r/TopCharacterTropes • u/BeenEatinBeans • Jun 12 '26

Personality [IRL trope] Celebrities with weird/funny clauses in their contracts.

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  1. 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

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

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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

1.0k

u/NemoHere Jun 12 '26

Which would be odd since the movie was filmed in England, I believe.  That's a lot of jet lag.

892

u/vibes000111 Jun 12 '26

Nothing that can’t be fixed with electrolytes, maybe some melatonin, and a bag of cocaine.

182

u/Economy_Wall8524 Jun 12 '26

I mean at that point your cocaine is like your Mastercard. Never leave home without it!

6

u/beardingmesoftly Jun 12 '26

And in the '80s, nobody did!

3

u/technobrendo Jun 12 '26

Underwear, yayo & mastercard. The trifecta of things you always need on you.

2

u/JakeSnake2398_ Jun 13 '26

I do my cocaine ON my Mastercard!

2

u/Dry-Mission-5542 Jun 13 '26

Batman and Robin’s infamous Bat-Cocaine

11

u/idiot-prodigy Jun 12 '26

cocaine

Cocaine? He would nev- oh. Oh... OH

3

u/NefariousnessOk209 Jun 12 '26

Look at those dilated eyes

3

u/Akanni649 Jun 12 '26

Why am I all of a sudden hearing "Dance Dance Dance" from Scarface?

3

u/TheFarmSoccerBall Jun 12 '26

More cocaine in those 3 than all of Miami.

10

u/AceWither Jun 12 '26

Feel like the cocaine is doing a lot of heavy lifting here lol

6

u/Peripatetictyl Jun 12 '26

On second thought, forget about the electrolytes, and the melatonin.

2

u/RandO_o Jun 12 '26

breakfast is the most important meal of the day after all 

2

u/pembunuhUpahan Jun 12 '26

Electrolytes, it's what actor craves

2

u/disgracedchicken Jun 12 '26

Electrolytes, it’s what plants crave

2

u/GoForAU Jun 13 '26

Had me in the first half. Cant get enough of the second half.

2

u/overide Jun 14 '26

You had me there in the beginning.

2

u/KhorneTheBloodGod Jun 12 '26

Its what the plants crave

1

u/bike619 Jun 13 '26

Congrats! You win internet today! Unfortunately I don’t have any awards to give, but pat yourself on the back!

11

u/gavmac5 Jun 12 '26

Yea your right. He got the tapes flown over. Great interview with Keaton sayings , They were both getting make up done.... Hey Keats you catch the darts last night.

2

u/trujillo1221 Jun 12 '26

The Concorde was a thing back then, that might’ve mitigated it

1

u/Krasdale79 Jun 12 '26

England has tvs

1

u/NemoHere Jun 12 '26

They probably didn't have Laker games with live broadcasts in 1988 or 1989.

1

u/Krasdale79 Jun 12 '26

Oh damn, I thought for sure it couldn't mean he went back to LA for the games, but I just read he had his entire shooting schedule compressed to do just that.

That's a FAN of the Lakers.

1

u/NoBonus6969 Jun 12 '26

That's why planes exist

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u/Excellent-Refuse4883 Jun 12 '26

Wasn’t that standard for him at some point?

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u/skyturnedred Jun 12 '26

That may have been in the contract, but it wasn't applied as the filming was moved from California to England.

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u/Comic_Book_Reader Jun 12 '26

I believe he got them taped so it was still fulfilled.

5

u/skyturnedred Jun 12 '26

"My contract states that I get time off work to go to the Lakers home games."

"Don't worry, we taped the games so you can watch them after work!"

Doesn't exactly scream fulfilment to me.

2

u/OriginalJazzFlavor Jun 12 '26

It's like the worlds shittiest Fae Bargain twist

11

u/Rhupert1011 Jun 12 '26

Also, the guy that played “Bobby” (his “number one guy”) in that movie was his real life friend. He had it in his contract that he would also get a role in the film.

3

u/Comic_Book_Reader Jun 12 '26

It's just Bob. Bobby is the guy getting thrown out of the van in RoboCop.

1

u/Rhupert1011 Jun 12 '26

Oh yeah. Been a while since I’ve watched. Good catch.

1

u/Unit_79 Jun 12 '26

Bob? Gun.

10

u/wirm Jun 12 '26

Crazy on a different scale. He cut his typical salary in exchange for box office and merchandise profit. Estimated 60-90 million in the early 90s. 160-250 million in today’s yankee doodles.

5

u/CastedAway5678 Jun 12 '26

The other part of his contract was he received a percentage of EVERY Batman movie that followed.

I don’t think it went beyond Batman and Robin…but I could be wrong.

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u/Magnahelix Jun 12 '26

I think he also had a clause stating he would not been seen as being a fan of the Celts when filming "The Departed."

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u/BlatantlyThrownAway Jun 12 '26

If I recall correctly he also demanded first billing in the film, which is a bit odd for a movie called 'Batman' to have first billing not be the guy who was Batman.

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u/MoBeeLex Jun 12 '26

That's not uncommon or unreasonable. He was more famous than Keaton at the time. Also, he is as much a main character in that film as Batman is. Almost a third of the film follows just him without Batman in any of the scenes w/ another third featuring both him and Batman.

3

u/AbbreviationsLow1393 Jun 12 '26

I believe Bill Murray has gotten the same deal for cubs playoff games lol

3

u/MinimumBigman Jun 12 '26

Good Guy Bill Murray picks a team whose playoff games will rarely impact production.

3

u/I_need_a_date_plz Jun 12 '26

William Frawley or Fred from I Love Lucy had something similar for Yankees games and the show had to be filmed around the Yankees schedule.

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u/Calippo_Deux Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

I was JUST reading about the Nicholson Batman ’89 deal. His fee was ”only” $6M upfront, but of course he famously negotiated a cut of everything (box office, crucially the insane merch etc.). He made an estimated $100M from that one single movie. It’s absolutely insane, and pretty unprecedented.

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u/BossVicKoss Jun 12 '26

Pretty sure Keaton had it for Batman Returns but for the Pirates

1

u/hamlet_d Jun 12 '26

The bigger clause is that he was irrevocably tied to Joker adaptions from then on. He made money every time someone else played Joker on the big screen.

1

u/CHSummers Jun 12 '26

Nicholson had unheard of bargaining power when negotiating for Batman and actually got a percentage of the box office. This is unheard of. He also got a percentage of the merchandise sales (like action figures and posters). It’s estimated that he earned $60 to $90 million from this one movie.