10 Actors Who Totally Rewrote Their Movie Scripts

For some actors, they realize that the script isn’t working even before they step foot on set. In those cases, these actors often take the opportunity to rewrite the script — whether they’re asked to or not. While it can be controversial to have an actor working on the screenplay, oftentimes these changes end up being for the better.

Find out which actors made major changes to their scripts.

1. Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds

Blake Lively starred in and produced It Ends With Us but also took part in editing the script. She says that it was actually her husband Ryan Reynolds who helped her rewrite the film’s rooftop scene after screenwriter Christy Hall gave it a first pass.

“The iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it. Nobody knows that but you now,” Blake told E! News. “We help each other. He works on everything I do; I work on everything he does. So his wins, his celebrations are mine and mine are his.”

Looking back on writing the script, Christy says she tried to “honor” what author Colleen Hoover wrote and was proud of her work on the film. She didn’t know there would be any changes to the script until filming began — and even then, she attributed any changes to improvisation.

“There were a few little flourishes that I did not write, but I assumed that they had been improvised on set. But…the moments that I felt like needed to be honored are there. So I recognize the scene and I’m proud of the scene. And if those flourishes came from Ryan, I think that’s wonderful,” Christy told People.

2. Jenna Ortega

When Jenna Ortega was filming Tim Burton’s Wednesday Netflix series, she became very protective over her character. She admitted that she became “almost unprofessional” at times on set and often rewrote lines in her script without consulting the writers.

“Everything that she does, everything that I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all. Her being in a love triangle? It made no sense,” she explained on the Armchair Expert podcast. “There was a line about a dress she has to wear for a school dance and she says, ‘Oh my god I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ I had to go, ‘No.’ There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines.”

While Jenna faced backlash for her comments, she later shared that she should have explained things differently and represented the situation better.

3. Paul Rudd

While Paul Rudd was working on Ant-Man, he stepped in to help rewrite the script after Edgar Wright, the original director and co-writer, left the project. Paul teamed up with writer Adam McKay and took several weeks to rework the first version of the script.

“I’ve always known Paul Rudd’s a really good writer from improvising with him on set, but I had no idea he was that good — he’s really great with dialogue,” Adam told Collider. “So the two of us holed up in hotel rooms on the east and west coast, and I think it was, like, six to eight weeks, we just ground it out and did a giant rewrite of the script. I was really proud of what we did. I really thought we put some amazing stuff in there and built on an already strong script from Edgar Wright and sort of just enhanced some stuff.”

4. Reese Witherspoon

Reese Witherspoon says that when she first started working on Cruel Intentions, she believed that her character Annette Hargrove was being portrayed as “too demure and too much of a woman influenced by a guy’s manipulations.” When she brought it up with writer and director Roger Kumble, they ended up spending time rewriting Annette’s dialogue.

“Annette was the character most removed from me. There’s no way the movie would have its success if it weren’t for [Reese’’s] talent as a writer,” Roger told Entertainment Weekly.

5. Edward Norton

When Edward Norton agreed to star in The Incredible Hulk, he reportedly only did so if he would be allowed to rewrite Zak Penn’s screenplay. Edward did end up making changes to the script but most of them never made it to the final cut. Edward and Zak ended up having a falling out after finding themselves unable to collaborate together.

“Yes, [the fallout between Edward and me] prevented me from collaborating with him [during production]. I don’t really know the guy, he has his own process and he chose to do it the way he wanted to do it. That said, I kept in touch with the people making the movie — but he, you know, has his own particular way of working and…it was unusual. I really don’t know, I wasn’t there, I was off making another movie, so it wasn’t a situation where I was banging on the door saying, ‘Let me come to the set.’ But that was disappointing, I won’t deny it. I wasn’t happy with him coming to Comic-Con saying that he wrote the script,” Zak told EW.

6. Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise reportedly exercised a lot of creative control when it came to working on The Mummy. Specifically, Tom wanted to rework much of the script and hired two outside writers to help create the movie he envisioned. Those changes allegedly gave Tom more screen time and added a dramatic arc for his character.

“This is very much a film of two halves: before Tom and after Tom. I have heard the stories about how he drives everything and pushes and pushes, but it was amazing to work with him,” supervising art director Frank Walsh told Variety. “The guy is a great filmmaker and knows his craft. He will walk on to a set and tell the director what to do, say ‘That’s not the right lens,’ ask about the sets, and as long as you don’t fluff what you’re saying to him…he’s easy to work for.”

7. Jeff Bridges & Robert Downey Jr.

Jeff Bridges says that during the initial rehearsals for Iron Man he and Robert Downey Jr., along with director Jon Favreau, realized the script wasn’t what they wanted it to be. They spent the next two weeks rewriting the film — and were still working things out as shooting began.

“Iron Man, we read the script and it wasn’t really right, you know? We had two weeks’ rehearsal and we basically rewrote the script. And the day before we were going to shoot, we get a call from the Marvel guy saying, ‘Oh no, no, no. None of this is right.’ So we would muster in my trailer and rehearse while the guys were in the studio tapping their foot, saying, ‘When are they going to come?’ We were still trying to figure out the [scenes] we were going to shoot,” Jeff told The Hollywood Reporter.

8. Russell Crowe

When Russell Crowe first began working on Gladiator, the script was nowhere near ready. At the time, Russell says there were only 21 pages in the script, which is only a fifth of what a movie usually has. Russell teamed up with director Ridley Scott to finish things up.

“It had 21 pages when we started shooting. Your average script is about 110,” Russell told BBC Radio 1. “Well, it’s me and Ridley working together, but it’s also — you know, it’s the dumbest possible way to make a film…We didn’t know what we were going to shoot, so we had to go back to my house — you know, me, him, and David Franzoni, one of the producers who was also the original writer — and try and work it out.”

9. Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman wasn’t a fan of the original script for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves so he decided to take things into his own hands. He recruited the help of his friends Ruby Wax and Peter Barnes to assist him in rewriting the script. Alan says he ended up meeting Peter in a  Pizza Express to work on the film.

“I said, ‘Will you have a look at this script because it’s terrible, and I need some good lines.’ So he did, and, you know, with kind of pizza and bacon and egg going all over the script,” Alan told the Times.

10. Daniel Day-Lewis

For Daniel Day-Lewis, writing Phantom Thread was a collaborative experience. Director Paul Thomas Anderson decided that instead of writing a full script, he would write a portion of the film and then allow Daniel to edit and rewrite things as he saw fit.

“I’d give him things as I was writing. Rather than go away and write a script and try to impress him, I was collaborating with him each step of the way as I was going, which was very helpful in terms of forming the story and the character,” Paul told EW.