13 TV & movie storylines so intense, they almost made the actors quit

As viewers, we’re all painfully aware of how chilling the classic 1980 horror film, The Shining, is. But what we often don’t hear about is how haunting the role was for those in the film. For Shelley Duvall, who memorably played the wife to Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance, it was a role that was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting — during filming, she actually suffered from exhaustion, as well as dehydration from all of the crying her character did. She even began to lose her hair in real life. And the scene where Wendy tries to defend herself with a baseball bat? It holds a spot in the Guiness Book of World Records for the most takes, because the actors were asked to shoot it a whopping 127 times. Nicholson has said he’s never seen an actor have a tougher job than Duvall was tasked with when she took on the role of Wendy. 

There’s no denying wrestler turned TV personality-slash-actor John Cena is an intimidating presence in his own right. The guy is like one gigantic, walking muscle! That doesn’t mean he doesn’t get spooked, though. When he played Danny Fisher in 2009’s 12 Rounds, Cena was handed a script that included repelling down the side of a building and then perilously dangling at the end of the rope in mid-air. To which his initial response was something along the lines of ‘Nope, nopety nope, nooooope.’ Apparently, the big guy is petrified of heights. In the DVD extras, he admitted he was so uncomfortable with the scene that he almost decided to give up the role. 

If you’ve ever wondered whether or not the intensity of fight scenes in films ever spills over to the cast, you can lay that curiosity to rest. In Rocky IV, not only did it happen, but it happened in a way that created an atmosphere so volatile on set that Carl Weathers actually did leave the set… at least for a little while. During one of the scenes in which Dolph Lundgren (“Ivan Drago”) threw Weathers (“Apollo Creed”) across the boxing ring, Weathers felt like Lundgren had taken it too far. He stormed off and refused to resume filming for four days. Fortunately, Sylvester Stallone — aka Rocky himself — saved the day by convincing Weathers to come back. 

I can’t imagine having been in Tippi Hedren’s shoes when she filmed the Alfred Hitchcock classic The Birds. Having watched the film as a kid (unbeknownst to my parents), I was psychologically scarred by the idea of an avian attack. And to this day, Hedren isn’t shy about discussing how harrowing it was to work with her famed director. The specific scene in The Birds that nearly made Hedren give up acting was the final scene, when her character was attacked — for which Hitchcock had live sea gulls attached to her by elastic bands and other live birds flung at her by prop men. On the final day of filming that scene, a bird scratched her eye and she broke down in tears. 

It’s hard to imagine funnyman Mike Myers getting so riled up about something on set that he would threaten to walk off, but such was the case when he played the title character in 1992’s Wayne’s World. The problem? During the now iconic sing-along car scene, Myers insisted the actors sing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” When the studio balked at the pricetag attached to procuring the rights to use the rock anthem and instead suggested a more budget-friendly song by Guns ‘N Roses, Myers said he’d bail if they didn’t go with “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Happily, he won. 

File this instance under things that would make you want to wring someone’s neck. There’s a memorable scene in the 1989 movie The Abyss during which Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio’s character, Lindsey, is forcefully given CPR by Ed Harris’ character, Bud. In the scene, Mastrantonio is slammed, slapped, pushed and more against a cold, hard floor — so you can imagine how pissed she was when she found out after the fact that a camera had broken mid-scene, and they would have to reshoot it. She walked off, but returned and stuck it out for a brutal five-minute scene. 

When you hear stories like the one I’m about to share, it makes you feel kinda happy the early Fantastic Four films were critically panned. Apparently, director Tim Story and Jessica Alba — who played Sue, aka the Invisible Woman — most decidedly did not get along on set. According to Alba, Story was full of absurd (not to mention extremely sexist demands). The final straw came in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer when the director told her to keep her facial expression flat during a crying scene so she would still look “pretty.” Yikes. 

Another example of an actor clashing with their director on set to a nearly detrimental degree is the case of Faye Dunaway and director Roman Polanski on the set of the 1974 film Chinatown. Brace yourself for what you’re about to hear, because it’s pretty horrible and likely illegal too. Dunaway wanted to pull out of the film following the scene when her character, Evelyn Mulwray, is surprised by Jack Nicholson’s character, J.J. Gittes, in her car. So what was the big deal? Well, Polanski reportedly refused to give Dunaway a bathroom break for the duration of filming the scene. Rumor has it she had to go so badly that she peed in a cup — which she promptly threw in Polanski’s face. For his part, Polanski insists Dunaway was “very difficult.”

Given that Daisy Ridley was plucked from relative obscurity to play the role of Rey in 2015’s highly hyped Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there’s no question the actress was facing an insane amount of pressure going into filming. So it probably didn’t help when, on the very first day of shooting, director J.J. Abrams passed her a note describing her performance as “wooden.” Ouch! Definitely not the words you want to hear from your new boss. While Ridley confesses to almost having a panic attack there in the middle of the desert and considering walking off, she stuck it out and has since earned rave reviews for the role. 

It can’t be easy going into a role when it’s been made abundantly clear you weren’t the first choice for the part — such was the case for Gene Hackman in the 1971 film The French Connection. It was bad enough that director William Friedkin pulled no punches about the fact he wasn’t thrilled to have settled for Hackman to start with, but things got even harder for Hackman when he had to wear a Santa suit and tackle someone… 27 stinkin’ times. It was in the midst of shooting that scene he first threatened to leave the film, although he has often said since he almost quit many times after it too. 

It wasn’t just one scene that almost made Sir Ian McKellen walk away from his now iconic role as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and, later, Hobbit films. It was every scene. You see, due to the fact that Gandalf had to appear to tower over the hobbits which he shared essentially every scene with, he was relegated to acting against a green screen almost exclusively. The isolation started to get to McKellen early in production, and he reportedly considered leaving due to it. Fortunately for everyone (who could have played Gandalf better?!), director Peter Jackson convinced McKellen to stay.

It’s crazy to think it’s been 15 year since the first Fast and the Furious film came out, and even crazier still to think that quintessential tough girl Michelle Rodriguez almost dropped the role of badass gearhead, Letty Ortiz. In the original script, they had Letty betray Dom (played by Vin Diesel) by falling for undercover cop Brian (played by Paul Walker). But Rodriguez felt so strongly that doing so would be entirely out of character for Letty that she made a stand, telling producers she’d bail on the role if that’s the way it stayed written. Ultimately, they saw things her way and a true blockbuster love story for the ages was born.