Random Wesley Snipes Has Proven To Be One Of Hollywood's Most Eccentric Stars (13 items)

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  (#1) He Didn't Pay His Taxes For Three Years

  Snipes refused to pay his taxes between 1999 and 2001, and in 2008 he was convicted of three misdemeanor counts of tax fraud and sentenced to spend three years at a McKean Federal Correctional Institution.

  But that's not all. He didn't just refuse to pay his taxes; he also filed fraudulent tax forms with the IRS to recover some $11.3 million that he paid the government between 1996 and 1997.
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  (#2) He Might Have Choked A Director

  Everything was crazy on the set of Blade: Trinity, and things apparently got so bananas that Snipes once tried to choke out the film's director, David S. Goyer. 

  Goyer told Uproxx, "That was the most personally and professionally difficult and painful thing I've ever been through," and said he's never spoken to Snipes again.
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  (#3) He Led Police On A High-Speed Chase

  In 1994, Snipes was in Florida visiting his family on a break from filming Drop Zone. He decided to take his motorcycle down the highway at a cool 120 mph, and ended up leading police on a 30 mile, three-county chase. During the incident, he allegedly tossed a bag from his jacket that may or may not have contained marijuana.

  After police caught up to him, Snipes asked, "Don’t you want to know who I am?" He was arrested, charged with reckless driving, and sentenced to 80 hours of community service.
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  (#4) He Acted As Michael Jackson's Bodyguard

  Snipes wasn't professional muscle, but he served as M.J.'s bodyguard on the set of the video for "Bad." According to Snipes, Jackson was nervous while filming in Harlem because people wouldn't stop screaming at him:

  Some of them loved him. Some of them hated him. So you hear them literally yelling out, "Michael Jackson! We love you! Oh my God - I want to have your baby." And you have other people going, "You ain't bleep! Michael Jackson, you ain't never coming back to the 'hood!"... So Michael turned to me and was like, "Are you scared?" I was like, "Yo, Mike, what are you talking about?" "Are you scared? Really, are you scared?" I was like, "No, Mike, this is Harlem, baby! This is where we grew up. They love you. Really, you're scared?" He was like, "A little."

  Snipes said he loved the experience, and called Jackson "a wonderful talent."
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  (#5) He Supposedly Gets Super High On Set

  According to Patton Oswalt - one of Snipes's many co-stars on Blade: Trinity - Snipes displayed some unusual on-set behavior:

  Wesley [Snipes] was just f*cking crazy in a hilarious way. He wouldn’t come out of his trailer, and he would smoke weed all day. Which is fine with me, because I had all these DVDs that I wanted to catch up on.
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  (#6) He Was Busted For Carrying A Weapon In The '90s

  In 1993, Snipes was cruising through the empty streets of Hollywood at 2 am when he crashed his motorcycle. Some bystanders helping him at the scene noticed a 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol hidden under his jacket, and they immediately snitched on him when the police arrived.

  Snipes was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed weapon, but was released later that morning.
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  (#7) He Has Super Rude Names For His Co-Stars

  Writing about Blade: Trinity for Spin, Chris Parry spoke to someone who worked on the film. They dropped some knowledge about Snipes:

  He treats us all like idiots. Even his own co-stars! He doesn't talk to them face to face, instead he has his assistant do it. He refers to Ryan Reynolds as "that cracker" "tell that cracker to get out of my eyeline," and "tell that cracker to get his lines right." He refers to Jessica Biel as "that girl." Honestly, I've never seen anything like this in a decade in production.
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  (#8) He's A Martial Arts Master

  Did you know that Snipes is a fighting master with karate skills to rival those of Steven Seagal? Can you imagine the damage those two guys could do if they took on a whole Shaolin temple? Fighting Master praises his prowess:

  Wesley Snipes is a seasoned, trained martial artist in a number of different disciplines including Karate, Kung Fu and Capoeira, an African/Brazilian martial art... Snipes doesn't have time for any pretty stuff. He prefers fast - strong, effective combinations.
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  (#9) He Has Said Some Insane Things About Other Actors

  Snipes has reportedly been openly antagonistic about his co-stars, and even actors who took jobs over him. He said that John Singleton made a mistake by not casting him in Shaft, claiming that the film would have made double the $60 million it took in at the box office.

  But that's hardly the most inflammatory thing Snipes has said; he once allegedly claimed, "Lot of the scripts I've been in with other non-white actors haven't been great. Lot of non-white actors ain't all that great."
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  (#10) You've Only Got Snipes For The Close-Up

  A tidbit from the troubled shoot of Blade: Trinity notes that Snipes only films his close-ups, allowing his stunt doubles to take care of the wide shots for him. In an interview with the A.V. Club, comedian Patton Oswalt says that the two were only on set together for one scene, despite their characters sharing plenty of screen time. Aside from close-up shots, Patton shared that "everything else was done by his stand-in."

  Writer Chris Parry, who was on the set of the third Blade movie covering it for Spin, backed up these claims in the magazine:

  Wesley Snipes? Not only was he not prepared to help his fellow actors during their close-ups, but if the shot involved anything less than a front-on close-up, he called for a stand-in to do the acting for him. What does that mean? It means Wesley Snipes's stand-in was in more of Blade: Trinity than Snipes himself was.
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  (#11) Joe Rogan Wants To Fight Him

  At some point, Joe Rogan latched onto the idea of fighting Snipes. Maybe the comedian/podcaster/MMA bro heard that Snipes was a karate master and wanted to test his might.

  Rogan has baited Snipes a few times, and even said that he wants to "choke out" the actor, but does anyone really want to watch Blade beat up Rogan, a four-time Taekwondo state champion?
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  (#12) He And Nas Almost Got Into A Fight

  In a one-on-one with Vice in 2012, Nas explained how he almost got into a fight with Snipes at a club during the Shaft premiere party. He claims that the whole thing started when he accidentally spilled a drink on Grace Jones. Then, Snipes asked him if he "was a rapper or a scientist." Nas allegedly pushed him and said, "You won't make it out of here alive."

  The two realized how ridiculous the situation was, and apparently both made it out of the club alive and un-punched.
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  (#13) He Believes He's The Reason 'Iron Man' Is So Good

  Snipes has been in some big films, and he's worked with Robert Downey, Jr. But is Snipes the reason the Iron Man films are so popular? Probably not. Just don't tell Snipes that. He told The Telegraph about the day Downey called him to discuss taking the superhero role:

  I remember he actually called me, but I didn’t return the phone call at the time. Robert was concerned before Iron Man and was trying to find out what it’s like to play this comic book character, because I had already done Blade. Not to say that... OK, I’ll take all the credit for his success as Iron Man.

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