15 times big actors were fired from major movies
Ryan Gosling has been shown the door. Natalie Portman and Colin Firth, too. Yes, even A-listers can find themselves jobless—and for some pretty crazy reasons
Film Features The Lords Of Flatbush
Losing a job sucks, no matter who you are. And although it’s easy to believe that it would be a breeze to deal with if you’re rich and famous, being a high-profile actor and publicly losing a big role must still feel incredibly shitty. It’s a surprisingly common occurrence in Hollywood, though, as stars like Colin Firth, Ryan Gosling, Megan Fox, and Natalie Portman can attest.
The A.V. Club has compiled a list of 15 times that big actors were let go from major projects. The reasons range from behind-the-scenes nerves to real-world controversies—and we imagine a good few of these still sting many years later. But please don’t mourn for these fallen heroes. They all probably had pay-or-play deals that allowed them to eke out a meager living and subsist on mayonnaise sandwiches while they waited for the Movie Gods to bestow upon them another princely payday.
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Ryan Gosling has been
shown the door. Natalie Portman and Ken Norton, too.Ken Norton, the 49ers linebacker?
The boxer who was in Mandingo?
That’s linebacker Ken Norton’s dad!
You people are missing the real triumph of this slideshow, and that’s that they got a photo of one of Jim Spanfeller’s executive desk toys:
That’s just how people refer to Edward. “’ken Norton, man.”
I heard he was next in line if Ruffalo didn’t agree to the part.
Not even a mention of the pretty much assumed to be true rumor that Van Damme intentionally injured a stuntman on the set of Predator?
Given all of the other stories behind the scenes of Predator, I feel like that story is almost a blip in the grand scheme of things. Also, with the varying takes on how/why Van Damme left the movie, it’s difficult to say if that injury even played into it.
No kidding, the behind the scenes of Predator was kind of crazy. My favorite was them having to hire a body guard to be on set to protect everyone FROM Sonny Landham.
Not Predator though but Cyborg. Stabbed the dude in the eye with a prop knife, partially blinding him. He was also in the army but seeing as they don’t need half blind soldiers he got dismissed.
Rumour was that Van Damme was hired to play the Predator because he had experience as a dancer and they originally wanted the creature to be fast and agile. However, the prototype Predator looked like a giant shrimp, it was difficult to move around in, and JVC kept complaining that the thick costume material and the jungle heat made it unbearable to wear.
He wouldn’t have been the only one complaining. I remember the stories of John Wesley Shipp’s Flash where they put the piping through the suit to run cold water so he wouldn’t, like, die.
I just heard that he was let go because he was simply too short for the suit. Which seems accurate. JCVD isn’t a tall guy.
That would fit with the article’s info. The monster’s design was changed to one with a much taller actor in mind, making the role impossible for JCVD.
However, the prototype Predator looked like a giant shrimp
In case anyone thinks this description is an exaggeration:PS, The red suit was used for the invisibility scenes, to separate the costume out from the green background. They used the same technique with the redesigned Predator.
Who thought “let’s cast van Damme for his agility and then put a 100 pound latex prawn costume on him!”??
IIRC, it was also that JCVD realized that he wouldn’t really get “credit” for the work/role buried inside the suit? Or was that another creature feature?
Like 70% of Back to the Future was already filmed with Stoltz. They originally wanted MJF but he was busy with Family Ties and other projects. By the time they scrapped Stoltz, MJF was available and they reshot almost the entire film with him pulling doubles—working full time on both Family Ties (days) and BTTF (nights). MJF’s documentary Still and Netflix’s The Movies That Made Us both cover this.
Now I’m picturing Marty McFly calling Crispin Glover a fucking mark, punching Biff while wearing the Dynamite Diamond Ring and demanding Zemeckis give him a raise or he’ll jump ship to Rocky IV.
The Blank Check podcast episode about BTTF is also super interesting. Basically Fox would finish his days on Family Ties at one studio, then get in a van with a mattress in the back and sleep while he was driven to the other studio to film Back to the Future.
