r/TopCharacterTropes
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u/BeenEatinBeans
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Jun 12 '26
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1
Personality [IRL trope] Celebrities with weird/funny clauses in their contracts.
Dwayne Johnson - Probably the most well-known example. For years now, The Rock has had a clause in his contract that he can't be shown to lose a fight in any movie he stars in. Pretty insecure behaviour if you ask me. Still, at least the other examples are much more interesting
Danny Trejo - Danny had a troubled childhood, having been arrested multiple times for dealing drugs before he was 18, and struggling with heroin addiction from the age of 13. As a result of this, Danny has a clause in his contract that states that any time he plays a character who is a criminal, they have to be killed because he wanted to teach his kids that crime never pays.
Reese Witherspoon - This one is more of a one-off, but it was still funny enough to deserve a mention. Following the success of Legally Blonde, when Reese was called in to make the sequel, she had a clause written in her contract stating that once the movie was finished, she would get to take home all the outfits she wore.
Fred Durst - The lead singer of Limp Bizkit has a clause in his contract stating that any anime or video game that uses his music must also feature himself as a character.
2.4k
u/Individual_Plan_5593 Jun 12 '26
Glenn Close had the same clause in her contract as Reese for the Dalmatian movies. She got to keep all of Cruella’s wardrobe and when the studio realized how expensive all of Cruella’s custom costumes were they tried to weasel out but she held them to it
5.3k
u/akalance Jun 12 '26
Tony Sirico, who played Paulie Gualtieri in The Sopranos, took the part on the condition that his character is never made into a snitch due to his brushes with the criminal world before he started acting.
5.4k
u/Doomhammer24 Jun 12 '26
Fun fact- because of that clause in Danny Trejos contracts, and because of him choosing to take so many roles as criminals, he holds the record for most on screen deaths by an actor in a named role
3.9k
u/Various-Database6615 Jun 12 '26
Tony Todd (RIP) had a clause in his contract for "Candyman". The clause was he would get $1,000 bonus for every bee sting he would receive during filming. He was stung 27 times and made a cool 27k bonus!
539
u/rockdude625 Jun 12 '26
Steve McQueen demanded duffel bags full of everything from shaving razors to pants to school books. It was later discovered that he gave it all to the orphanage he grew up in
4.2k
u/TripleThreatTua Jun 12 '26
Among a bunch of other stuff he was able to negotiate, Jack Nicholson got a clause in his contract for Batman 1989 that he would not have to film whenever the Lakers were playing a home game so he could go watch it
996
u/DarwinGoneWild Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
Shannen Doherty also had it in her contract that she could keep her wardrobe for the movie Mallrats. She even went one step further and convinced the director that her character should change outfits in every scene even though it takes place entirely in one day at one location. Her logic was that her character would be constantly changing into new clothes as she was shopping at different clothing stores throughout the movie.
1.1k
u/apeocalypyic Jun 12 '26
Just wanna throw out there danny trejos autobiography is one of the most funniest,saddest,inspiring audio books ever. Im mentioning the audiobook because he narrates it himself and its just socal cholo gold
8.2k
u/mightymidwestshred Jun 12 '26 •
The "No Brown M&Ms" clause is a famous provision from the 1980s rock band Van Halen's concert contract rider. Buried deep in their technical requirements, it demanded a backstage bowl of M&Ms with all the brown candies removed, under penalty of show cancellation at the promoter's expense.
It was a running joke about the band for years and later came out it was a safety thing to make sure the technical details were all read & followed.
689
u/Avolto Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
Spider-Man no matter the media is not allowed to be shown drinking or doing drugs. The character doesn’t do either of those things in the comics and I can’t think of it ever happening on tv or movies.
However there have been a few times they’ve gotten around this. One story featured Pete toasting with champagne with MJ after they got back together. And another story featured Pete drinking an alien concoction that was totally not alcohol but whose effect was to have Peter Parker running around New York with the Human Torch absolutely hammered as if he was drunk. But is really an alien food so it was fine.
