Actors so awesome they expanded their part in movie

Usually, some new or relatively unknown actor gets cast in a bit part but due to the actor bringing so much to the table, the director/writer adds lines/scenes for that character.

Some well known ones are:
Matthew Lillard in Scream


Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused


Seann William Scott american pie

 

Christoph Waltz playing Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds. A role Tarantino thought could be unplayable and given to an actor who was an unknown outside of Austria/Germany. The rest is history.

 

What's going on with Stifflers accent?

 

beat this.

 

I remember Norm giving an interview and saying that Chris had no lines in the movie, they just kind of threw him in and let him go.

 

I'm not even a Cruise fan so I don't know why I remember this, but....

"Tom Cruise was originally going to play a background character in the film, but Director Harold Becker was so impressed by the way he conducted himself as one of the military cadets during rehearsals that he was offered the part of David Shawn. At first Cruise refused and then was finally convinced by Becker and Producer Stanley R. Jaffe play the role."

The movie was Taps.

 

Apparently Marlon Brando completely rewrote the script of The Island of Doctor Moreau to give his character a bunch of outlandish shit to say/do.

But that was less because he was awesome and more because he was a huge dick holding the production hostage.

 

Lol, is that fucking Dirty Work?

 

Yes it is.

 

Edward Norton in pretty much all his stuff... though not necessarily by the directors' consent.

 

There's a scene where he's wearing an upside-down KFC bucket on his head and he's speaking lovingly and tenderly to the catgirl. There's just something about the way he delivers his lines that, once you realize he insisted they shoot the scene with a bucket on his head, his lines all sound like the most sarcastic, assholish lines a human being could ever utter.

 

On TV: the sidekick on Breaking Bad, Mimi on The Drew Carey Show and Fonz on Happy Days were all supposed to be one-note characters making a one-episode appearance, but they were like so much they became main characters.

 

Ben in Lost

 

Should've at least been nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Though I would rather have seen the part go to Spalding.

 

Erik King in Dexter

 

The black Wilson

 

R Lee Ermey on Full Metal Jacket , originally a consultant , Kubrick was impressed with his Tirades as a Drill Instructor that he let him do his own thing , if you know how much of a dictator Kubrick is in his films you realize how big of a deal it was for Ermey to get the type of creative freedom he got.

 

Struggling with a movie part...However I can name a few in TV.

Xena was supposed to be in a few episodes of Hercules that ended up getting her own series. Same can be said of Angel from Buffy too as well as the Fonz and Urkel in their respective series.