The original post: /r/television by /u/AporiaParadox on 2026-03-28 13:13:21+00:00.
Although the actors are what get the most attention, at the end of the day the writers, producers, and executives are the ones who actually determine what happens in the story and what characters do. If an actor doesn’t like the direction their character is being taken in, it’s usually out of their hands, they’re contractually obligated to do the work. But sometimes, the actor’s complaints are actually taken into consideration, especially if the actor is very popular and they don’t want to risk them leaving the show or becoming harder to work with. And sometimes new ideas proposed by the actors are good ideas that the writers like.
For example, the season 5 finale of Friends was supposed to end with Chandler being so insecure about Monica having lunch with Richard that he would cheat on her with some random woman in Las Vegas. Matthew Perry refused to film that, since he thought the audience would never forgive Chandler if that happened.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Patrick Stewart was annoyed at how sexless his character was, so to please him they made the episode “Captain’s Holiday” and a few more romantic subplots for Picard. Stewart also had some creative control over Star Trek: Picard. And on a related note, Star Trek: Deep Space 9 was originally going to have a romantic plot between Major Kira and Gul Dukat, but Nana Visitor objected because she didn’t think Kira would ever have feelings for someone who helped genocide her people, so we got the plot of Kira’s mother being Dukat’s mistress instead.
So what other examples are there of an actor’s input actually leading to changes in the story?