10 Actors Who Got Fired From Roles Of A Lifetime
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00:00So, they don't call it a big break for nothing. One role can definitely change everything
00:05for an actor. For example, when Quentin Tarantino hired John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, it reignited
00:11his career. When Julia Roberts did Pretty Woman, she became one of the most sought-after
00:15leading ladies in Hollywood. And with the wild success of The Sopranos, James Gandolfini
00:21secured his legacy as one of the all-time greats.
00:24But the history of film and TV is littered with actors who seemingly landed the dream
00:28gig only to let it slip through their fingers. Whether it was creative differences, overblown
00:32egos, or public scandals, these actors somehow messed up the job of a lifetime and no doubt
00:38lived to regret it.
00:39So let's take a look at them as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10
00:43actors who got fired from roles of a lifetime.
00:4610. Harvey Kittel – Captain Benjamin Willard – Apocalypse Now
00:51After watching Martin Sheen's performance in Apocalypse Now, it's hard to imagine
00:54anyone else in the role of Captain Willard. Sheen conveyed the thoughtful nature of Willard
00:59effortlessly, while at the same time showing the character's abilities as a determined
01:03and professional killer. At times, he seemed utterly in control, while at others, he seemed
01:08near to insanity.
01:10Imagine then somebody like Hollywood cool guy Steve McQueen in the role. McQueen could
01:14play the quiet, brooding guy smoking a cigarette like nobody else, but could you imagine him
01:19rolling around in the nude in a state of intoxicated despair? It just wouldn't fly.
01:23John McQueen was actually the director's first choice, but he ultimately turned it
01:27down. Several other big-name actors were also in talks for the part, but eventually Harvey
01:31Kittel landed the gig.
01:33As 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
01:42being in the U.S. Marines in his youth. He was a good option on all fronts, but shortly
01:46into shooting, the director realized that the actor was unsuited for the role, mainly
01:50because the character of Willard was intended to be a passive onlooker. Whereas the actor
01:55had a domineering presence, and so he got the axe, and Coppola returned to Martin Sheen.
02:009. Eric Stoltz – Marty McFly – Back to the Future
02:04Back to the Future is one of the greatest films of the 1980s. It introduced another
02:09generation to Chuck Berry and made Michael J. Fox a star. And let's not forget that
02:13Huey Lewis classic, The Power of Love. This movie is simply one of the greatest pieces
02:18of pop culture. But the movie could have been very different indeed, because the early
02:23cuts were so different to what the studio envisioned that they made the decision to
02:26scrap a full five weeks of footage, along with the leading man.
02:30During the 1980s, Eric Stoltz was considered one of the great young talents of the era.
02:35He was known as a fairly serious actor who embodied the whole method approach. But this
02:39really didn't fit with the tone that Robert Zemeckis envisioned for his movie. He wanted
02:43a light-hearted action comedy, with a charismatic lead who was both charming and funny.
02:48Stoltz's interpretation of Marty McFly was as a brooding teenager, crippled by anxieties
02:53brought on by altering the past. And as such, it just didn't land. The studio fired the
02:58actor and begged for their first choice, Michael J. Fox, to take the part. But the issue was
03:02is that Fox was under obligation to film the sitcom Family Ties. An arrangement was made
03:07whereby Fox would shoot all day on Family Ties, and then work on Back to the Future
03:11at night.
03:12What we got was definitely worth all of the sacrifices.
03:158. Natalie Portman – Juliet – Romeo and Juliet
03:19Baz Luhrmann's wacky modernised take on Shakespeare's most tragic tale turned a
03:23world onto the rising star Leonardo DiCaprio. It also gave Claire Danes her first shot in
03:28a leading role at the young age of 16. Leo was in his early 20s when he took on the role,
03:33which might make some uncomfortable considering what the two characters got up to. But if
03:37the studio had gone with their first choice for Juliet, things would have been even creepier.
03:42The 13-year-old Natalie Portman had proven herself to be one hell of an actor in Leon
03:46the Professional. So much so that Baz Luhrmann was keen to snap her up to play the role of
03:51Juliet. She originally landed the gig when she was just 14. And needless to say, early
03:55footage left the studio feeling more than a little uneasy, given the romantic interactions
03:59between the 20-something Leo and the 14-year-old Portman. Of course, the decision to replace
04:04Portman didn't hurt her career, and it was certainly a wise move on the studio's part.