I love Julianne Moore, but it’s hard to imagine anyone other than McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive me. I really hope she finds her way into more dramatic roles because she was great in that.
I feel the same. She did an amazing job. And Richard E. Grant was wonderful, too.As much as I love both Julianne Moore and Chris O’Dowd, this particular movie was, in my opinion, better with who they ended up with.
That Megan Fox story was denied by Spielberg. Michael Bay is the one who made up that story when he was trying to destroy her career. You don’t fire someone for proving Godwin’s Law.
Why was he trying to destroy her career? First guess would be she didn’t wanna sleep with him, but considering what a nut job he is it could have been she made fun of his favourite toy car…
“Megan! Look at my new Hot Wheels Camaro! Isn’t it AWESOME?!”“Um, I guess? I was more a Matchbox girl-”“YOU WILL NEVER WORK IN THIS INDUSTRY AGAIN.“Wh-”“GET. OUT.”
She said she didn’t think camera shots that spin around in a circle look cool.
She’s not wrong.
Megan fox and Michael bay worked again in the ninja turtle movies he produced and she had a decent amount of tv and movie roles after transformers.
She basically called him a dork so you’re not far off.
Bay made her wash his car (while he watched) as part of her audition process. Make of that what you will.
I mean She worked again with bay in the ninja turtle movies he produced.
It gets weirder when she winds up being April O’Neil in Bay’s Ninja Turtles.
“Ryan Gosling has been shown the door. Natalie Portman and Ken Norton, too”Sadly, Ken Norton made a great Ed Norton, but Jackie Gleason thought otherwise.
Remar is actually still very briefly in Aliens- the one big establishing shot of the Marines entering the alien hive was a forced perspective thing and they presumably didn’t want to redo it, so he’s in that shot even though you can’t see his face.
Also, the shot in Back to the Future of Marty jumping into the Delorean when the Libyans attack is Stoltz, as everyone figured he was moving so fast that no one would notice and they didn’t need to film the stunt again.
is this a “stuffed animal polar bear in LOST pilot” or a “Harry Potter turns into a bad cartoon when he starts flying” situation where they didn’t realize people could just pause the frigging thing?
At the time the movie was being filmed, most people didn’t have VCRs in their homes, so no, they definitely weren’t thinking about people pausing. Also, you’ve clearly never paused a VHS in an attempt to get a clear look at something.
I had a VCR when Back to the Future came out, but you go off king
You must not have ever paused that thing.
I paused taped vhs’s of the scrambled Spice network looking for recognizable boobs, sweetheart
We’ve come a long way from VHS era regarding Back to the Future. Not sure on the Potter thing. It was probably budget constraints.
Why would people pause a movie to look at actors’ faces more or less randomly to determine if maybe it’s a different actor than expected they’re seeing?Doesn’t seem reasonable, or logical to me…You need knowledge ahead of time to know when to pause – making the pausing itself basically redundant. Like you are aware now, after having read through this here informative slideshow. 😉
I mean presumably you would only pause on that shot either by random chance (in which case you’re likely not studying the image that closely) or if you’re specifically looking for it, in which case, I mean you can find all sorts of weird shit that way.
can and do!
I also saw a clip somewhere how supposedly in the scene in the cafe in 55 where Marty punches Biff there is a brief shot of Marty from behind that is Stoltz
I could be remembering wrong, but I think in one of the extended editions Remar’s face is visible for a split second either shortly before or during the first attack on the marines. But there’s no indication he’s supposed to be Hicks, and it’s so fast that viewers would be excused for assuming he was one of the fodder marines.
Stoltz also reportedly got on a lot of people’s nerves on Back to the Future due to his insistence on method acting, and they were all glad to see him go. Fox had been the original choice anyway, and Stoltz was only brought in due to his busy schedule with Family Ties seemingly making it impossible. As it was, Fox got barely any sleep for months as he divided his time between the two projects and described himself as being a zombie during the whole time, but the results are well worth it.
