Top 10 Actors Who Got Fired
Anyone can get fired. Obviously it’s always a realistic scenario for us average Joes. But is also a real risk for people of fame. Athletes can get cut. Singers can get dropped. And actors can get fired from their films or shows. Obviously, I’m going to focus on the former because this is a movie blog. Just for clarification sake, this is going to be when an actor was terminated from a film either during pre-production, filming, or in some cases, post-production. This list will include actors fired from sequels (Terence Howard in ‘Iron Man 2’ or Johnny Depp in the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ films), because those deserve their own list.
Ryan Gosling in ‘The Lovely Bones’- I love Ryan Gosling. I have no date he’s a great dad in real life, but he’s never really been the type to play the dad role in a movie. This was going to be his chance. He was fired the day before filming started and replaced with Mark Wahlberg. The reason? Gosling was 26 and wanted to appear older. So he grew a beard. Fair choice. And he gained a significant amount of weight. He didn’t run these changes past the filmmakers and well, they weren’t in favor, so he got the cut.
Chloë Grace Moretz in ‘Bolt’- We’re going to have a little run of voice roles here. Disney’s 2008 film, ‘Bolt’ stars John Travolta as the titular canine actor who believes he has super powers. The film also stars Miley Cyrus as Bolt’s owner, Penny. Before Cyrus got the part, it was played by Chloë Grace Moretz, who apparently recorded all of her lines before losing the job. Moretz does receive a credit as ‘Young Penny’ which makes sense, since the reason she was fired was the filmmakers felt her voice sounded too young.
Colin Firth in ‘Paddington’- Ben Whishaw is not quite the same level of name as Colin Firth. He is however a great choice to voice the little marmalade loving bear. However, Firth first had the role and recored all his lines as Paddington. The studio decided Firth’s voice wasn’t right for the role (seemed to mature for the innocent young bear), so he voluntarily dropped out. So I guess that means he wasn’t fired and shouldn’t be on this list. I guess he should’ve been on my ‘Actors Who Dropped Out’ list. Well too dang bad.
Samantha Morton in ‘Her’- Wow, another actor fired in post. In this Spike Jonze film starring Joaquin Phoenix as a man who bonds with an A.I. voice, the voice originated from Samantha Morton. Morton was actually on set for filming and did all her voice recording live in a booth on set. She and Phoenix also avoided seeing each other on set, at suggestion from Jonze. Jonze however felt the voice didn’t match what the movie needed so the role was given to Scarlett Johansson. Jonze gave Morton an associate producer credit for her work.
Holly Hunter in ‘Chicken Little’- The final voice role is that of another Disney titular character from the 00s, Mr. Chicken Little. Mr. Little however, was intended to be Ms. Little and Holly Hunter was brought in and did voice work for 8 months before the studio pushed for the character to be male instead. (I really wanted to insert a joke here about Disney pushing a woke agenda) 40 actors auditioned to take on the part and the studio had interest in Michael J. Fox, David Spade, & Matthew Broderick, all of whom had worked on previous Disney films (‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire,’ ‘Emperor’s New Groove,’ & ‘The Lion King,’ respectively). The studio however felt Zach Braff was the best fit as he could pitch his voice to sound ‘slightly like a junior high kid.’ That feels like an insult. The role of Little’s best friend & eventual love interest, Abby Mallard, was originally conceived as a male, Ugly Duckling, voiced by Sean Hayes. When they changed the chicken, the changed the duck too with Jamie Lee Curtis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jodie Foster, Geena Davis, Madonna, & Hunter herself considered before the part went to Joan Cusack. Wow that a long blurb about ‘Chicken Little.’
Jean-Claude Van Damme in ‘Predator’- You may be asking what part was JCVD supposed to play in ‘Predator?' Arnold’s Dutch? No! Carl Weathers’s Dillon? No! Jesse Ventura’s Cooper? No! One of the other supporting tough guys? No! The Predator? Yes! The filmmakers cast Van Damme as the antagonist so he could use his martial arts skills to portray a ninja-like hunter, but when they lined the 5’9 180 lbs. Van Damme next to the 220 lbs. Weathers, the 245 lbs. Ventura, & the 235 lbs. Schwarzenegger, all of whom stand 6’2, he wasn’t as intimidating as they hoped. So they replaced him with Kevin Peter Hall, fresh off playing Harry of ‘Harry and the Hendersons.’ Hall’s 7’2 frame matched up better with the heroes.
Eric Stoltz in ‘Back to the Future’- Michael J. Fox was always the first choice to Marty McFly. However, the studio didn’t ask him to begin with because of his commitment to ‘Family Ties.’ They went through the laundry list of young stars to consider which is quite long and star-studded. Some notable additions are John Cusack, C. Thomas Howell, Johnny Depp, Ralph Macchio, Charlie Sheen,Ben Stiller, Jon Cryer, Billy Zane, & Robert Downey Jr. The part went to none of them though and ended up in the hands of Eric Stoltz. There was a deal in place by the creators that if they didn’t like Stoltz they would reshoot the film. As you well know, it didn’t work out and he was replaced with Fox. This also resulted in Melora Hardin being fired as McFly’s girlfriend, Jennifer, because she was taller than Fox.
Stuart Townsend in ‘The Lord of the Rings’- If you read the list of people who were interested in playing a part in Middle-Earth or Peter Jackson was interested in, it’s incredible we were able to end up with as good of a cast as we did. I’m actually going to leave that as it’s own article (quantity folks), so the only person we will be discussing is Stuart Townsend who was cast in the role of Aragorn. Jackson then decided the actor was too young, so he was replaced with Viggo Mortensen who is 14 years older. No disrespect to Townsend, but this was the right choice.
Dennis Hopper in ‘The Truman Show’- Just to be clear, Hopper was not almost Truman. Gary Oldman did some test footage for the part, but it always belonged to Jim Carrey. The creator of the show, Christof, however was not always played by Ed Harris. Dennis Hopper was cast and fired two days into filming. Apparently, director, Peter Weir, & producer, Scott Rudin, had made a deal with each other to fire Hopper if they didn’t enjoy his performance. And that sure is what happened, so Harris was hired as his replacement.
Natalie Portman in ‘Romeo + Juliet’- In one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s early hits, this Baz Luhrmann directed film retells Shakespeare’s classic story. Leo was cast early on as Romeo, and Natalie Portman was originally cast as Juliet. The problem was that Leo was 21 during filming, and Portman was 14. Yes, dearest reader you are correct. That’s SUPER creepy. They said that test footage looked as though he was ‘molesting her’ which really doesn’t scream love story. So, she was replaced by Claire Danes. I’ll say this was a loose use of firing, because it appears this may have been a mutual departure.
