process by involving a [[ItsAllAboutMe self-centered]] actor overruling the director.

And yes, there are occasions when this trope actually ''improves'' the production. However, this trope differs from the typical creative (and collaborative) process by involving a [[ItsAllAboutMe self-centered]] actor overruling the director.

* Creator/SigourneyWeaver went ballistic when she learned that writer/director Vincent Ward wanted to end the film with another character "exorcising" the alien parasite from Ripley and committing suicide; she had declined to return to the franchise several times, only relenting when executives promised her that Ripley would be killed off. Because of this the scene was changed to Ripley making a HeroicSacrifice instead.

* Creator/SigourneyWeaver went ballistic when she learned that writer/director Vincent Ward wanted to end the film with a character "exorcising" the alien parasite from Ripley and committing suicide; she had declined to return to the franchise several times, only relenting when executives promised her that Ripley would be killed off. Because of this the scene was changed to Ripley making a HeroicSacrifice instead.

* Creator/SigourneyWeaver went ballistic when she learned that writer/director Vincent Ward wanted to end the film with a monk "exorcising" the alien parasite from Ripley and committing suicide; she had declined to return to the franchise several times, only relenting when executives promised her that Ripley would be killed off on top of a big, juicy check. Because of this the scene was changed to Ripley making a HeroicSacrifice instead.

* A positive example from ''Film/MrsDoubtfire''. In an earlier draft of the screenplay, Daniel and Miranda remarried in the end, but Creator/RobinWilliams and Creator/SallyField both objected on the grounds that it would give kids of divorced parents false hope that their parents would get back together. So the ending was altered so Daniel and Miranda stay divorced but are AmicableExes. Interestingly, this is more a case of 'Wag the Executives' since Creator/ChrisColumbus actually agreed with them and resisted attempts to change the ending.

** On the set of ''Film/TheScore'', Brando's final film, he constantly called Creator/FrankOz "[[Franchise/TheMuppets Miss Piggy]]". Pretty soon Oz refused to speak to Brando, and co-star Creator/RobertDeNiro had to step in and direct all of the scenes with Brando. Like ''Apocalypse Now'' and various other examples of this trope, it might have improved the film.

** Creator/DustinHoffman wasn't sure about starring in a cartoon when he was approached to guest-star in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E19LisasSubstitute Lisa's Substitute]]", so he demanded to be credited under pseudonym.

** Jose Canseco appeared as one of the ringers Mr. Burns hires for the nuclear plant's softball team in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E17HomerAtTheBat Homer at the Bat]]". He disliked the character model they came up with for him, and both he and his wife at the time objected to the original reason he misses the final game (waking up late in bed with Edna Krabappel), and Canseco basically intimidated the showrunners into changing his character's appearance and part in the show.

* While filming ''Film/CopOut'', Creator/BruceWillis explicitly ignored Kevin Smith's instructions/direction and generally behaved like a dick, to the point that Smith (who previously idolised Willis) said he would never work with him again and would never work with anybody [[BrokenPedestal he'd idolised in his youth either]].

* Creator/BruceWillis and [[ExecutiveMeddling producer Joel Silver]] took over production on ''Film/TheLastBoyScout'', making changes to Creator/ShaneBlack's script and making Creator/TonyScott film many scenes that he didn't like under threat of being fired from production.
* ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard'':
** Creator/BruceWillis apparently did a lot of this during the film, greatly frustrating the director and some of the other actors. On the other hand, according to Creator/KevinSmith (who had a role in the movie, and told the story in one of his "Evening" shows) it's probably for the better: [[ExecutiveMeddling the studio]] apparently wanted a lot more low-brow humor, goofiness, and other un-''Die-Hard'' things, and weren't afraid to make the story suffer for it, which Willis refused to allow. When they tried to tell him he couldn't make the changes he wanted, he abruptly finished the argument by asking, [[ArmorPiercingQuestion "So who's your second choice to play John McClane?"]]
** Interestingly, Willis' usual dub voice actor in Spain, Ramón Langa (and a popular actor in the country in his own right) also threatened to walk out if the Spanish version of ''Live Free or Die Hard'' did not include profanity (the English version was [[ExecutiveMeddling neutered]] in post-production to get a PG-13 rating).

