Five Times Actors Got Sued for Quitting Movies!

Celebrity courtDecember 31, 2021

The casting of movies cannot be easy by any standards. The casting of movies often needs actors and actresses to sign up for roles. However, the roles often get chopped and changed. And because of the changing scenario, it may cause disputes between the producers and actors and lead to courtrooms. Here are some instances when actors got sued because of a breach of contract and were dragged to courts to resolve matters.

Whoopi Goldberg

What if your star drops out, or there is a replacement? If the star does not want to be part of a film, they can excuse out of the film, can they?

Theodore Rex, 1996, film was one of the most expensive movies to go from straight to video format. Goldberg did not want to be part of the film unless a lawsuit threatened her with serious consequences.

Goldberg was initially a part of the film but thought better of it and considered backing out of the project. Richard Gilbert Abramson sued her with a $20 million lawsuit that Goldberg never wanted to contest. The respective parties reached a settlement that turned out to be $7 million for Goldberg and up the amount from her original deal.

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando, the handsome and charismatic actor, was said to be part of the Egyptian film. He was supposed to play Edmund Purdom’s role finally took up in the 1954 movie. Brando, however, only got through a rehearsal.

Brando had other ideas, and his psychiatrist conveyed to the producer, 20th Century Fox, that he was too sick to appear in the film. Fox sued Brando for sabotaging the deal.

Fox won, as studios called the shots in that era. Brando had to cough up $75,000 for the delay that led to the loss of the producers of The Egyptian. We guess that he paid the amount as he was also supposed to be part of another Fox film, Desiree.

Robert Redford

Blue, the little-heard film of 1968 production, saw Terence Stamp play the titular role that Robert Redford initially played.

Redford, however, dropped out of the movie before the films began shooting. Thus forcing Paramount Pictures to sue him. Redford had to face a lawsuit for breaching his contract. This was why he did not want to be part of Paramount’s next film, Rosemary’s Baby.

However, things went to become hunky-dory for him and the studio. After he won the Best Picture Oscar and signed the dotted line for the film Ordinary People in 1980.

Mario Lanza

Mario Lanza was supposed to play the role of Prince Karl in the 1954 film The Student Prince. However, just when things reached the final stage, he quit the film. The studio, MGM, not to take things lying down, sued him for $5 million.

Yet Lanza did not ever have to pay up. Instead, they reached a settlement where Lanza would lend his voice for the character of Prince Karl. The actor, replacing him with Edmund Purdom, had to settle for Lanza’s voice dubbing. The film did not reach the completion stage, so we don’t know what came off the deal.

John Travolta

In 1997, John Travolta was in his prime and was the king of the box office. At that time, he was to do a film called The Double, with director Roman Polanski directing him.

Travolta replaced Anthony Hopkins in the movie and appeared in 1996. In the wake of Hopkins, Travolta followed and walked out of the movie himself. Mandalay Entertainment and Liteoffer Ltd. duly sued him, and they claimed that the actor had asked to change the screenplay against their wishes.

Travolta was supposed to get $17 million for the film, but his lawyer told him that he had not signed on the dotted line on the contract and was waiting for the screenplay changes before signing up for the same. However, the film never got made and eventually made the road towards settling out of the court. However, the details were not made public, and people never got to know more about what happened behind the scenes of the film, The Double.

Well, let’s say there have been many a slip between the contract and the final making of the film. However, things finally settled between the two parties.