04:097. Stuart Townsend – Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings
04:13When Peter Jackson came to casting the role of Aragorn, he went through a whole list of
04:16possibilities – Russell Crowe, Daniel Day-Lewis, and even Nicolas Cage, if you can believe
04:21it. But eventually Jackson settled on a relatively unknown actor, Stuart Townsend. Several months
04:26before principal photography started, Jackson flew his cast out to New Zealand to take part
04:31in a number of training exercises, which would also give the actors a chance to develop a
04:35sense of camaraderie. Townsend was supposedly uncooperative in the run-up to filming, but
04:40the story that's prevailed over the years is that he was simply too young to portray
04:43his character. After months in New Zealand, the actor was given the boot just days before
04:47filming got underway. Jackson's scramble for a new lead actor led him back to Russell
04:52Crowe, who again turned it down. Finally, he landed on Viggo Mortensen. But it was no
04:57certain thing – Mortensen was unfamiliar with Tolkien, and was only given 24 hours
05:01to make the decision. Luckily, the actor's son got wind of the offer, and being a huge
05:05fan of the books, insisted that his father take the role.
05:096. Gina Carano, Cara Dune, The Mandalorian
05:13After a series of politically charged tweets and aggressive and offensive comments made
05:17on social media, Cara Dune found herself facing a huge backlash. After being a fan favourite
05:22in The Mandalorian, she soon became one of the most hated actors ever to appear in the
05:26Star Wars franchise. She received flak due to several tweets about her disdain for the
05:31use of masks during the COVID pandemic, and was later accused of transphobia after seeming
05:35to mock the use of gender pronouns. But the final nail in the coffin came when comparing
05:40the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany to the ridicule faced by American conservatives.
05:46So yeah, needless to say, not a smart move, and definitely paying the price here.
05:515. Megan Fox, Michaela Baines, Transformers
05:54Although Megan Fox is back in the public eye, in part due to her high-status relationship
05:59with rapper-turned-punk-machine-gun Kelly, she spent the majority of the 2010s in relative
06:04obscurity. And all of this was due to her infamous axing from the Transformers franchise
06:08back in the late 2000s. Both her performances in the first Transformers movie in 2007 and
06:13the 2009 sequel were the talk of nerds around the globe, but the latter film would be her
06:18last appearance in a giant blockbuster for some time.
06:21Now the exact details about why Fox left the franchise have become muddled over the years,
06:26with both Fox and Michael Bay giving their own versions of accounts. But the reason for
06:29the Fox-Bay feud all stemmed from an interview Fox gave to Wonderland magazine in 2009, in
06:35which she compared Bay's on-set behaviour to both Napoleon and Hitler. She went on to
06:40criticise him for being misogynistic, claiming her only guidance was to be sexy. Bay claimed
06:46Fox's comments in the interview were part of the reason she was let go from the franchise,
06:50but also made it clear he thought she acted unprofessionally on set.
06:53But whatever the truth here, Fox's career definitely took a hit in the years following.
06:574. James Remar – Corporal Dwayne Hicks – Aliens
07:01How do you try and top a genre-changing, cinematic masterpiece like Ridley Scott's Alien? Well,
07:06the short answer is, you don't. Which is why when James Cameron picked up the Alien
07:10franchise in the mid-1980s, he made the incredibly wise decision to take his movie in a completely
07:15different direction. The horror generated by the claustrophobic, heart-thumping game
07:19of cat-and-mouse portrayed in the first movie was never going to be replicated. Instead,
07:23Cameron made a sci-fi action movie pumped full of mean marines, pulse rifles, and hordes
07:28of xenomorphs. This time, Ellen Ripley had a gruff bunch of grunts at her back to stomp
07:33some bug ass. Well, sort of, because the marines pretty much get their asses kicked, leaving
07:37Corporal Hicks to rally the survivors. But his role was originally given to James Remar,
07:41who can still be spotted from behind in several shots. Remar joined the rest of the crew for
07:45several months of training before the shoot, bonding with his fellow marines and even customizing
07:50his character's armor. But not long into the shoot, he was given the boot, citing family
07:54obligations for his departure. Later, he revealed the whole story, admitted that he was kicked
07:58out for having a drug problem.
