Joe Kerry Defended Finn Wolfhard From A Panel Moderator's Inappropriate Comment, And 16 Other Times Actors Stood Up For Their Castmates

Most of the time, acting involves spending a lot of time with the other actors on set, so a lot of costars wind up becoming close friends. Of course, good friends support each other, which is why so many actors are quick to defend their co-stars.

Here are 17 times celebs stood up for their costars, both on and off set:

1.A Yellowjackets production member criticized Melanie Lynskey's body, telling her, "What do you plan to do? I'm sure the producers will get you a trainer. They'd love to help you with this." In her defense, Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis banded together to support her, with Juliette writing a letter to the producers.

2.After some Heartstopper fans essentially forced Kit Connor into coming out by making queerbaiting accusations, Olivia Colman, his onscreen mom, stood up for him in the press. She told Variety, "I am so proud of him, but I am not proud of how people bullied him. I think people should be allowed to have their own journey."

"But I'm incredibly proud of him as a young man to deal with all of that and be in the spotlight. It's unfair. But he's amazing. He's a very beautiful human being," she said.

3.During a Stranger Things panel at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, moderator Patton Oswalt introduced then-14-year-old Finn Wolfhard as "an actor born with the greatest porn name ever." Costars Joe Keery and David Harbour both stepped away from their mics to check on Finn and encouraged him to "ignore" the comment. Joe also shot Patton a warning glare.

When a clip of the interaction resurfaced on TikTok, fellow costar, Caleb McLaughlin, commented, "Joe’s really Mom bro. Truly an inspiration."

Patton has since apologized.

4.For the Jurassic World franchise, the pay disparity between Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt was much bigger than initially reported. Though their deals were already set in stone for all three movies, Chris pushed for Bryce to be paid equally for things like games and rides after he found out. He told her, "You guys don't even have to do anything. I'm gonna do all the negotiating. We're gonna be paid the same, and you don't have to think about this, Bryce."

She told Insider, "And I love him so much for doing that. I really do, because I've been paid more for those kinds of things than I ever was for the movie."

5.When they were planning to do a comedy together in 2017, Octavia Spencer taught Jessica Chastain about the pay disparity between women of color and their white counterparts in Hollywood. In response, Jessica said, "Octavia, we're gonna get you paid on this film...You and I are gonna be tied together, we're gonna be Favored Nations, and we're gonna make the same thing and you're gonna make that amount."

On Twitter, Octavia said, "I am making five times my salary because Jessica stood with me. I don't know what or if it cost her anything as far as her rate. I just know she stood with me, and [I] am eternally grateful."

6.When the studio refused to meet Sienna Miller's rate for 21 Bridges, Chadwick Boseman "ended up donating some of his salary to get [her] to the number that [she] had asked for."

She told Essence, "He said, 'You're getting paid what you deserve, and what you're worth.' It's just unfathomable to imagine another man in that town behaving that graciously or respectfully. In the aftermath of this, I've told other male actor friends of mine that story, and they all go very, very quiet and go home and probably have to sit and think about things for a while. But there was no showiness. It was, 'Of course I'll get you to that number, because that's what you should be paid.'"

7.While filming a water scene for Jumanji as child actors, Bradley Pierce and Kirsten Dunst were drained and tired. Production tried to get them to work overtime in violation of child labor laws, but Robin Williams pulled the director and producers aside and said, "No, we are not doing any extra time. You're going to let everybody out now, and we're going to come back next week.'"

Bradley told CBCListen, "For all the dollars that would have cost, nobody would have stood up the way he did. In addition to being warm, generous, and kind, he was also very protective."

8.When a Brideshead Revisited producer asked Hayley Atwell to lose weight for the film, Emma Thompson stepped in and said, "If you speak to her about this again, on any level, I will leave this picture. You are never to do that."

Emma told Vanity Fair, "It's evil what's happening and what's going on there, and it's getting worse...Sometimes there are just some subjects that you absolutely have to make noise about because it's so tedious and it's gone on and on."

