10 Actors Who Got Fired From Roles Of A Lifetime
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00:00 So, they don't call it a big break for nothing. One role can definitely change everything
00:05 for an actor. For example, when Quentin Tarantino hired John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, it reignited
00:11 his career. When Julia Roberts did Pretty Woman, she became one of the most sought-after
00:15 leading ladies in Hollywood. And with the wild success of The Sopranos, James Gandolfini
00:21 secured his legacy as one of the all-time greats.
00:24 But the history of film and TV is littered with actors who seemingly landed the dream
00:28 gig only to let it slip through their fingers. Whether it was creative differences, overblown
00:32 egos or public scandals, these actors somehow messed up the job of a lifetime and no doubt
00:38 lived to regret it.
00:39 So let's take a look at them as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10
00:43 actors who got fired from roles of a lifetime.
00:46 10. Harvey Kittel – Captain Benjamin Willard – Apocalypse Now
00:51 After watching Martin Sheen's performance in Apocalypse Now, it's hard to imagine
00:54 anyone else in the role of Captain Willard. Sheen conveyed the thoughtful nature of Willard
00:59 effortlessly, while at the same time showing the character's abilities as a determined
01:03 and professional killer. At times, he seemed utterly in control, while at others, he seemed
01:08 near to insanity.
01:10 Imagine then somebody like Hollywood cool guy Steve McQueen in the role. McQueen could
01:14 play the quiet, brooding guy smoking a cigarette like nobody else, but could you imagine him
01:19 rolling around in the nude in a state of intoxicated despair? It just wouldn't fly.
01:23 Will McQueen was actually the director's first choice, but he ultimately turned it
01:27 down. Several other big-name actors were also in talks for the part, but eventually Harvey
01:31 Kittel landed the gig.
01:33 As a relatively new kid on the block, his salary was a mere $80,000 compared to the
01:37 $3 million Steve McQueen reportedly asked for. Harvey also had the benefit of actually
01:42 being in the US Marines in his youth. He was a good option on all fronts, but shortly into
01:47 shooting, the director realized that the actor was unsuited for the role, mainly because
01:50 the character of Willard was intended to be a passive onlooker. Whereas the actor had
01:55 a domineering presence, and so he got the axe, and Coppola returned to Martin Sheen.
02:00 9. Eric Stoltz
02:02 Marty McFly - Back to the Future
02:04 Back to the Future is one of the greatest films of the 1980s. It introduced another
02:08 generation to Chuck Berry and made Michael J. Fox a star. And let's not forget that
02:13 Huey Lewis classic, The Power of Love. This movie is simply one of the greatest pieces
02:18 of pop culture. But the movie could have been very different indeed, because the early cuts
02:23 were so different to what the studio envisioned that they made the decision to scrap a full
02:27 five weeks of footage along with the leading man.
02:30 During the 1980s, Eric Stoltz was considered one of the great young talents of the era.
02:35 He was known as a fairly serious actor who embodied the whole method approach. But this
02:39 really didn't fit with the tone that Robert Zemeckis envisioned for his movie. He wanted
02:43 a light-hearted action comedy with a charismatic lead who was both charming and funny.
02:48 Stoltz's interpretation of Marty McFly was as a brooding teenager crippled by anxieties
02:53 brought on by altering the past, and as such, it just didn't land. The studio fired the
02:58 actor and begged for their first choice, Michael J. Fox, to take the part. But the issue was
03:02 is that Fox was under obligation to film the sitcom Family Ties. An arrangement was made
03:07 whereby Fox would shoot all day on Family Ties and then work on Back to the Future at
03:11 night.
03:12 The money they got was definitely worth all the sacrifices.
03:15 8. Natalie Portman – Juliet – Romeo and Juliet
03:19 Baz Luhrmann's wacky modernised take on Shakespeare's most tragic tale turned the
03:24 world onto the rising star Leonardo DiCaprio. It also gave Claire Danes her first shot in
03:28 a leading role at the young age of 16. Leo was in his early 20s when he took on the role,
03:33 which might make some uncomfortable considering what the two characters got up to, but if
03:37 the studio had gone with their first choice for Juliet, things would have been even creepier.
