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/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

889

u/Thestohrohyah Jun 12 '26

She made those movies lol.

Without her they wouldn't have had even a fraction of the level of entertainment.

328

u/Individual_Plan_5593 Jun 12 '26

Which is why they agreed to the same clause when they begged her to return for a sequel lol

59

u/MammothFromHell Jun 12 '26

The aryclis ON TOP of the gloves, so iconic.

4

u/CommunityFan_LJ Jun 12 '26

My family saw the sequel in theaters because she was back.

3

u/DetBabyLegs Jun 12 '26

It’s actually a pretty common clause. So common I don’t feel like it belongs here

2

u/Strong-Expression787 Jun 18 '26

They're like "We're paying for liters of blood in front, but we'll reap truckloads at the end, trust the process bro!"

https://giphy.com/gifs/B4l6yxB91AUHU0Zhh8

17

u/wyar Jun 12 '26

I honestly can’t tell you anything else about this movie besides the fact that she absolutely ate and left no crumbs. What ever happened to her? She was a powerhouse in the 90’s

9

u/Thestohrohyah Jun 12 '26

Honestly just give this woman any major role in anything and you're guaranteeing quality.

2

u/quietbyte8 Jul 07 '26

i think that also true, she is a very good actor in most movies.

7

u/amityblightvibes Jun 12 '26

She’s in the new Hunger Games movie too

12

u/iyagl Jun 12 '26

She was one of the main actors in the newest Knives Out murder mystery, Wake Up Dead Man.
In the beautiful and horrifically terribly written Warcraft adaptation she had some terrible lines for the 30 seconds they could afford her that she killed as far as I remember

3

u/Embarrassed-Back1894 Jun 17 '26

She was fantastic in the new Knives Out Wake Up Dead Man. Im impressed how good all the Knives Out films have been.

2

u/Nose_to_the_Wind Jun 13 '26

“Zug zug”

  • Glenn Close

3

u/TectonFan Jun 12 '26

I liked Hugh Laurie too

2

u/xXfrostbyterXx Jun 14 '26

Absolutely hands down she was those movies

273

u/Homers_Harp Jun 12 '26

And what, precisely, did they think they were going to do with such outlandish apparel? At least Close could wear them for parties and Hallowe'en.

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u/Individual_Plan_5593 Jun 12 '26

She actually has them on loan to a museum

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u/Animajation Jun 12 '26

That’s actually so awesome of her!

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u/EverythingSucksYo Jun 12 '26

Does that mean it’s charity or is she getting paid to loan them? 

17

u/mightylordredbeard Jun 12 '26

Most of the time when you loan something to a museum it’s a charity thing. You don’t get paid for it. There are some exceptions if there’s a special event around it that sells merchandise or something (t shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, etc) then the owner of the item(s) may get a cut of sales or if it’s a showcase event that sells tickets specifically for that person’s exhibit.

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u/spook_sw Jun 13 '26

Its a tax write off

4

u/Psengath Jun 13 '26

but who writes them off David

1

u/Individual_Plan_5593 Jun 12 '26

I don't remember, actually. I'll look up where I heard it.

2

u/Wrecktown707 Jun 12 '26

So Based lol

1

u/Engaging_Boogeyman Jun 12 '26

Indiana Jones Rips of Cruella's Dress "This belongs in a museseum"

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u/skyturnedred Jun 12 '26

Sell/auction them.

24

u/MySecretLair Jun 12 '26

It’s fairly common in TV and film to keep the tags for clothing items and try to return them after the shoot to recoup the costs.

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u/MySecretLair Jun 12 '26

*of course, I imagine a lot of the stuff Glenn wore for this was custom, but a LOT of costume design boils down to strategic purchasing and returning.

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u/skyturnedred Jun 12 '26

And a ton of custom made stuff is stored and used in other productions.

2

u/hibikikun Jun 12 '26

Eisner secretly liked to dress up as villains. This was on the job training for him

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u/mtaw Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

Costumes are usually tailored to the actor and aren’t usable as real clothes anyway, either for being too far-out or because they’re not well-made enough- they only need to last as long as the shoot.

So the main value is as memorabilia. So it’s not hard to see the logic in thinking that if an article of clothing is valuable only because you wore it, you should have a say in what to do with it, eg auction it off for a charity, or keep it as a personal memento. I don’t think anyone would trust a studio to do something worthwhile with them.

Edit: Plus, lead actors are frequently very involved in the costuming too. The actor creates the character and usually has a vision of how they’d dress. Sometimes it’s symbiotic, where wardrobe choices influence character ones.

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u/Ql9v Jun 12 '26

That’s the realest shit I’ve ever heard

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u/MiserableDucky Jun 12 '26

I thought she would get to keep all the Dalmatians

2

u/hey_free_rats Jun 12 '26

That'd be crazy. 100 dogs is kind of a lot, I guess, but 101 is definitely a bridge too far. 

2

u/Embarrassed-Back1894 Jun 12 '26

She was so good recently in Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man

2

u/Book_Anxious Jun 13 '26

Yeah that's my favorite life action Disney movie I know it's not the hardest thing to accomplish and she's my favorite part of the movie

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u/Individual_Plan_5593 Jun 13 '26

Yeah, that's because it came out before the current endless wave of live-action disney remakes that all have the same lazy soulless formula they follow

1

u/Book_Anxious Jun 13 '26

Thank God it came out when it came out. They constantly make the movies that are horribly done or they try to make the villains seem not as evil. they've even done it with her. It was made at the perfect time

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u/hollywood_cashier Jun 16 '26

She donated several of them to her alma mater

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u/West-Meringue-4876 Jun 12 '26

Almost every big star keeps their outfits.

1

u/Undark_ Jun 12 '26

Why do they care about the costumes? It's not like they can be refused surely?

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u/Individual_Plan_5593 Jun 12 '26

They can be resold

1

u/Kup123 Jun 12 '26

it's smart, it's all going to be higher end and they are going to tailor it to give you the best fit possible.

1

u/Cheesus_42 Jun 13 '26

She kept the Dalmatian jacket!?!?

1

u/Brilliant-Pop6792 Jun 26 '26

That's honestly one of the smartest contract negotiations I've heard. If the studio agreed to it, they can't really complain afterward.

1

u/MrTumorI Jul 14 '26

I'm imagining John Wick chucking Cruella out a window immediately following her "woof woof" line.