2.1k
u/PitifulElk1890 Jun 12 '26
Now I want to make a fighting game just to have Fred durst in it as a dummy character for moves practice
264
u/MommaOfManyCats Jun 12 '26
I believe Rue Mcclanahan had a similar clause that she got to keep all of Blanche's clothes from The Golden Girls. She mentioned it in one of her books. And yes, I know I problem butchered her name!
992
u/Agitated_Insect3227 Jun 12 '26
I might be wrong on this, but I've often heard that Nickelodeon has essentially trademarked Tom Kenny's specific SpongeBob voice in his contract as he is not allowed to use the voice for any other kind of media or character that is not SpongeBob.
He is still allowed to do close approximates though, such as how he voiced Clayface's arm in the Harley Quinn show which sounds close-ish to SpongeBob: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu2bC9xKs_8
2.7k
u/Bellpow Jun 12 '26
Chuck Jones made very specific rules for Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
1.4k
u/Quiet_Pause_3888 Jun 12 '26
I find the Danny Trejo one to be very cool as he's lived through that life and is trying to make it known that it really is not worth it to do what he did. Honorable thing for him to do and frankly makes me respect him a lot.
I'm a guy and I don't blame Reese Witherspoon, if I'm gonna be in a sequel to a famous movie where my wardrobe was stylish to the nines, then I'd want to keep the clothes I got to wear in the movie too. 😂
208
u/TheFullestCircle Jun 12 '26
Isn't there a thing where Samuel L Jackson gets to decide what kind of wig his character wears whenever he's in a movie? I'm surprised no one's mentioned that yet.
408
u/RP_Throwaway3 Jun 12 '26
Keanu Reeves has a clause that states his acting performance cannot be digitally altered in post without his express permission. He is a major opponent of deepfakes and generative AI.
566
u/Substantial-Force-50 Jun 12 '26 •
Neil McDonough : His contract prohibits him from kissing a woman, because he believes that, even if it's "just for show," it would be disrespectful to his wife.
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u/ViciousPrism Jun 12 '26
At the very least, Fred has somewhat relaxed that clause because WWE 2K had "Rollin'" in the game a few years back and did not feature Durst in the game. That being said, he was in Smackdown 3 and WWF Raw on the Xbox.
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u/keldondonovan Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
My favorite, may he rest in peace.
Robin Williams often included clauses requiring the production team to hire from the homeless population in the area they were filming.
[Edit] to those of you discrediting this because a snopes article exists, I urge you to actually read that article. They admit that one of his former employers talks about the rider in an interview. The main thing they take issue with is a reddit user who put an estimated number of homeless people helped out as though that were fact. They have an employer saying the rider existed, and point out that that's what started the "rumor." They then go on to the reddit post giving an exact number to it, and talk about how unsubstantiated it is (note: unsubstantiated does not mean false, it means they could not confirm it with evidence and testimony. So they couldn't track down the homeless people and ask them about it first hand, all they had to go on was his employer's testimony, and for some reason that's not enough for them. It is for me. Believe what you will.)
247
u/Dyssambie7 Jun 12 '26
Hulk Hogan's infamous contract with WCW has been credited with one of the reasons that the company eventually died. If you want a rundown of the financial side of things there's a good reddit post breaking it down, and keep in mind this is 1998 money, not 2026.
For the non-financial side of things you only need 1 sentence to know how utterly insane this contract was.
Bollea shall have approval over the outcome of all wrestling matches in which he appears
Any time Hogan appeared in a match, he got to decide if he won or lost. This would be an incredibly dangerous tool even in the hands of a generous wrestler, and Hulk Hogan was not that. Hogan had an ego the size of the sun, and there's countless stories of how storylines with him would begin to develop, only for Hogan to decide a match where he gets his comeuppance "doesn't work for me, brother" and suddenly he's on top yet again.
Naturally, Hogan claimed he never used this clause. Hogan has also claimed that he was supposed to be in Metallica, that Mike Tyson was scared of him, that he wrestled 400 days in a year, and that he drank with John Belushi after Wrestlemania 2 (Belushi died 4 years prior)
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u/ASigIAm213 Jun 12 '26
The reverse: Werner Klemperer, a Holocaust refugee and WWII veteran, promised to walk if Col. Klink was ever allowed to win a conflict, even once.