9.When Queen Latifah was on Living Single, "the word came down that [the four women starring on the show] needed to lose weight." On behalf of herself and her castmates, she sent back this refusal: "We are what women look like. We're not going to lose weight for whoever's idea of what we're supposed to look like."

She told Entertainment Tonight, "Here we are, four different women, four different body types and we needed to lose weight. If anything, it angered me and disheartened me, but it really angered me."

10.Discussing Disney's refusal to remove LGBTQ+ scenes from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for distribution in specific countries, Xóchitl Gómez told AsiaOne, "Yes, my name may be circled within hate and stuff but it's okay." However, Benedict Wong cut in to defend her, saying, "It's not okay...There's a real level of shame for all those trolls that are cowards not to actually put their face on, and they should feel a deep shame of what they're doing. Let's all just play nice. Let's all just enjoy...what we are representing."

He continued, "It's sad that fans in that country won't get to see this as yet. But all we are doing is radiating representation, voicing the voiceless. And that's all that we can do — represent people so that they can be seen."

11.After racist trolls bullied Kelly Marie Tran off of Instagram over her character in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, John Boyega, her onscreen love interest, called those fans out on Twitter. He said, "If you don't like Star Wars or the characters, understand that there are decision makers, and harassing the actors/actresses will do nothing."

In a follow-up tweet, he added, "To the majority of Star Wars fans, thank you for supporting and putting yourselves in our shoes. You understand that there is a process, so much appreciated!"

12.When WarnerMedia decided to release King Richard on HBO Max the same day it hit theaters, the cast members lost a lot of money in theatrical returns. To help make up for it, star and producer, Will Smith, personally wrote them bonus checks out of his reported $40 million pay.

The money he gave them was in addition to the compensation they received from the studio for the changed release strategy.

13.Responding to the racist backlash to Zendaya's casting in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tom Holland told Global Grind, "I feel like our generation of people are moving on past this whole idea [that] you can't cast someone who is not of the right race of a character and stuff, and I really think we're breaking through and changing all of that. Z is perfect for it. She's so powerful and so strong-willed, and it's not going to shake her at all."

He also said, "The thing is with Zendaya she knows that, from being on set with her, everyone is always complimenting everyone. Everyone is so loving here. What I love about working for Marvel is how welcoming and kind everyone is. She has such a large following on Instagram, and the majority of those people are all for her and all love her."

14.When Scarlett Johansson sued Disney for breach of contract over the simultaneous release of Black Widow in theaters and on Disney+, her Marvel costar, Elizabeth Olsen, supported her publicly. Elizabeth told Vanity Fair, "I think she's so tough, and literally when I read that, I was like, 'Good for you, Scarlett.'"

She also said, "[I'm] not worried on Scarlett’s behalf."

15.When Emmy Rossum fought to be paid more than William H. Macy on Shameless to make up for years of being paid less, he was "the person who supported [her] the most."

On The Hollywood Reporter's Comedy Actress Roundtable, she said, "To have the man counterpart on my show be like, 'Yes, she does deserve this and more' was so validating. And after it became public, it was a quick resolution."

16.On the Gone With the Wind set, Lennie Bluett, an extra, was rightfully frustrated to find the bathrooms were racially segregated. So, he brought the issue to lead actor, Clark Gable, who reportedly called up the director and property manager and told them, "If you don't get those goddamn signs down, you don't have a Rhett Butler on this film."

Clark also reportedly threatened to boycott the movie's premiere if Hattie McDaniel wasn't allowed to attend.

17.And finally, Don Cheadle was the only MCU actor to defend Brie Larson from the intense online hate she faced. After "body language expert" Mandy O'Brien posted a viral video accusing Brie of trying to "dominate" her male costars and giving them "bedroom eyes" in an interview, Don replied, "You should see my 'body language' right now. This is some of the funniest stuff I've ever heard."

He continued, "Brie was trying to keep her ponytail behind her because her hair stylist kept flying in and fixing it. She's actually being over-accommodating. Amazing."