Random Stars Whose Unpopular Acting Methods Created Hugely Popular Characters (8 items)

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  (#4) Lucius Malfoy

  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part I, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter

  “I went to the set, and they had this idea of me wearing a pinstripe suit, short black-and-white hair. I was slightly horrified. He was a racist, a eugenicist. There’s no way he would cut his hair like a Muggle, or dress like a Muggle,”

  Jason Isaacs told EW in an interview. And he's totally right. He suggested pretty much everything about the character's appearance now seen in the movies: long hair, voluminous robes, and ornamented walking stick/wand sheath, to name a few. 

  It's pretty impressive that he understood the character that well, considering he was so unfamiliar with Harry Potter. He admits he didn't even realize Alan Rickman was in the first one until he watched it for research. Fortunately, he took some cues from Rickman on how to be villainous as well, deciding he'd need to go even further than Snape. Isaacs recalls:

  "Nobody does sinister like Alan Rickman. I thought, ‘If I’m going to do something, it’d better be unbelievably extreme.’”

  He succeeded. 
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  (#1) Jack Sparrow

  • Pirates of the Caribbean 5, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

  Johnny Depp was in some pretty hot water when executives first saw his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow. Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner reportedly asked if Depp's performance was more reminiscent of a drunk man or gay man, and another unnamed executive apparently called Depp and asked, "What the f*ck are you doing?" Depp responded in typical tongue-in-cheek fashion: "Well don't you know all my characters are gay?" 

  Depp still claims he was almost fired, but in the end, producers gave in and allowed Depp free reign over Jack Sparrow. It's a good thing they did: the androgynous, intoxicated Captain Jack Sparrow is now a nautical icon, one who made Disney more than a few boatloads of money. 
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  (#5) Frank Costello

  • The Departed

  In an interview with New York Magazine, Jack Nicholson revealed that he initially turned down the role of Frank Costello in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film, The Departed. If he was going to take such a role, he had some demands. First of all, he made it much bigger than it was written. Then he pretty much did whatever he wanted with it.

  He refused to wear a Red Sox hat despite the fact the character was a diehard Boston fan, and he demanded at least one sex scene for the character. His demands were met, and while old-man sex isn't anyone's favorite thing to see on-screen, he certainly created one unforgettable character... and the movie went on to win Best Picture. 
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  (#3) Michael Corleone

  • The Godfather Saga, The Godfather Part II, The Godfather Part III, The Godfather, The Godfather

  Michael Corleone was once a good man who got dragged down into the muck of his family's organization. Al Pacino knew this meant Corleone had to be quiet and understated man, but originally, the studio wanted him to be a cliché tough gangster. They were actually looking to recast Pacino at one point, calling his performance "anemic," as Pacino later told the Washington Post. Plus, they thought he was too short. 

  “I was trying to create a character who you don’t know where you’re at with him. I knew it was a tough part to pull off. Michael’s so insular, so private.”

  The studio tried to fire him three separate times, which just goes to show how executives can get things really wrong sometimes. Fortunately, Paramount realized the error of their ways when they saw the iconic scene where Michael shoots Sollozzo.
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  (#8) Fox

  • Delicatessen, Wanted

  Wanted is a fairly well-regarded film (Ebert gave it three stars), but part of what made it great was a massive change to how the story ends. When Angelina Jolie's character, Fox, discovers that the secret organization of assassins she's been working for her whole life is morally corrupt and unjust, she kills them all. Jolie knew her character, Fox, needed to die as well in order to fully put a stop to the destiny of murder, but that's not how the script was originally written.

  Jolie, however, demanded this change and hinged her participation on whether producers would agree. It's quite the gamble for a studio to make such a vital script change, particularly since Wanted was actually based on a graphic novel that ended with Fox alive. But Jolie stuck to her guns and in the end, she was right to do so.
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  (#7) Charlie Bodell

  • Peggy Sue Got Married

  In Francis Ford Coppola's 1986 Peggy Sue Got Married, Nicolas Cage played the lead, Charlie Bodell, and his voice was suuuper annoying. It was this weird, high-pitched, scratchy thing that was actually based on Pokey from The Gumby Show. Everyone, including director Francis Ford Coppola hated it, and Cage was almost dropped. He managed to convince Coppola (who also happened to be his uncle) to let him do it, and the movie received high praise.

  Roger Ebert gave it four stars, calling it one of the best movies of the year. Somehow, the voice worked. At the very least, it's unforgettable.

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