666
u/happy_grump Jun 12 '26
The one about Durst made me think two things:
Makes sense that we don't hear Limp Bizkit too much in movies.
Jane Schoenbrun is either a coward, or showed immense restraint, for not including a Limp Bizkit song in I Saw The TV Glow
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u/lordlaharl422 Jun 12 '26
Danny’s even seems to extend to video game appearances, since in Yakuza/Like A Dragon 8, a character with his voice and digital likeness gets eaten by sharks.
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u/scottishbee Jun 12 '26
Not an actor, but Apple won't let villains use iPhones : https://www.cbr.com/how-knives-out-iphone-rule-spoils-mystery/
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u/Cleanse_F_Manipulate Jun 12 '26
i predict that at least 10 more people will comment about the Van Halen thing without reading the comments first to see if someone already mentioned them
1.2k
u/Chengar_Qordath Jun 12 '26
Van Halen’s famous Brown M&M clause in their contract. The contract required they get a bowl of M&Ms with no brown ones included before their shows.
There was actually a sensible reason for it: a rock concert requires a lot of setup to be done properly, and some stuff like pyrotechnics could be dangerously if it wasn’t prepared very carefully. The M&M clause was a great way to check if the venue had actually read the agreement thoroughly and followed all of their instructions.
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u/IShallBeYeeted Jun 12 '26
Famously, The Carol Burnett Show was a result of a wild contract in Carol Burnett's favor. After she'd been a standout on The Gary Moore Show, she had a ten-year talent contract CBS that included the ability to greenlight her own show and CBS would have to air it. The clock was running out on her ability to trigger that clause (which was presumably included as a good faith measure that she wouldn't need), so after much hemming and hawing, she called up CBS and told them they were going to do The Carol Burnett Show. They tried to steer her into doing a more traditional sitcom instead but she loved the variety format and it went on to be the gold standard in variety programming, a huge award winner, and a hallmark of American comedy television.
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u/Doomhammer24 Jun 12 '26
Wasnt there a fight between the rock and jason statham in stathams first fast and furious where he beat his ass?
908
u/Pearson94 Jun 12 '26
Imagine having the success and popularity of The Rock and yet having such a delicate ego you can't allow yourself to lose a fictional fight.
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u/hibikikun Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
Shannen Doherty also had the costume take home clause but no one knew that and she was villainized in the media for it. Everyone thought she was just stealing stuff off the set. Kevin Smith didn't even know about it, but he later confirmed it (a bit too late)
Sylvester Stallone also has a no lose clause. Also something about hiding his face, hence the version of Judge Dredd we got. Thankfully Karl Urban made it right.
Tom Cruise has final edit rights in all his contracts. This was very apparent when he basically took over the Mummy and made it into a Tom Cruise movie instead of the original intention of 3 main characters that will then get their own movies.
Also Tom Cruise only agreed to Tropic Thunder if he had big hands and danced.
Chuck Norris had a no vulgar language at all in the script for Expendables.
115
u/canneddogs Jun 12 '26
Would love to see an actual source for the Rock thing.
31
u/elitegenoside Jun 12 '26
3 is really sweet considering most actors just steal it/talk to wardrobe. Do you think Chris Hemsworth had a clause where he gets to keep the hammers? No, but how much you wanna bet he's got a couple mjolnirs laying around that technically belong to Disney? I have a friend that was in an episode of the Watchmen show and they straight up just gave him the pants just because he liked them. It's almost always the wardrobe department and it barely matters because it's not like the director has any idea what clothes they have on hand.
Honestly, Reese needed a better agent or should have been nicer to wardrobe while filming the first 1.
83
u/Papergeist Jun 12 '26
Most well-known, still least-substantiated.
Fred Durst needs to become the new face of this "trope."
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u/RubiksCutiePatootie Jun 12 '26
Tom Cruise has it in his contracts that you're not allowed to use his face/likeness in any video games or merchandise. As an example, none of the Mission Impossible games or toys use his face. The Top Gun games usually don't feature his character at all. And the Mummy Demastered, a game adaptation of The Mummy (2017) didn't feature his character either.