03:42 The 13-year-old Natalie Portman had proven herself to be one hell of an actor in Leon
03:46 the Professional. So much so that Baz Luhrmann was keen to snap her up to play the role of
03:51 Juliet. She originally landed the gig when she was just 14, and needless to say early
03:55 footage left the studio feeling more than a little uneasy, given the romantic interactions
03:59 between the 20-something Leo and the 14-year-old Portman. Of course, the decision to replace
04:04 Portman didn't hurt her career, and it was certainly a wise move on the studio's part.
04:09 7. Stuart Townsend – Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings
04:13 When Peter Jackson came to casting the role of Aragorn, he went through a whole list of
04:16 possibilities – Russell Crowe, Daniel Day-Lewis, and even Nicolas Cage, if you can believe
04:22 it. But eventually Jackson settled on a relatively unknown actor, Stuart Townsend. Several months
04:26 before principal photography started, Jackson flew his cast out to New Zealand to take part
04:31 in a number of training exercises, which would also give the actors a chance to develop a
04:35 sense of camaraderie. Townsend was supposedly uncooperative in the run-up to filming, but
04:40 the story that's prevailed over the years is that he was simply too young to portray
04:43 his character. After months in New Zealand, the actor was given the boot just days before
04:47 filming got underway. Jackson's scramble for a new lead actor led him back to Russell
04:52 Crowe, who again turned it down. Finally, he landed on Viggo Mortensen. But it was no
04:57 certain thing – Mortensen was unfamiliar with Tolkien, and was only given 24 hours
05:01 to make the decision. Luckily, the actor's son got wind of the offer, and being a huge
05:05 fan of the books, insisted that his father take the role.
05:09 6. Gina Carano – Cara Dune, The Mandalorian
05:13 After a series of politically charged tweets, and aggressive and offensive comments made
05:17 on social media, she found herself facing a huge backlash. After being a fan favourite
05:22 in The Mandalorian, she soon became one of the most hated actors ever to appear in the
05:26 Star Wars franchise. She received flak due to several tweets about her disdain for the
05:31 use of masks during the COVID pandemic, and was later accused of transphobia after seeming
05:35 to mock the use of gender pronouns. But the final nail in the coffin came when comparing
05:40 the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany to the ridicule faced by American conservatives.
05:46 So yeah, needless to say, not a smart move, and definitely paying the price here.
05:51 5. Megan Fox – Michaela Baines, Transformers
05:54 Although Megan Fox is back in the public eye, in part due to her high-status relationship
05:59 with rapper-turned-punk-machine-gun Kelly, she spent the majority of the 2010s in relative
06:04 obscurity. And all of this was due to her infamous axing from the Transformers franchise
06:08 back in the late 2000s. Both her performances in the first Transformers movie in 2007 and
06:13 the 2009 sequel were the talk of nerds around the globe, but the latter film would be her
06:18 last appearance in a giant blockbuster for some time.
06:21 The exact details about why Fox left the franchise have become muddled over the years, with both
06:26 Fox and Michael Bay giving their own versions of accounts. But the reason for the Fox/Bay
06:31 feud all stems from an interview Fox gave to Wonderland magazine in 2009, in which she
06:35 compared Bay's on-set behaviour to both Napoleon and Hitler. She went on to criticise
06:40 him for being misogynistic, claiming her only guidance was "to be sexy". Bay claimed
06:46 Fox's comments in the interview were part of the reason she was let go from the franchise,
06:50 but also made it clear he thought she acted unprofessionally on set. Whatever the truth
06:54 was, Fox's career definitely took a hit in the years following.
06:57 4. James Romare – Corporal Dwayne Hicks – Aliens
07:01 How do you try and top a genre-changing, cinematic masterpiece like Ridley Scott's Alien? The
07:06 short answer is, you don't. Which is why when James Cameron picked up the Alien franchise
07:10 in the mid-1980s, he made the incredibly wise decision to take his movie in a completely
07:15 different direction. The horror generated by the claustrophobic, heart-thumping game
07:19 of cat and mouse portrayed in the first movie was never going to be replicated. Instead,
07:23 Cameron made a sci-fi action movie pumped full of mean marines, pulse rifles, and hordes
07:28 of xenomorphs. This time, Ellen Ripley had a gruff bunch of grunts at her back to stomp
07:33 some bug ass. Well, sort of, because the marines pretty much get their asses kicked, leaving
07:37 Corporal Hicks to rally the survivors. But his role was originally given to James Romare,
07:41 who can still be spotted from behind in several shots. Romare joined the rest of the crew
07:45 for several months of training before the shoot, bonding with his fellow marines and
07:49 even customising his character's armour. But not long into the shoot, he was given
07:53 the boot, citing family obligations for his departure. Later, he revealed the whole story,
07:57 admitting that he was kicked out for having a drug problem.