* During ''Film/CopOut'', Creator/BruceWillis explicitly ignored Kevin Smith's instructions/direction and generally behaved like a dick, to the point that Smith (who previously idolised Willis) said he would never work with him again and would never work with anybody [[BrokenPedestal he'd idolised in his youth either]].

* Creator/CharltonHeston was so unhappy with the script for ''Film/BeneathThePlanetOfTheApes'' that not only did he demand less screen time, but he insisted that [[spoiler:his character be killed off so he couldn't come back for any sequels and also [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun explode Earth to end the series there]]. Obviously, he didn't succeed in the last bit.]]

* As mentioned in Film below, Orson Welles' infamous breakdown (the recording of which is informally titled "Frozen Peas" or "Yes, Always") while recording what he considers to be poorly written narration for a series of Findus TV advertisements. [[http://ubu.wfmu.org/sound/365/03/365-Days-Project-03-01-welles-orson-frozen-peas-spot.mp3 Listen to it here]].

* Wrestling/EveTorres was originally going to drop the Divas' Championship to Kaitlyn at the 2013 ''Royal Rumble'', but she pushed for it to happen earlier at the 15th anniversary of Raw - which was in Kaitlyn's hometown of Houston. She also claims that the creative team just wanted to BrotherChuck her (as she'd be retiring once she dropped the title), but she insisted on having a segment where she quits in kayfabe.

** Brando showed up for the filming of ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' drunk and fat, though Coppola had been specified a wiry, muscular character. He hadn't read the book upon which it was based, instead insisting that Creator/FrancisFordCoppola ''read it to him'' on the set. He demanded changes to the script (most infamously, he demanded his character's name be changed from Kurtz to Leighley since he thought Kurtz wasn't an appropriate name for an American Colonel, and later demanded it be changed ''back'' to Kurtz when he finally read the book) only allowed himself to be filmed in shadows, and ultimately improvised most of his own rambling lines. All this '''after''' receiving his $1 million advance.

** Creator/HollyMarieCombs later detailed times where the execs tried to force her to wear [[BuxomIsBetter push-up bras]] - often by having the wardrobe department not give her any other options. She responded by just going braless.

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': According to ''Trek'' legend, Creator/KateMulgrew's reaction to discovering a [[BuxomIsBetter padded bra]] sewn into her uniform was to ''tear it out with her bare hands'', march into the writer's room, and slam it on the table, flatly informing them "I'm ''not'' wearing this."[[note]]Purportedly, she and Creator/NanaVisitor (who played a career soldier and initially wore a very masculine uniform) were the only two female regulars in all of Berman-era ''Trek'' who went without "enhancement".[[/note]] [[http://startrekdom.blogspot.ca/2007/06/trekdom-interviews-robert-picardo.html When asked about the story]], Creator/RobertPicardo wasn't able to corroborate it but conceded that "[[SilkHidingSteel it sounds like something Kate would say]]".

* In ''Film/FoundFootage3D'', Derek, the co-writer and male lead of ''[[ShowWithinAShow Spectre of Death 3D]]'' who is already the subject of much HostilityOnTheSet due to his ongoing breakup with his wife and co-star Amy, increasingly takes over the film's production as it goes on. One of the main signs of his growing ego is that he tries to rewrite the film so that his character survives, even though the film they're making, being a {{found footage film|s}}, is supposed to be an in-universe ApocalypticLog that [[KillEmAll ends with everybody dead]] (the "first rule of found footage").

* In ''Film/FoundFootage3D'', Derek, the co-writer and male lead of ''[[ShowWithinAShow Spectre of Death 3D]]'' who is already the subject of much HostilityOnTheSet due to his ongoing breakup with his wife and co-star Amy, increasingly takes over the film's production as it goes on. One of the main signs of his growing ego is that he tries to rewrite the film so that his character survives, even though the film they're making, being a {{found footage film|s}}, is supposed to be an in-universe ApocalypticLog that [[KillEmAll ended with everybody dead]] (the "first rule of found footage").

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': According to her voice actor Creator/TawnyNewsome, Mariner was not to appear at all onboard Deep Space Nine in the episode "Hear All, Trust Nothing", instead being stuck in her own B-plot onboard the ''Cerritos''. Being a big ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' fan, Tawny begged the crew to let Mariner hang out on there and was surprised when they relented, giving her a scene with Kira and Qwark at the end of the episode.