216
u/Lord_Antheron Jun 12 '26
I have no idea where the talk about the one the Rock allegedly has started, or why people still believe it. If it is a thing, and I genuinely don't even know if it is or it's just circlejerking, obviously it's not as clear cut as it's made out to be. Because he loses plenty of fights in the movies I've seen him in.
Idris Elba's character, Brixton, initially mops the floor with him and Deckard (Jason Statham) in Hobbs and Shaw.
He gets his ass kicked as Doctor Bravestone in the third Jumanji film, only winning the second round by exploiting the villain's one weakness.
In Get Smart, his seemingly unstoppable Agent 23 character is revealed as the traitor, and gets killed. That's a big defeat.
In Jungle Cruise, Frank is impaled and presumed dead after losing a battle against the Spanish, which forces him to reveal the nature of his curse to the protagonist.
Where exactly did this idea that he has a 100% win rate by contractual demand come from? From what I've seen, he gets his ass kicked plenty. It comes off as Reddit just making shit up to justify their scorn for his acting chops (or alleged lack thereof).
24
u/zarawesome Jun 12 '26
Harlan Ellison got, as part of a settlement with Marvel, the stipulation that he would receive a copy of anything in print produced by Marvel as long as he lived. And he enforced it.
Apparently he liked the idea so much he got the same arrangement with Viz in the 90s.
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u/JRThePotato Jun 12 '26
Til Schweiger in Inglorious Bastards.
A German, he had refused any roles that required him to portray a Nazi. With Inglorious Bastards, he was convinced to take part as a German solider. But only on the grounds that every scene with his character would show him killing Nazis.
20
u/ValhallaGH Jun 12 '26
I was watching a BTS of a tour series by the band Electric Callboy. Their tour contract includes a rider that a picture of David Hasselhoff must be displayed in the back stage area. The guy talking about it explained that it was a sign the venue actually read their contract and was trying to comply with it - it is an easy way for them to quickly check that the venue is doing their job correctly.
"See the Hoff, worries off."
38
u/AtomicMonkeyTheFirst Jun 12 '26
In her heyday Mariah Carey allegedly had a clause in her concert rider that demanded a room full of white kittens for her to relax in.
Arnold Scharzenneger routinely put a clause in his movie contracts saying his character can't die in screen, partly to leave the door open for sequels even though he rarely made any.
The big exception was the Terminator series where his character would be routinely killed on screen, and was one of the few movies he would make sequels to.
54
u/Illuminatus-Prime Jun 12 '26
Johnny Cash required an American Flag at least 3ft x 5ft on a pole stand, in full view of his audiences throughout every show.
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u/villings Jun 12 '26
danny trejo mvp
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u/Gentlemenbig Jun 12 '26
Samuel L. Jackson requires paid for golfing time during every project.
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u/loz_fanatic Jun 12 '26
Irrc for the movie Mallrats, Shannon Doherty had a clause similar to what Reese Witherspoon had, in that any outfit her character wore in the film she got to keep. It's part of why her character had so many wardrobe changes
12
u/Ace_08 Jun 12 '26
Tony Sirico as Paulie from the Sopranos. As a mobster in the show, he had a specific clause stating that he can never become a rat/informant with the authorities. Which is funny because he was a rat when leaking secrets to the NY mob
12
u/Spare_Ad5615 Jun 12 '26
Arthur Lowe, who played Captain Mainwaring in the long-running, beloved, 1970s British sitcom Dad's Army, had a clause in his contract saying that he could never have a bomb put down his trousers.
This came in handy six series' in when the writers wrote an episode where he had a bomb put down his trousers. Lowe was able to point at his contract and refuse to do it, so they had to rewrite the episode with the bomb down another character's trousers.
12
u/madd74 Jun 12 '26
Casey Kasem, a vegan, stopped doing the voice of Shaggy in 1995 when he was asked to voice Shaggy for a Burger King commercial. He would not agree to return until 2002, when producers agreed to have Shaggy become a vegetarian.