08:00 3. Jussie Smollett
08:02 Jamal, Empire
08:04 Now there are many legitimate ways to advance your status as an actor. Date somebody more
08:09 famous, appear to care about the planet, or even get a reputation as a rambunctious party
08:13 animal. But one of the most ill-advised ways to do this, however, was demonstrated by Jussie
08:17 Smollett back in 2019.
08:19 You see, back in 2018, Smollett couldn't have been in a better position. He was on
08:24 one of the most praised TV series of the late 2010s, in a revolutionary role that depicted
08:28 a gay black man in a positive light. After spending years being praised for his groundbreaking
08:33 portrayal, Smollett staged the now infamous hate crime, that not only lost him his role,
08:38 but landed him a stint in prison.
08:40 When the story broke that Smollett had been the victim of a hate crime, he became the
08:44 center of attention and a public figure in the world of social justice. People rallied
08:48 around him with support, from members of the entertainment business to governmental figures.
08:52 But it all turned out to be a hoax. Pretty soon, media outlets like The Guardian reported
08:57 that Smollett had devised the entire thing to get a little more leverage when it came
09:00 to negotiating his salary. Yeah, that didn't go as planned, did it?
09:04 2. Anthony Michael Hall
09:06 Private Joker, Full Metal Jacket
09:08 Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is a great examination of the indoctrination process
09:13 young men in the military go through to make them into killing machines. The film follows
09:17 the wisecracking private J.T. "Joker" Davis through his experience of boot camp
09:21 to the front lines of war. Like many Vietnam War movies of the era, the central conflict
09:25 revolves around the struggle for one's humanity in an inhumane situation.
09:29 Matthew Modine's performance garnered him acclaim and became a highlight of his career.
09:34 No doubt Bruce Willis and Val Kilmer, who both turned down the role, were absolutely
09:37 kicking themselves. But no actor could have been more bitter than Anthony Michael Hall.
09:42 You see, during the 1980s, Hall made a name for himself appearing as the innocent geek
09:46 in several coming-of-age teen comedies, such as The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles.
09:51 In many ways, he would have been perfect for the role. Seeing the young, innocent, and
09:54 awkward Hall slowly transformed by the horrors of war would have been pretty impactful stuff.
09:59 But Hall's weight as a successful and popular young actor led him to overestimate his bargaining
10:04 power. He spent months preparing for the role, but ultimately Kubrick gave up on him due
10:08 to a tedious nine months spent negotiating his salary.
10:12 1. Kevin Spacey – Frank Underwood – House of Cards
10:16 By the time that Kevin Spacey appeared in House of Cards, he was already considered
10:19 one of the greatest actors in cinema. Despite his many notable cinematic achievements, though,
10:24 his iconic role as Frank Underwood came to be his most defining. Initially expected to
10:29 go down as one of the best performances in small screen history, House of Cards will
10:32 now forever be associated with the actor's full fall from grace. The highly publicised
10:37 sexual assault allegations Spacey was accused of by actor Anthony Rapp resulted in his firing
10:42 and his character being written out of the show. As more allegations were levelled at
10:46 Spacey, the industry was forced to reckon with the actor's position within it.
10:49 In one of the most bizarre twists of the entire affair, though, Spacey then appeared in a
10:53 series of videos as Frank Underwood, seemingly addressing the allegations via some truly
10:58 creepy and cryptic monologues.
11:00 And there we go my friends, those were 10 actors who got fired from roles of a lifetime.
11:07 Let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section below. And if you
11:10 want to chat to me further on the social medias, you can go over to Twitter and you can type
11:13 in @RetroJay but the O is a zero my friend. Or you can swing by Liv and Let's Dice where
11:18 I do all of my streaming outside of work and it'd be great to see you over there my friends.
11:22 But before I go, I just want to say one thing. You my friend, yes you listening to this video,
11:26 you might not realise this, but you actually have the role of a lifetime right now. You
11:29 only get one chance to live this life and I want to make sure that you are doing so
11:33 as healthily and happily as possible. You deserve love, you deserve happiness, you deserve
11:38 success and do not let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise. Alright, I want you
11:42 to go out there and absolutely smash your life goals today because I believe in you.
11:46 You need to believe in yourself as well. As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome,
11:50 never forget that and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.