Why Tina Louise Once Refused To Shoot A Gilligan's Island Scene

The stereotype of the actor-as-diva gets overplayed. Most actors are total professionals who occasionally fall prey to a bout of bad humor or a feeling of being unappreciated – i.e. they're just like everyone else on this planet. For the most part, they want to do what they've been hired to do: memorize their lines, study their character (insofar as there's a character to study), hit their marks, basically be the best of themselves they can be, and call it a day. They'd prefer not to be miserable, so that means they're not out to make anyone else's life miserable.

That stereotype, however, didn't just appear out of nowhere. It's not a whole-cloth invention. No. I'm here to tell you that monsters are real. Marlon Brando really did refuse to memorize his lines at a certain point in his career, opting instead to have them strewn about the set on scraps of paper (sometimes attached to other actors) so that he could discover them as he walked through his blocking (he was so unprepared on "Apocalypse Now" that Francis Ford Coppola had to shut down production for a week and personally talk him through his part). Nicol Williamson got so deep into his portrayal of John Barrymore during the Broadway production of "I Hate Hamlet" that he drunkenly smacked his co-star, Evan Handler, on the backside with an épée. And then there's Joaquin Phoenix's recent, abrupt abandonment of Todd Haynes' latest film — a project the star had developed with the director, and whose departure left an entire cast and crew suddenly without work.

Was the uncharted tropical paradise of "Gilligan's Island" a safe haven from such behavior? Not as such, no. Not with Tina Louise around.

According to Russell Johnson in his memoir "Here on Gilligan's Isle," there were some difficult moments on the set of the classic sitcom, and they sometimes required the intervention of show creator Sherwood Schwartz. One of these minor meltdowns involved Louise, who, perhaps taking a page from Williamson's book, got a little too deep into character as the pampered movie star Ginger (which she did not technically originate). According to Schwartz, Louise could be a tad opaque in thought. Keep that in mind as he relates this anecdote:

"One time, Tina refused to do a scene, for what reason I don't know. I had to step in to keep things going. So i went to her dressing room, where she had secluded herself, and I asked her what the problem was. She told me, 'This is a ridiculous scene, and I don't want to do it.' I pointed out that it was an integral scene and she would have to do it. Without a beat, she said to me, 'Would you have my dressing room painted grey?'"

What transpired here? Enough, apparently, for Louise to feel heard about the scene. She went before the cameras and shot her part like a total pro — she knew her lines, didn't hit anyone, and honored her contract. Remarkable.