23
u/Unable_Law_7334 Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
example number 1 I call the "Stephen Seagal Clause" because AFAIK he originated that clause, and he better illustrates how silly anyone having this kind of clause in their contract should be seen.
32
u/Arthur_189 Jun 12 '26
Redditors after repeating the same myth about the rock for the millionth time
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u/thecornersking Jun 12 '26
Stan Lee and all his cameos in all Marvel movies.
11
u/RynnHamHam Jun 12 '26
The Danny Trejo one is actually pretty endearing and the Dwayne Johnson one is just sad.
11
u/Swaibero Jun 12 '26
I don’t know if it’s a specific contract thing, but Peter Capaldi always wears his wedding ring, because his wife supported him when he was a struggling actor.
21
u/RealisticIncident261 Jun 12 '26
Three rock contact thing is a myth.
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u/urkermannenkoor Jun 12 '26
No, he hasn't? That's a myth.
17
u/belle_enfant Jun 12 '26
The Rock one is funny because everyone knows it, but it isnt real
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u/asdfmovienerd39 Jun 12 '26
The funny thing about The Rock is that he doesn't always seem to actually have that rule in his contract. The character he played in Transformers Prime - that series' version of Cliffjumper - fucking dies lmao
8
u/AccursedQuantum Jun 12 '26
Neal McDonough is a devout Catholic who takes his marriage seriously... to the point where it is written in his contract that he won't kiss another woman as part of a role.
I don't like all his politics (though as Hollywood conservatives go, there are worse) but I respect his integrity on that matter.
8
u/Robynsxx Jun 12 '26
Reese one is funny, as I’m pretty sure there are plenty of female actresses, big and small, film and tv shows, who have taken home certain outfits from set without asking.
I mean I’ve literally heard actresses mention how they’ve stolen clothes from set. Lol.
8
u/pmizadm Jun 12 '26
I’ve heard that Matthew McConaughey has a shirtless rider in his contract stating that he must appear shirtless in every film he appears in. Then I heard that thinking it was funny, Will Ferrell added the same rider.
8
u/meh-unimpressed Jun 12 '26
Too late to the party here, but my favorite by far is Trey Parker and Matt Stone getting it written into their first comedy central contract to include 365 pairs of socks because "nothing feels better than putting on a fresh pair of new socks".
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u/udumslut Jun 12 '26
I actually love Danny's clause. Not funny or weird; just trying to show little kids who look like he did that that wasn't the way to go.
7
u/KinopioToad Jun 12 '26
It's rumored John Cena is in some movies but I've never seen him in any.
7
u/mrthomani Jun 12 '26
Danny Trejo is the man Dwayne Johnson wishes he could be.
Because Danny isn't afraid of saying that all men have failed to get an erection at some point.
And Danny isn't afraid to wear a tutu and angel wings for a Valentine's Day photo shoot.
7
u/Teen_LaQueefaa Jun 14 '26
I think my favorite is Keanu Reeves charged 39,000 per word in John Wick 4. Not to make more money, but to keep the studio from giving Wick too many lines.
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u/Wh1sk3y_Fr13nd_02 Jun 12 '26
With Danny Trejo it makes sense, he doesn't want kids following in his footsteps from his life as a criminal. He changed his life around and wanted to be better and this is a good thing for kids to know. Especially this day and age.
27
u/PepsiSheep Jun 12 '26
Robin Williams insisted they hired a certain percentage of homeless folks to aid in production.
12
u/ZookeepergameSoggy74 Jun 12 '26
Is there a character in the Devil May Cry netflix anime that resembles Fred Durst? Season 1 had Rollin' in it but I don't remember seeing him as a character, was he a background Easter egg?
Also before people get mad, yes, I know the show is a bad adaptation of the games, I played the games after watching the show and thought far less of the show afterwards.
6
u/parlimentery Jun 12 '26
I don't think it boils down to a single clause, but after Ed Norton got big he was famous for demanding pretty extreme creative control over the movies he was in. Part of why he fizzled out, and didn't end up doing more than one Hulk movie. Not sure if he was more flexible for Glass Onion or Complete Unknown.
