The day before Connor Ratliff was scheduled to shoot his view forBand of Brothers , executive manufacturer / film director Tom Hanks fire him for have " dead eye . "
monition : Some entries mention drug and alcohol abuse .
No matter how magical or glamorous acting may seem, it’s still a job at the end of the day, and actors can (and do!) get fired.
Here are 14 actors who got fired in the middle of production:
1.Sean Young wasreportedlyfired from her role as Tess Trueheart inDick Tracybecause she didn’t come off as “maternal enough” in the dailies.
However , Sean afterward alleged that she was fired from the role because she rejected lead actor Warren Beatty ’s improvement . He deny this and held that raise her was a creative decision .
She was replaced by Glenne Headly.
2.InChicken Little, the titular character was originally a little girl voiced by Holly Hunter. However, after her lines were recorded, Disney’s then-CEOreportedlysaid, “I don’t want it to be a girl, I want it to be a boy.” The movie ended up getting a full overhaul.
Director Mark Dindal toldCollider , " I remember being told , ' lady friend will go see a movie with a son protagonist , but boys wo n’t see a movie with a girl protagonist . ' That was the wisdom at the time , untilFrozencomes out and makes $ 1 billion . "
Holly was replaced byZach Braff.
3.The day before he was scheduled to shoot his scenes forBand of Brothers, Connor Ratliff wasfiredfrom a minor role by executive producer/directorTom Hanks, who felt he had “dead eyes.”
Twenty years later , Connor correct out to inquire why Tom really raise him with his podcastDead center .
Appearing onDead Eyesin 2022 , Tom suppose , " Let me first take full responsibleness for doing this to you . This was without a doubt the act of the theater director , and that was me … [ It was ] one of those very , very pernicious sort of decisions that direct the history in the counsel you want it to go . "
4.InThe Truman Show, Christof was originally played by Dennis Hopper, but he wasreportedlyreplaced because he couldn’t remember his lines.
Dennis told theSabotage Times , " I was on the stage set for , like , two days , and got fired … Scott Rudin , the producer , had made an agreement with the managing director [ Peter Weir ] that … he did n’t want me to do the part , and if he did n’t like what I did after the first day ’s daily , then he would fire me . And they enkindle me . "
Ed Harris took over the role.
5.InValley of the Dolls,Judy Garlandwas originally set to play Helen Lawson. However, due to her contentious working relationship with director Mark Robson and complications from her struggles with alcohol abuse, she wasfired.
At the 2009 eventMarc Huestis Presents SPARKLE , PATTY , SPARKLE , her ex-husband - costar Patty Dukesaid , " [ Judy ] was charming and comical — oh , very laughable — but she was having a problem with alcohol , and I do n’t roll in the hay about other thing . So the director , who was the meanest Word of a bitch I ever met in my sprightliness … he kept [ Judy ] expect and waiting . She had to total in at 6:30 in the morning , and he would n’t even design to get to her until four in the good afternoon . She was very down to ground , so she did n’t mind waiting . What I mind was that there were valet around her who append her with wine and other things , so when she finally did get called to the exercise set , she could n’t function very well … and she crumbled . "
After being fired , Judyallegedlytook all of her costumes from the bent . She reportedly later on outwear one for a performance at the Palace Theater .
She was replaced by Susan Hayward.
Ahead of the announcement , some cast and crew member allegedly felt that something was " off " on set .
Cinematographer DeanCundey said , " There were signs , especially the last week or so . When we would set up a shot and we would shoot Chris Lloyd ’s angle , but we would n’t do the turnabout on Marty . I ’d say , ' Do n’t we need the slant ? ' and Bob would say , ' No , no , no , let ’s not worry about that . ' It did n’t take long for me to see that we were save our energy for what would come next . "
He was replaced by, of course, Michael J. Fox.
7.Initially, Harvey Keitel was supposed to play US Army Captain Benjamin Willard inApocalypse Now, but director Francis Ford Coppola famously replaced him a week into filming. Denying the director’s claims inCoppola’s Monster Film: The Making of ‘Apocalypse Now’,that he was fired because he “didn’t want to stay in the jungle,” Harvey toldInsider, “Well, Harvey Keitel spent three years in the United States Marines Corps in the jungle.”
In the Good Book , the director pronounce , " I could see [ Harvey ] was very uncomfortable about condition in the jungle . And I thought , Not only do I reckon he ’s wrong casting , but what ’s it drop dead to be like for six month in these difficult conditions in the jungle for a metropolis guy rope who ’s afraid of it ? I just decided to make this tough determination . "
Martin Sheen was actually the film director ’s original second choice for the role , after Steve McQueen , but he initially sour it down because he was n’t available .
He was replaced by Martin Sheen.