08:003. Jussie Smollett
08:02Jamal, Empire
08:04Now there are many legitimate ways to advance your status as an actor. Date somebody more
08:09famous, appear to care about the planet, or even getting a reputation as a rambunctious
08:13party animal. But one of the most ill-advised ways to do this, however, was demonstrated
08:17by Jussie Smollett back in 2019. You see, back in 2018, Smollett couldn't have been
08:22in a better position. He was on one of the most praised TV series of the late 2010s,
08:27in a revolutionary role that depicted a gay black man in a positive light. After spending
08:31years being praised for his groundbreaking portrayal, Smollett staged the now infamous
08:36hate crime that not only lost him his role, but landed him a stint in prison. When the
08:40story broke that Smollett had been the victim of a hate crime, he became the center of attention
08:45and a public figure in the world of social justice. People rallied around him with support,
08:49from members of the entertainment business to governmental figures. But it all turned
08:53out to be, well, a hoax. Pretty soon, media outlets like The Guardian reported that Smollett
08:57had devised the entire thing to get a little more leverage when it came to negotiating
09:01his salary. Yeah, that didn't go as planned, did it?
09:042. Anthony Michael Hall
09:06Private Joker, Full Metal Jacket
09:08Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is a great examination of the indoctrination process
09:13young men in the military go through to make them into killing machines. The film follows
09:17the wisecracking private J.T. Joker Davis through his experience of boot camp to the
09:21front lines of war. Like many Vietnam War movies of the era, the central conflict revolves
09:26around the struggle for one's humanity in an inhumane situation. Matthew Modine's
09:30performance garnered him acclaim and became a highlight of his career. No doubt Bruce
09:34Willis and Val Kilmer, who both turned down the role, were absolutely kicking themselves.
09:39But no actor could have been more bitter than Anthony Michael Hall. You see, during the
09:421980s, Hall made a name for himself appearing as the innocent geek in several coming-of-age
09:47teen comedies, such as The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. In many ways, he would
09:51have been perfect for the role. Seeing the young, innocent, and awkward Hall slowly transformed
09:56by the horrors of war would have been pretty impactful stuff. But Hall's weight as a
10:00successful and popular young actor led him to overestimate his bargaining power. He spent
10:05months preparing for the role, but ultimately Kubrick gave up on him due to a tedious nine
10:09months spent negotiating his salary.
10:121. Kevin Spacey – Frank Underwood – House of Cards
10:16By the time that Kevin Spacey appeared in House of Cards, he was already considered
10:19one of the greatest actors in cinema. Despite his many notable cinematic achievements, though,
10:24his iconic role as Frank Underwood came to be his most defining. Initially expected to
10:29go down as one of the best performances in small screen history, House of Cards will
10:32now forever be associated with the actor's full fall from grace. The highly publicised
10:37sexual assault allegation Spacey was accused of by actor Anthony Rapp resulted in his firing
10:42and his character being written out of the show. As more allegations were levelled at
10:46Spacey, the industry was forced to reckon with the actor's position within it.
10:49In one of the most bizarre twists of the entire affair, though, Spacey then appeared in a
10:53series of videos as Frank Underwood, seemingly addressing the allegations via some truly
10:58creepy and cryptic monologues.
11:00And there we go my friends, those were 10 actors who got fired from roles of a lifetime.
11:07Let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section below, and if you
11:10want to chat to me further on the social medias you can go over to Twitter and you can type
11:13in at RetroJay but the O is a zero my friend. Or you can swing by Live and Let's Dice
11:18where I do all of my streaming outside of work and it'd be great to see you over there
11:21my friends.
11:22But before I go, I just want to say one thing. You my friend, yes you listening to this video,
11:26you might not realise this, but you actually have the role of a lifetime right now. You
11:29only get one chance to live this life and I want to make sure that you are doing so
11:33as healthily and happily as possible. You deserve love, you deserve happiness, you deserve
11:38success and do not let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise, alright? I want you
11:42to go out there and absolutely smash your life goals today because I believe in you,
11:46you need to believe in yourself as well.
11:47As always I've been Jools, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak
11:51to you soon. Bye.