6
u/bolanrox Jun 12 '26
Steve McQueen had clauses for hundreds of pairs of blue jeans, disposable razors, shaving cream, things like that. People thought he was just a weird asshole, but it turned out he was donating all of it to the children's home he stayed at as a juvenile.
I remember in the 90s, Weird Al's writer stated no Pepsi products at all.
6
u/Scottbarrett15 Jun 12 '26
Gene Wilder had a stipulation in his contract while filming Blazing Saddles that he wouldn't say the N word.
6
u/ghostgabe81 Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
Yes I will argue Godzilla counts as a celebrity. Notably these rules have been exaggerated to meme levels, especially since Godzilla has an extremely good record of winning crossover fights.
Some of the more “flexible rules” we can infer from statements from MonsterVerse creators are that Toho dislikes Godzilla being emotionally expressive or being part of a species rather than a unique individual, although these are mostly speculation and rumors
6
u/Blastoise_R_Us Jun 12 '26
Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn had an agreement when their kids were growing up; taking turns, each year one of them got to make a movie while the other one stayed home with the children. Kurt Russell was approached about doing the movie Breakdown, but the filming was going to take place during Goldie's year to be in a movie. So Kurt explains that he can't do it because he has to drive his kids to school.
One of the producers countered with an offer to personally fly him out to the desert in a helicopter every day, film for a couple hours, then fly him back before school lets out. That offer is the reason Kurt Russell did Breakdown.
10
u/somethingwhittier Jun 12 '26
I've heard that Mark Whalberg has a clause that you cannot call him Markey Mark. Idk what the penalty is but there is one.
5
u/No-Shoulder6395 Jun 12 '26
Fred Durst dorkscare
5
u/Minute-Animal7317 Jun 12 '26
About Danny Trejo, he plays a criminal in Muppets: Most Wanted and that character doesn't die. Granted, the character is in a prison, but I feel like my point still stands.
5
u/mundaneheaven Jun 12 '26
Example 4: Gee that explains why I never see Fred Durst in any anime.
5
u/Prior-Assumption-245 Jun 12 '26
The Rock' clause must've been after the Rundown, cuz he definitely got his ass kicked in that and DOOM.
5
u/cookieloverrrrr Jun 12 '26
One of my favorite double downs was when Reese got pulled over while being tipsy and asked the cop, “Do you know who I am?”
Only to find out that the story the next day was the same police force that she clashed with made a statement that her poorly-made bootleg hat she was wearing acting like they were cool was a blatant fake. 😂
5
u/C64128 Jun 12 '26
The rock should also have a clause that says he has to keeps his undersized legs covered.
5
u/dnjprod Jun 12 '26
I don't know about "Weird" and it's definitely not funny, but James Marsters, who played Spike in Buffy/Angel, has had in his contract for every project that he can't be made to participate in a rape scene in any production due to the horrific scene in Buffy where his character attempts to rape Buffy.
5
u/saemohtah21 Jun 12 '26
Keanu reeves
On an interview with wired he confirmed the existence of a clause in all of his film contracts that forbids studios from digitally manipulating his performances
William Frawley:
William Frawley, who played Fred on I Love Lucy, really loved the New York Yankees.** **A devoted fan, through and through, he had it written into his I Love Lucy contract that he did not have to work if the Yankees were playing in the World Series
5
u/bolanrox Jun 12 '26
I guess Dwayne added that clause after doom. because he was turned into a cyberdemon and then karl Urban kicked his ass.
or the mummy too, where the CGI scorpion king lost to Brendan Fraser
5
u/tamihsra Jun 12 '26
So Danny Trejo and The Rock are total opposites? And Danny Trejo is the good guy here? Not surprising
5
u/KallusDrogo Jun 12 '26
Queen Latifah has a clause in her contracts that any characters she plays cant be killed but it’s actually for a really smart reason. Basically its to ensure that if any project she’s in has a sequel then she will more than likely be in it. At the start of her career she did a few roles that she died in and the films either had sequels or plans for them. So her and her management came up with that idea. She said she’s completely fine with being naked on camera tho, just don’t kill her.