8.A few days in filmingDemolition Man, Lori Petty was fired from her role as Lenina Huxley. Producer Joel Silverblamedthe decision on “creative differences,” but Lori attributed it to her personality clash with lead actor Sylvester Stallone, tellingEntertainment Weekly, “Sly and I were like oil and water.”
She later told theDaily Beast , " It was the most uncool 24-hour interval in Hollywood for me . I just cover people the way I want to be plow , so I ’d rather not chit-chat about [ Joel ’s ] unkindness . "
She was replaced by Sandra Bullock.
9.Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the titular role inPredator. However, he told theHollywood Reporterthat producer Joel Silver fired him because it was impossible for him to safely move around the way the filmmakers wanted him to in the uncomfortably hot and cumbersome rubber costume on stilts.
He enounce , " My head was in the cervix . My hand were in the forearms , and there were cable [ seize to my finger to move the creature ’s school principal and jaw ] . My feet were in his calves , so I was on [ stilts ] . It was a wicked outfit … When Joel asked me to leap , I knew it was gon na be a bad one . I said , ' This is unimaginable , Joel . I conceive we ’re gon na have a problem . ' "
However , some gang members traverse this version of events . First advertising Beau Marks say , " We shot some [ footage with the original suit ] , place it back to the studio apartment , and the decision came back that we were to shoot everything we could without the wight in the suit , and we were to go back and redesign [ the animal ] . And when we went back to redesign it , we go to Stan Winston . And Stan decided that the way to do the suit is to start out with the tallest , fully grown cat he could find , not someone who was the quick public mover that Van Damme was . "
He was replaced by Kevin Peter Hall.
10.Initially, Lee Coleman was cast as Sean Robertson inFriday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. However, hereportedlyspent one week on set and filmed a single scene before he was replaced because his performance simply didn’t line up with the filmmakers' vision. You can see a photo of him in the rolehere.
However , an injury he sustained outside of filming was likely another contributing factor . While out for a nighttime nudge , hereportedlytripped , scratching up his face .
He was replaced by Scott Reeves.
11.Due toThe Good Dinosaurneeding"a different perspective to get the idea out," director Bob Peterson was removed, leaving his co-director Peter Sohn to head the “Pixar Brain Trust.” Most of the animated movie’s star-studded voice cast was replaced as well, including John Lithgow, who wassupposedto re-record all his lines as Poppa before being ultimately replaced by Jeffrey Wright.
Additionally , Lucas Neff wasreplacedby Raymond Ochoa as Arlo . Neil Patrick Harris , Judy Greer , and Bill Hader ’s role as Arlo ’s siblings were trim back to one role , which snuff it to Marcus Scribner . However , another sibling role later go to Maleah Padilla .
The only original voice actor who remained was Frances McDormand as Momma Ida.
12.InHer, Samantha Morton was the original voice of Samantha. However, when the movie got to the editing stage, writer/director Spike Jonze “realized that what the character/movie needed was different from what Samantha and [he] had created together.”
He toldVulture , " I think , unfortunately , it ’s fairly normal in terms of my not - quite - painless - for - everyone - involved ' process ' of divulge what the picture show is . Samantha was with us on set and was astonishing … I know Samantha . I ’ve been friends with her everlastingly , and I hope we make lots of thing together in the future tense . "
Scarlett Johansson replaced her.
13.Initially, James Remar was going to play Dwayne Hicks inAliens. However, he waslet goa month into filming because he was arrested for drug possession after police raided his apartment in London.
OnThe Movies That Made Us , James said that he regret " have a go at it over so many masses , " namelyAlienscreenwriter Walter Hill , because of his conflict with addiction .
However , there was another potential contributing factor to his firing . On theAliensset , Jamesreportedlyfound a prop gunman and fired it into theThe Little Shop of Horrorsset next doorway . There were no injuries , but he left a kettle of fish in the wall of the other set .
He was replaced by Michael Biehn.
14.And finally, Kel O’Neill denied longstanding rumors that he was fired from the role of Eli Sunday inThere Will Be Bloodbecause he was intimidated by lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis’s method acting tactics. However, he attributed it to his working relationship with writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson not being as good as the other actors' and to his fading interest in being an actor.
Kel toldVulture , " Some directors I ’ve worked with — who very few people would say are estimable director than Paul — just had a way of making me sense well-off . For some reason , even though every other role player I make love had a relationship with Paul that was extremely positive and where they did their safe work , that just did n’t happen with me . I would impute that in the first place to a loser on my side : An actor should , with every snow leopard of their humans , be attempting to give the director what he or she wants . And I withdraw going in and out on whether I could really do that . "
He run short on to be a director .
He was replaced by Paul Dano, who also played Paul Sunday, the role he was initially cast in.
If you or someone you know is shin with substance abuse , you could call SAMHSA ’s National Helpline at 1 - 800 - 662 - HELP ( 4357 ) and get more resourceshere .
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