Puh-leaze. It was 1985. He was snorting whatever didn’t run from him
Also the Stoltz footage is objectively terrible. I’m not a film guy, but if I had to teach a class about the importance of casting, I’d just show Stoltz and Fox’s interpretations of ‘Marty McFly realizes he traveled back in time’ to everyone.They both have the same facial expression — shocked — yet Stoltz’s McFly comes across as deeply disturbing, whereas Fox’s is funny.
The problem was that to method act effectively, Stoltz had to travel back in time, and he kept disrupting major historical events. The production had to stop him killing Teddy Roosevelt several times.
C’mon, I’ve gotta call bullshit on this. As Teddy himself said: “It takes more than an over-acting douchebag to kill a bull moose!”
I mean to be fair he just said that to you yesterday
Teddy was protected by the sports almanac in his jacket pocket
Stoltz, Schrank…maybe it was just a German thing?
I remember that.
I don’t think he ever recovered from banging his mom.
So many people have talked about Fox being such a breath of fresh air on the set when he took over the role. He showed up, worked hard, and was just nice to people and everyone fucking loved him.
Plus anyone who thought Stoltz going method on BttF clearly misunderstood the assignment.
Something to be said about professionalism and not being a raging asshole to co-workers. Keanu Reeves owes a good chunk of his career to developing a reputation for being great to work with, generous to the crew and nice to fellow actors.
Set of Some Kind of Wonderful.
Stoltz: “So, how’d it go after I left? Was Fox a dick?”
Lea: “No, he was great. We’re already signed to do two more. That movie may end up being the thing I’m most famous for, and I have already let Tom Cruise touch my boobs on screen.”
Stoltz: “(grumbles) He seems like a dick.”
I know the point stands regardless of the chronology, but calling Winkler’s performance in The Lords of Flatbush a pale imitation of Fonzie might lead some to believe that Winkler was coasting on his Fonz persona there for a while. In reality, that role preceded his Happy Days role.
I think the real problem is calling Lords of Flatbush a big movie.The only reason anybody’s ever heard of it is the later fame of Fonz and Rocky.It’s was never a big movie. It’s barlely a trivia question.
And that fact that it and a greasy chicken sandwich is the origin of the rumour that Richard Gere shoves gerbils up his arsehole.
the only place that was warm was in the backseat of a Toyota. I was eating a hotdog and he climbs in with a half a chicken covered in mustard with grease nearly dripping out of the aluminum wrapper. I said, ‘That thing is going to drip all over the place.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ I said, ‘If it gets on my pants you’re gonna know about it.’ He proceeds to bite into the chicken and a small, greasy river of mustard lands on my thigh.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071772/trivia/It does sound oddly sexual. I know I’ll never think of an offer of a “greasy chicken sandwich” in the same way ever again.
They still haven’t fixed the Ken Norton thing
But it was co-directed by Stephen Verona, who later directed 1990’s Angela Lansbury’s Positive Moves, a fitness video. I mean, when you think athletic instruction don’t you immediately think “You know who’s buff? That woman who plays Jessica Fletcher!”
You’ve gotta be spry in order to commit as many murders as Jess Fletcher did.
I’m sorry…can you repeat that??
If you told me Lords of Flatbush was a 70s porno, I’d believe you.
No, that was something else that a pre-Rocky Stalone did,
“What was a very affordable movie for HBO circa 1978?”
James Remar and Stuart Townsend were never “big actors”.
The Ryan Gosling story’s actually pretty funny.“Check out how fat I got! Let’s do this fucking thing!”
“Yeah, no. Let’s get Mark Wahlberg and his fivehead instead.”
Also, that movie was terrible, it really could have used gosling or somethingPeter Jackson really needs to either get back to basics or do what Raimi did and find something that lets him be more himself again…and to get out of the Tintin films. I wish he’d just make a horror movie again.
