Top 20 Craziest Actor Contract Demands

Queen Latifah
No, we’re not breaking news here that Queen Latifah is some kind of vampire or immortal being. But unless she changes her current contract demands, you won’t be seeing a character she plays die in a movie any time soon. But wait, didn’t she die in “Set It Off”? Well, yes she did. And that was one of the films that prompted her to begin making this contract demand. As she explained to James Corden, Latifah realized that whenever her character died, she could be missing out on something moving forward. We gotta hand it to her. It’s a pretty smart move.

Steve McQueen
There probably aren’t many people who’ve called Steve McQueen chicken. But Paul Newman is allegedly one of them. He’s even said to have added a rather profane word after it. Newman starred alongside McQueen in “The Towering Inferno.” He reportedly said those things when he learned that his co-star was keeping count of how much dialogue each of them had in the script. But not only did McQueen count the lines, he also apparently demanded that they up the quantity he had to make it equal to Newman’s. With all of this, you may be wondering who got top billing. The studio accommodated them both by putting McQueen’s name first on the poster, but placing Newman’s slightly higher.

Julianna Margulies
There’s no denying that Julianna Margulies made the role of Alicia Florrick on “The Good Wife” her own, and we can’t imagine anyone else doing it any better. We’re sure there are those who also can’t imagine how long it took to straighten her hair every day. Yes, it’s true, Margulies’ locks are naturally curly. However, when she learned that the character was to have straight hair, she reportedly had a great idea. Rather than spend all that time straightening and maintaining it, she would wear wigs. They were made specifically for her hairline, with real human hair, and cost about $10,000 each.

Uma Thurman
Back in 2010, Uma Thurman was set to star in “Eloise in Paris”, a film based on the popular children’s book. Now, it didn’t get made, but they got far enough along in the process to have Thurman sign a contract. Some of her reported demands were very understandable - a no nudity clause and control over how her likeness was used in the promotion of products. However her dressing room demands have raised some eyebrows. And it’s not that she wanted a first-class trailer with all the accessories and creature comforts you could imagine. What caught our eye was the sentence at the end of the clause which stated: “no other cast member to receive more favorable dressing facilities”.

Mark Wahlberg
Did you know that Mark Wahlberg was originally going to portray the male lead of “Silver Linings Playbook”? So, why did Bradley Cooper end up in the role that earned him an Academy Award nomination? Well, it would appear that money played a part. Not only was Wahlberg’s going rate apparently higher than Cooper’s, but he had some pricey contract demands as well. We’re referring to the alleged stipulation that he would receive a cool $900,000 were the leading lady to drop out. Wahlberg’s reported demand is to, in essence, mitigate losses should the film’s box office suffer due to a big name leaving a project. This did happen, as Anne Hathaway was originally set to co-star.

Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson loves golf. That isn’t an outlandish or particularly wild fact. Plenty of people are huge fans of the sport, and understandably so. However, unlike most of us who can’t just take a few days off work to go golfing every week, Mr. Jackson makes it so he is contractually permitted to do so. That’s right, the man who made Ezekiel 25:17 extra famous loves golfing so much that his movie contracts have a clause allowing him to go hit the greens twice a week. Now that’s what we call proper attention to one’s work/life balance.

Dolph Lundgren
The 1987 “Masters of the Universe” movie isn’t widely regarded as having been a success upon release, though it’s since gained something of a cult following. One part of it that tends to stand out is Dolph Lundgren’s performance. He plays our hero He-Man, and has a rather strong Swedish accent. A Mattel marketing executive reportedly said: “I saw the rough cuts, I listened to Dolph Lundgren’s voice and I just about had a heart attack.” Production even brought in actors to do voice-over work. But Lundgren actually had it in his contract that he had three tries to master it before they could insert someone else’s voice.

Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez told us that “Love Don’t Cost a Thing.” But per Dannii Minogue, if you want J.Lo to perform at Top of the Pops, it’ll cost you an all white dressing room. On her podcast, Minogue reminisced about the show and an experience involving Lopez. As the story goes, she was informed that the singer was arriving soon, but would only go ahead with the performance if her dressing room was completely white. We’re not quite sure why Jenny from the Block made such a peculiar demand, but we are very curious about it!

Nicolas Cage
Those who’ve seen 1988’s “Vampire's Kiss” know that Nicolas Cage gets bitten by a bat in the film. You also probably assumed that it wasn’t a real one - and you’re right, it wasn’t. But not because that’s what Cage wanted. In fact, he reportedly argued with director Robert Bierman, demanding they use a live bat. He even had his assistant go out to try and catch one. As Cage reportedly said on the DVD commentary track, “at this time I was still very much a Method actor, and I would like to live my parts.” Thankfully, Bierman was able to convince him to go with the animatronic creature by hammering home the deadly risks that come with actual bat bites.