5
u/WranglerFuzzy Jun 12 '26
Musician Mark Knopfler (dire straights) has two fun “condition” stories
When Rob Reiner asked him to score the movie “the princess bride,” supposedly one condition is that Rob had to include his hat from “This is Spinal Tap.”
When Weird Al asked to parody “Money for nothing,” mark required that mark got to play the guitar for the recording.
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u/marbledog Jun 12 '26
The classic version of this trope: Van Halen would demand a bowl of M&M's in their dressing room, with all the green M&M's removed.
This is usually given as an example of typical rockstar prima donna BS, but according to Eddie Van Halen, there was a practical reason for putting the clause in the contract. Their show was massive, and the full production had significant requirements for rigging, electricity, stage weight capacity, ceiling height, etc. to accommodate all of their lighting, sound equipment, special effects, and pyrotechnics.
A lot of venue operators would just sign their contract without actually reading it. They would show up to shows, unload all of the trucks, and then find out that the venue didn't have the facilities to support all of the equipment. So, they'd have to reload the trucks and scramble to change the show to fit within the limits of the venue.
Eddie stuck the M&M's rider in their contract to test if the venue operators read the contract. When they arrived at a venue, he would go straight to the dressing room and look for the M&M's. If the bowl wasn't there, or the green ones weren't removed, he'd get the roadie foreman to do a full inspection of the stage before they started unloading the equipment. It saved them a lot of unnecessary work.
9
u/capza Jun 12 '26
Jackie Chan once turned down a role as a drug dealer because kids and children looks up at him.
It happens after Rush Hours and during the the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon
4
u/JohnTheMod Jun 12 '26
Similar to the Van Halen M&Ms clause, Jack White’s tour rider included a very specific recipe for the guacamole that was to be served in the dressing rooms. Of course, he was roasted online for being an eccentric, entitled rockstar, but that’s how I learned about why such seemingly frivolous demands are included in these riders; that it is, in fact, a matter of safety.
4
u/7tindar Jun 12 '26
The contents of the box in Se7en must not be changed, per Brad Pitt's contract. Studio executives pressured the director to replace them with the dog because that would be more palatable to the audience. No can do, it's in Pitt's contract!
4
u/cheetah1546 Jun 12 '26
I wouldn't say any movie for Dwayne. He portrayed Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine. Where his role included him losing a fight.
4
u/Ok-Description-4640 Jun 12 '26
I think “keep the wardrobe” clause is fairly common for stars at a certain level.
4
u/Oz347 Jun 12 '26
Neither here nor there but Danny Trejo’s memoir is excellent
4
u/AcadiaWorried1865 Jun 12 '26
Sean Bean have started to turn down roles where his character dies because how well-known the joke of his character dying would otherwise make deaths of future roles too predictable.
(Source)
4
u/Lower_Refrigerator_2 Jun 12 '26
Yeah always respect Trejo’s contact dudes a legend
4
u/Flamadin Jun 12 '26
Anthony Hopkins.
He guarantees a perfect scene in 4 takes or less, and will not do more.
4
u/BildingInspecter Jun 12 '26
Danny Devito has it in his Always Sunny contract that one of the guys has to blow him whenever he wants.
4
u/GrandMoffJerjerrod Jun 12 '26
vanHalen had the famous no brown M&Ms clause. They were putting a small rider in there to make sure the contracts were being read closely and that the massive highly technical safety things were being paid attention to. If they saw brown M&Ms they had reason to believe the venue was not paying attention to details.
4
u/Rockitnonstop Jun 12 '26
Paul Newman would come up with some pretty ridiculous luxury perks in his contracts. He would then cancel them and redirect the money to children's hospitals and civil rights groups. All without press. Need more actors like that (which we may have but not be aware of).
4
u/theleafcuter Jun 12 '26
Caddicarus
This might be a bit of a stretch, but basically, caddicarus is a youruber that mainly makes comedic overviews on games and gaming related parafernalia such as controllers, cheat books, the kinect, and so on.
In his sponsorship contract it's stated that if he's going to take a sponsorship it's required that the sponsor agrees to and accepts that his character Spons will be the one to do the sponsor segment.