Actors Who Thought They Were Making A Different Movie

Have you ever started filming a movie you thought was a comedy, but it was actually a horror film? Probably not because, chances are, you're not a famous actor (but if it is you, Mr. Murray, humanity doesn't deserve you). But believe it or not, this kind of stuff actually does happen to movie stars. Actors who thought they were making different films (or at least, different kinds of films) are, well, people in Stephen King movies, mostly. And then there are actors whose roles were much different than they thought they'd be, including such big names as Charlton Heston, Halle Berry, and the whole freaking cast of The Usual Suspects.

It's surprising, but it happens more than you might think. Sure, actors could pay attention to what they're doing, or give a flying muffin about more than just a paycheck, but then we wouldn't have these hilarious stories. Here are some knee-slapping instances of actors coming out the back end of a film with no idea what the world was about to see.

The Thin Red Line is based on a novel about the Battle of Mount Austen, revolving around the character Corporal Fife (played by Adrien Brody in the movie). Brody made the reasonable assumption that he was the main character of the film, since Fife was the main character of the novel, but it turned out he was wrong.

Since he was an up-and-comer at the time, many of his scenes were cut from the final product, highlighting the real stars of the film George Clooney, John Travolta, Nick Nolte, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, and Sean Penn, even though none of them were, you know, the protagonist. Brody, unfortunately, was unaware of the cuts, but learned when he viewed the premiere with his parents whom he had brought along, brimming with pride. And then, presumably, deflated with crippling sadness. 

Garfield: The Movie was written by Joel Cohen, not to be confused with Joel Coen of the much celebrated sibling filmmakers. Someone should have cleared that up for Bill Murray, because he thought it was that Joel Coen. Therefore, he only read a couple pages of the script before accepting the role, trusting Joel Coen implicitly.

But when he started recording his lines, he was ultimately forced to ask, "Who the hell cut this thing? Who did this? What the f*ck was Coen thinking?" so they explained that it was the other Joel Cohen.

And then Murray did the sequel, presumably because vacation houses don't buy themselves. 

Gore Vidal doctored up the screenplay for Ben-Hur a bit by injecting just a pinch of homoerotic subtext. In fact, he told director William Wyler as much. Wyler agreed to keep it in the film, but told Vidal not to tell Heston, who would "fall apart" if he knew.

Heston disputed the claim in his memoir, to which Vidal essentially said, "Surprise, surprise." The subtle romance takes place between Heston's Judah Ben-Hur and his "friend" turned enemy Messala, who ultimately opposes Ben-Hur because he's a spurned lover. Hell hath no fury like that of a Roman scorned. 

Danny Lloyd played Danny Torrance in The Shining as a five-year-old. He also didn't know he was making a horror movie. This is mostly because he was told he wasn't, and children will believe chairs are spaghetti if you tell it to them with confidence.

Director Stanley Kubrick actually had the child's best interest at heart (which is shocking, given his well-documented insanity), so in order to protect little Danny from trauma, he not only told him they were making a drama, but he took steps to keep Danny out of scary situations. When Wendy is running from Jack with Danny in her arms, she's actually carrying a dummy, so the boy wouldn't have to be in a scary scene. That's borderline heartwarming! 

If you don't know the name of the man who wore the Darth Vader costume in the original Star Wars trilogy (and good for you, you're probably good at basketball and talking to human people), it's David Prowse. Prowse was excited about the role until he learned that he wasn't actually voicing Vader.

Frustrated, he decided to start tweaking his lines, since he knew his reading wouldn't make it in anyway. And thus "Asteroids do not concern me, I need a ship," was transformed into the far more brilliant "Hemorrhoids do not concern me, I need a sh*t." 

Frankie Laine was a singer who recorded music for a number of famous westerns like 3:10 to Yuma and Rawhide, so Mel Brooks thought he'd be a perfect fit for the theme of Blazing Saddles. Frankie Laine agreed to take the gig, and was so moved by his performance that he cried after recording it.

This is a strange reaction, considering the movie's a preposterous satire of the Western genre, but Laine apparently had no idea: "I thought I was doing a song for another High Noon, and I gave it my best dramatic reading ... When I saw wacky things happening on the screen, like a guy punching a horse, I sunk down into my seat with embarrassment."

It's no secret that Jared Leto wasn't pleased with the final cut of Suicide Squad. He felt there was enough Joker footage for an entire film on the infamous character, but in the end he was on screen for around 10 minutes. Fans weren't the only ones that felt shortchanged —Leto said he felt like he'd been "tricked."

He took a deep dive into the character, really committed, and was not rewarded for it at all. He's still under contract, though, and if The Batman does indeed come to fruition, he'll likely play a large role. Although, it looks like Deathstroke is going to be the villain there, so who knows. 

When Piper Laurie received the script for Carrie, she was not impressed. "I read [the script] and I thought it was a comedy-- no, no, no," she corrects, "I thought it was stupid." Her husband at the time told her that she misunderstood it; that director Brian De Palma had a comedic approach, so she reread it and recognized it for what it was: satire. 

Well, it's neither really. But when you hear her talk about it, which you can in the above video, she initially sounds a little ridiculous, but ultimately charming. In the end, she really enjoyed both making the movie, as well as the final product. And she almost won an Oscar!

So, to be fair, the three main characters of The Blair Witch Project knew they were making a horror film, but that was about it. Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael Williams were sent out into the woods with a video camera for a week, told to argue with each other, interview randos (who turned out to be actors placed by the directors), and just kind of act like they were lost on a hike (which they actually were a couple times).

What's more, the  directors started to mess with the young stars as they grew colder and more sleep deprived over the course of the week by sneaking along behind them and making ominous, spooky noises. Sometimes, there's a fine line between directing and just being a d*ck. 

Bryan Singer kept his entire cast in the dark on The Usual Suspects, so that going into the premiere, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio Del Toro, Stephen Baldwin, and Kevin Pollak all thought they were Keyser Soze. Byrne was so pissed, he apparently dragged Singer outside and screamed at him.

If he wasn't deserving of it then, it's at least punishment for a couple of bad X-Men movies, Superman Returns, Jack the Giant Slayer, and some other truly unsavory things he's rumored to have done.