George Clooney
The budget for the 2013 film “Gravity” is reported to have come in at around $80 to $130 million. And while we don’t know the full breakdown, it’s been said that a sizable amount went to keeping Geroge Clooney comfortable between scenes. While some stars insist on custom trailers and dressing rooms, Clooney allegedly took things up a notch with his “Gravity” demands. He apparently had a specially-made beach hut that was said to be fully decked out with amenities. He even reportedly had a basketball court put in – hey, sometimes you just gotta shoot some hoops, right?

Vin Diesel, The Rock & Jason Statham
The “Fast & Furious” franchise features plenty of fight scenes, but some of them are more strictly negotiated than you would imagine. That’s because three of the action stars who have appeared in the series, Vin Diesel, Dawyne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham all have stipulations in their contracts that put limitations on how bad of a beating they can take on screen. Considering they’re often fighting against one another, it makes things pretty tricky. Johnson said to USA today, “It’s not always easy being an alpha. And it’s two alphas.”

Gary Busey
Gary Busey starred in the 2003 film “Quigley,”in which he played a man who was reincarnated as a pomeranian. If you haven’t heard of it, we’ll give you a pass because it wasn’t exactly well received. There’s one scene in the film that is supposed to take place in heaven, but when he arrived on set Busey demanded that they restage it. Why? Because according to Busey, he had already died and gone to heaven in real life, and he could report that there were definitely no mirrors there. So of course, all the mirrors had to be removed from the set.

Paris Hilton
Considering her high class tastes and high maintenance reputation, it will probably come as no surprise that Paris Hilton has made some outlandish rider requests in her day. When she was supposed to make a cameo appearance playing herself in the 2010 comedy flick “The Other Guys,” she allegedly made a three page list of requests which caused her to be booted from the production. The list included Grey Goose vodka and for live lobsters to be brought to her whenever she wanted them. Think there’s a chance she just didn’t want to be in the movie?

Will Smith
We know that some stars have pretty lavish trailers when they’re filming a movie, especially when they’re shooting far from home. But Will Smith really took it to the next level when he was filming “Men in Black 3” in New York City. He received a massive two story, 1,150 square foot two bedroom trailer which was valued at approximately $2 million, but that wasn’t enough. He also needed an extra trailer just for his workout equipment. Yup, that’s right, he couldn’t manage to squeeze any exercise into the first one! Not only that, he was also renting a five bedroom apartment nearby.

Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis may have taken home a Best Actor Oscar for his role as Abraham Lincoln in 2012’s biopic “Lincoln,” but it sure was a long road to get there. The actor had numerous requests on set to accommodate the fact that he wanted to be in character at all times. He allegedly didn’t break character for three whole months and requested that everyone (even director Steven Spielberg) call him Mr. Lincoln. He also forbade anyone with a British accent from talking to him because it would “throw off” his method.

Eddie Murphy
When Eddie Murphy shoots a movie, he likes to feel fresh. And that includes wearing a new pair of underwear and socks every day. That doesn’t seem too unreasonable, right? Let us clarify, we mean BRAND new, like with the tags on. He allegedly wears everything once and throws it away rather than washing and reusing it like most of us would. Let’s just say in this day and age where we’re all trying to be a bit more ecologically conscious, he might consider putting a stop to these wasteful habits!

Justin Timberlake
We get it - celebrities need their privacy and don’t want to bump into fans while they’re walking to the ice machine in their bathrobe. Ok, they probably have people for that. But Justin Timberlake allegedly took it to the next level when he requested that he have an entire floor of a hotel without any other guests on it. When he stayed at New Orleans’ Windsor Court Hotel he reportedly also asked the staff to clean his doorknobs every two hours. We can understand being a bit germaphobic, but that’s a little much!

Will Ferrell
We know Will Ferrell has a good sense of humor, but did you know that it translates to his riders as well? People don’t usually advocate making jokes in legal documents, but we can’t imagine this was anything other than something to make the lawyers laugh. When he was working on “Semi-Pro,” Ferrell asked for one rainbow on wheels, stipulating that it could be painted on canvas as well as a 15-20 foot tall fake tree and a “Janet Jackson style” headset microphone. What was this all for? Perhaps we’ll never know…

Barbra Streisand
Some requests seem so bizarre that they can’t possibly be true, but hey all rumors start somewhere! Barbra Streisand is one of the best known divas out there, and has made a lot of requests to back up her reputation. She has asked for rose petals in her toilets, designer lamps and towels, but most notably, she asked for a specific shade of toilet paper to match the color of her skin. Does such a thing even exist? Have we been missing out on colored toilet paper all these years? What does Babs know that we don’t?

Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise is known for doing his own stunts, but after you learn this factoid, you may look at his plane jumps and building climbs a little bit differently. Cruise allegedly needs a very particular type of undergarment in order to perform those death defying stunts: a thong. He requests that there be up to 50 “soft, stretchy” thongs on set when he has to do action sequences because they reportedly improve his flexibility. Hey, it kind of makes sense! Slightly less sensational is the fact that Cruise actually insisted on hiring his own screenwriter when working on 2017’s “The Mummy.” He also apparently refuses to allow his likeness to be used in video games or on action figures.