Peter Jackson really needs to either get back to basics or do what Raimi
did and find something that lets him be more himself again
He’s spent the last several years making technically innovative documentaries about WW1 and The Beatles. That’s about as Peter Jackson as Peter Jackson can get.
But yeah, it’d be nice to see a low budget Bad Taste 2: Derek Strikes Back.
THE FEEBLES TAKE AUCKLAND
That quote from him made me laugh out loud. “I really believed he should be 210 pounds” no elaboration so specific
Yeah, it’s the wildly different expectations that make this so funny to me. Gosling transformed his body, probably thinking he’d get nominated for an Oscar. Jackson just wanted a conventional leading man with proven draw.Just imagining that meeting when they both realized they weren’t on the same page — at all — makes me laugh out loud.
He wasn’t fired – he backed out himself – but the excessively first-named Dougray Scott was originally supposed to play Wolverine in the X-Men films. Hugh Jackman was a last-minute replacement, and thus is film history made.
Remember, you guarantee fame with two first names.But not three.
It was a scheduling problem. Scott couldn’t do X-Men because Mission: Impossible 2 filming fell behind schedule, and Mission: Impossible 2 was delayed because Tom Cruise had overrun filming Eyes Wide Shut.In conclusion, Jackman owes his whole career to Stanley Kubrick.
Man, a Stanley Kubrick directed X-Men would be insane and glorious.
Bullshit. Hugh could’ve built a career off of playing a truckie with an unreasonable body type:
But he wouldn’t have presented the Oscars, or been in, er… [checks IMDB] Eddie The Eagle? You may have a point. His non-Logan filmography isn’t much more impressive than those of a hundred other interchangeably handsome actors. Except maybe The Prestige.
Here’s a what if. Dougray gets Wolverine and gets Hugh Jackman’s action career – the romcoms, not so much.
Hugh, after several more years of lighting up Broadway, decides to try to hit Hollywood and auditions for Iron Man and gets it. He’s Tony Stark. Dougray is Logan.
RDJ is dead in a $5 a night hotel with his face in a hooker’s ass crack.
Well, unfortunately sometimes it’s not a super great filmography because of the film and sometimes it’s because he is very serviceable but rarely great. Prestige, Prisoners, Bad Education are all very good movies, but some of the big swings like The Fountain and Les Mis were undone in ways that there wasn’t anything he could do (the fountain by the dialogue mainly, les mis by russell crowe and the decision to shoot up everybody’s dirty noses), not to mention ugh Chappie. Reminiscence was especially inert and disappointing.
I’m sure Leo didn’t mind lol
Then I was fat and unemployed…Hey, Ryan. A lot of us can relate…
If I had a nickle…
This is a better than normal listicle. I had never read the Natalie Portman or Dennis Hopper stories. Hopper and Ed Harris are VERY different actors.
I could see Pryce in that role, he has the same kind of quiet confidence that Harris demonstrates nearly every time out. Hopper = chaos, and Nicholson would be too heavy. If Harris was the 4th choice then they got lucky.
Agreed – especially at that point in his career, Nicholson would be way too “holy crap is that Jack Nicholson?” to play. Pryce would be able to play the same type, but yeah they really lucked out with Harris
Ed Harris is so perfect in that role. Dennis Hopper is awesome… but he doesn’t have the range of Harris.
Agreed. Hopper would’ve played it too arch. Harris was capable of delivering on the gentle creator side as well as the ferocious distempered god aspect. It’s a more delicate balance than it probably seemed before they started shooting. I can’t see Hopper selling those quiet moments of describing Truman’s childhood with bemused affection nearly as well.
I was surprised there was no note about Keitel out of Eyes Wide Shut, though…
I think Keitel just straight up quit that one because he didn’t want to do 60 takes of every scene.
Tthat’s a more likely story than the rumor that ran for years.
I think Ed Harris was miscast as well, but I could see where Hopper would not be right for that role. Pryce would have been good.
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Natalie Portman is only two years younger than Clare Danes, not four like you state (13 vs 17).
