I think it’s safe to say that the majority of y’all reading this are not A-list Hollywood stars. And that’s OK! I’m not judging. In fact, I’m not either. But you must know that there’s a social divide between us and A-listers. Realistically, we may never attain their status, fame, or wealth in our lifetimes. The upside of that is that we’ll probably never confuse ourselves with the Messiah. I’m referring, of course, to male actors.
I remember when I first realized that popular media had conditioned me to think of only female actors as “divas.” The epiphany occurred when I was reading about George Clooney’s demands during the shooting of 2013’s Gravity, in which he played a supporting character. Whereas most actors might have just asked for memory foam pillows, Clooney demanded that the film’s production designers build him an entire garden, basketball court, and beach house. Basically, he hated driving to work so much that he built his neighborhood next to his office.
In Clooney’s case, his movie succeeded in spite of his ego, but the same can’t be said for the other divas on this list. Here are six movies that failed because of their male stars’ massive egos.
Before spending 28 months in federal prison for failing to file his income taxes, Wesley Snipes was just your average universally hated movie star. During the filming of Blade: Trinity, he refused to speak with his fellow actors out of character and even locked himself in his trailer for the duration of shooting, only agreeing to emerge for contractually obligated close-ups. Now, I respect any actor’s decision to go Method, but this was a superhero movie about a mythical vampire hunter, not The Theory of Everything. Moreover, Snipes became so dismissive of his director and castmates that he spitefully refused to open his eyes in one scene, forcing a special effects team to give him uncanny valley CGI eyes. By the end of the shoot, Snipes had stopped talking to people altogether and would only communicate via Post-it notes, as if the set of Blade: Trinity had become the Quiet Place. Anyway, Snipes’ self-centered behavior had a measurable effect on cast morale and caused his film to become the worst in the entire Blade series.
After winning an Oscar in 2005, Jamie Foxx woke up one day to discover that his humility had left his body. In addition to demanding his own private jet during the filming of Miami Vice, Foxx suddenly declared that he was afraid of boats and refused to film any scenes with them … on the set of Miami Vice. The entire concept of the show and, by extension, the movie, is predicated on the very existence and non-frightening nature of boats. Ultimately, Foxx’s behavior caused enough headaches on set to affect production and contribute to the movie’s underperformance at the box office.
I know there’s a lot of goodwill towards Tom Cruise right now because he pulled a Lady Gaga and dove from the top of the Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony, but come on. He’s not perfect! When he was filming The Mummy, he wanted so badly to position himself as the center of the Universal Monsters franchise (hmm, I’m sensing a pattern) that he started butting heads with nearly everyone on set. In the process, he forgot to make an actual movie, and The Mummy became a three-minute-long action scene preceded by two hours of Tom Cruise talking about sand.
It’s an unfortunate fact of life that people must work to earn money. That said, Top Gun star Val Kilmer hates working so much that he had the entire script of The Island of Dr. Moreau changed so that he would have a chiller work week. However, this decision caused one person to lose their job and Marlon Brando to lose his mind. This movie, which is better off decomposing in whatever forgotten basement contains the unreleased footage of Batgirl, is best known for a scene in which Brando wears a salad bowl for a hat.
This movie is most famous for being the site of Christian Bale’s cruel and unhinged outburst at an on-set cinematographer for walking in front of him. The nerve!! An audio recording of the meltdown went viral at the time. But Bale’s temper wasn’t what tanked the movie; it was his ego. Determined to recenter his character – and, perhaps, himself – as humankind’s Messiah, Bale demanded numerous script changes throughout production. He was accused by many coworkers of single handedly ruining the entire movie with his overly serious attitude. Did he think that this movie about salty robots was going to cure cancer?
Dwayne the Rock Johnson’s massive ego is legendary at this point. By the end of the Fast and the Furious franchise, he actually had a contract stating that he wasn’t allowed to lose any fights on screen. Imagine being so sensitive to other people’s judgment that you can’t even pretend to fail. That said, the Rock’s ego caused even more problems when it came to his DC superhero film Black Adam. In an attempt to make his character the star of the DC universe, the Rock employed shady tactics to cause other DC movies like Shazam! Fury of the Gods to tank. This had the unforeseen effect of sullying his character’s comic book origins, thus alienating his potential fans and affecting Black Adam’s storytelling. Said one grumpy Black Adam insider: “[The Rock] is one of the few people who always thinks he’s the most important person in any situation or room.” But not important enough: In addition to being critically reviled, Black Adam didn’t make enough profit to earn a sequel.
