Plenty of actors tolerate wearing uncomfortable costumes for the sake of their roles. Sometimes, they probably wish they could say no — and in rare instances, they actually do.
Here are 13 onscreen looks actors refused to wear or quit their roles over:
1.
When Scarlett Johansson was doing Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Marvel was interested in Black Widow “being a shape-shifter.” In 2021, she told Fatherly, “This is a really funny thing — the look is fantastic and utilitarian. She first drives up in this beautiful car and picks up Cap, and initially in the script, it was like, she arrives in her tennis whites, with a blonde wig. It was very quickly killed.”
2.
In his 2024 Variety’s Actors on Actors interview, Paul Mescal said that when he first got the part in Gladiator II, he had “some ‘dodgy’ wig fittings.” He said, “They were big. And it wasn’t to do with — we were working with the best hair and makeup team in the world. It was just, I don’t have a head for wigs.”
3.
Amanda Seyfried passed on the role of Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy because she “was just like, ‘Ah, I don’t wanna be green. It’s just so much work.'”
4.
In his 2023 memoir Pageboy, Elliot Page said that, before coming out as trans in 2020, he turned down a “sought after” part in a book adaptation that would’ve required him to wear women’s period clothing. He said no to the role because of the negative effects it would have likely had on his mental health.
5.
Emma Watson worked with costume designer Jacqueline Durran to reimagine Belle’s iconic yellow ballgown for the live-action Beauty and the Beast. The actor was staunchly against wearing a corset.
6.
In 2024, Courtney Thorne-Smith told the podcast Still the Place, that, in a movie she filmed at 17, her 17-year-old character was scripted to sleep with an older man, then to wear “one of his button-down shirts afterwards.” However, instead of a button-down, she was allegedly given “a really sexy negligee” to wear. She felt “trapped,” and when she refused to wear it, a producer allegedly told her the crew was saying she was “being a baby.”
7.
Virginia Hey played Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan on Farscape from 1999-2002, but she “requested to leave because the make-up was making [her] very sick.”
8.
In The Wizard of Oz, Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Tin Man. The costume was made of stiff buckram fabric covered with leather. There was also a great deal of aluminum dust, which reportedly caused him to develop symptoms like aching muscles and shortness of breath. When the studio allegedly refused to believe he was actually ill, he had to get a nurse to corroborate his claims. Only 10 days into production, he wound up in the hospital for two weeks then recovered at home for a month. So, he ultimately had to drop out of the role.
9.
When Waheeda Rehman was filming the 1958 Hindi movie Solva Saal, she allegedly “was given a costume that [she] did not want to wear” for a scene where her character, Laaj, changed out of wet clothes. In 2023, she told Radio Nasha, “The director said, ‘If you are not comfortable, then don’t wear it, but when you come on the set, you should be happy.’ So when I came on the set, I wore what made me comfortable.”
10.
According to the book The Monster Movies of Universal Studios, in Werewolf of London, the monster makeup that Jack Pierce designed for actor Henry Hull (who played Dr. Wilfred Glendon) was originally more animalistic. However, Henry wanted it to be more human so that the other characters could still recognize Dr. Glendon, as the script called for.
11.
Julie Caitlin Brown played Na’Toth on Babylon 5, but she left after Season 1 because her “face was very sore from the makeup, and [she] was afraid there would be permanent damage.”
12.
Gene Hackman reportedly refused to shave his head or wear a bald cap (for the majority of his scenes) to play the famously bald Lex Luthor in Superman (1978).
13.
And finally, when Katharine Hepburn worked at RKO, she famously wore jeans to set. When she returned to her dressing room after filming, she reportedly discovered her pants had been taken in a bid to make her wear a skirt. Rather than comply, she decided to return to set in her underwear until they gave back her jeans.
Are there any other costumes you’ve heard about actors refusing to wear? Let us know in the comments!