I hate that Natalie Portman was dismissed from R+J because she was too young. Shakespeare mentions explicitly how inappropriately young Juliet is – I believe she’s actually 13, same as Portman – and babyfaced 21-year-old Leo easily passed for 16. Then again, intimacy coordinators certainly weren’t a thing in the 90s so I suppose it’s for the best (in terms of making sure Portman was treated well/not exploited) that a 17-year-old took her spot.
the original version of the truman show was also written for gary oldman and set in a fake new york. the screenplay used to be floating around the internet and is fucking wild.
So Natalie Portman = the only time DiCaprio said, “nah, this chick’s too young.” Oh wait, the studio and director said that, not Leo.
I don’t expect his input on the matter was requested, honestly. Especially considering Portman got replaced before production started. Generally, actors don’t get a say in these things – unless they double as producers, which I don’t think was the case here.
There are 2 groups: 1) Those who would have been wildly miscast, despite their talent – Eric Stoltz in Back To the Future; Michael J Fox was a much better choice for the tone of the film.2) Those who were hastily re-cast and the initial actor would have been better – Kevin Spacey over Christopher Plummer. I am well-aware of the ‘Spacey-Problem,’ but I think Spacey would have brought more of a necessary menace to this role than Plummer did.Then again, I think Gosling gaining weight to play the Stanley Tucci role in The Lovely Bones would have been much more fascinating for him than just going for Wahlberg’s role. And when I saw Oppenheimer last night, I just kept thinking “Edward Norton should be in the Robert Downey Jr. role to add more intellectual heft to the entire project.”
Point being, it is a blast to armchair re-cast roles.
I didn’t realize that actors _think_ they can decide “I need to gain 60 pounds for this role,” or, “This character needs to have a fat suit and a big nose,” and are surprised to get themselves fired on account of it. Now I want to know about the ones who did that and _didn’t_ get fired!
It’s generally the big diva types who do shit like this it seems to me. Not sure how often they get away with it, probably depends on if they’re more famous than the director or not. 😛
…that would be Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now.
Is it a hot take to say Mark Ruffalo is a very mediocre Hulk/Bruce Banner?
He’s more memorable at least in my mind than the previous guy, so… I remember almost nothing at all of the Incredible Hulk movie.
I’m choosing to believe this is less of a “we couldn’t think of anything else to post about” and hopefully more “AVClubbers show up because they are Trivia Wizards.”
I think Firth would have been a better bear. His ‘voicework’ in The King’s Speech alone is amazing.
Someone actually considered casting a 13 year-old Portman for Romeo + Juliet? What the hell??
Have you seen the movie “Léon”?Btw, Portman was even younger when that movie was made, and Jean Reno was considerably older than Dicaprio was at the time.Btw II: Luc Besson is a creepy motherfucker.
Yes I have, and a major point was how creeped out with himself he got over her dress-up performance. At least they didn’t follow the novel, where he apparently did sleep with her.
Oh, there’s a novel? Wow, the more you know…Thanks!
“You do want to be in this film, don’t you?”
…Yeah, if Ian McKellan said that to me, I’d just crumble up and blow away rather than respond.
Also dunno whose idea it was to give him bangs, but that wasn’t working either.
Norton as Banner is weird. Marvel wasn’t really a studio back then and somehow he wrote a draft of the script and had some level of script approval. Which made it even harder to work with him. And knowing how much control Marvel has over their creators I can’t imagine them ever giving any actor that level of control again. Unless maybe if RDJ agreed to come back.
“The Lords of Flatbush” was made before “Happy Days,” so Henry Winkler couldn’t have been imitating Fonzie in the film.
Yeah, Sean Young was a real victim. Half the industry “unfairly” stated she was an asshole, in movie after movie.
That Megan Fox rumor was started by Bay himself and Spielberg basically said it was BS. Bay did not need to be pressured to fire her and even included a scene disparaging her character in the film. It’s just the kind of guy that Bay is.