No matter what side you look at it from, to be an actor or an actress is great! You’ve got money, clothes, company of any kind any time you want it. Once you’ve caught on, you can be sure jobs will turn up, as well as invitations for TV shows; you feel you have got a glorious future before you and you are hard put to it to think of anything that could be better! And just when you think of it, there comes a punch right on the nose – the director has fired you! What happened, why? Now they say you do crazy things and you are unbearable. They have been saying different only a while ago…
This kind of things keep cropping up, and it hits even the best of them! Maybe even your favorite stars had it at the peaks of their careers, because no-one is immune from making faulty steps, and while some of them get away with it, others get slammed hard for doing it wrong. Within a blink of an eye, these high-soaring stars are left without a job, and everyone is talking about how foolish they are. Well-deserved or poorly deserved, there are about a dozen of them who were shot down from heaven. How did it transpire?
Anne Hathaway not on Knocked Up
When it’s a question of doing a frontal nudity scene in a movie there are many approaches to this, and not all of them are preposterous. Yet if you are not above baring your breasts for the movies you appear in, the refusal may sound a little strange. The scene was supposed to show Anne Hathaway in her birthday suit and then a vagina, not her own, laboring towards childbirth. What Hathaway did (according to her) was turn down the idea flatly. She refused to do the scene for the Knocked Up movie for the sole reason that she had never experienced childbirth. She gave it out as “honorable” for mothers, but what an argument for an actress! As if somebody thought she had been a prostitute all because she played Fantine in Les Miserables! There’s hardly anything who would believe so. Anyway, after that there was no more of Hathaway on Knocked Up, and her part was taken over by Katherine Heigl, which was probably better for viewers and certainly better for Heigl. She must have been very grateful to Hathaway!
Jean-Claude Van Damme not on Predator
Jean-Claude Van Damme wasn’t exactly crazy, but he was devilishly sartorial when it came to filming the Predator. Picture him on the movie to enjoy the whole story better. Van Damme, just emerging from Belgium in the hopes of conquering the movie industry, was fired at playing in the Predator… until he was shown the suit he was supposed to play in, an enormous red affair that he hadn’t bargained on! He went on about the suit claiming that it gave him a superhero look, not realizing that the suit would be concealed and he wouldn’t be seen in it. But his next suit proved even more terrible! It was a rubber thing, a mechanical mock-up of an earlier version, and Van Damme fell to protesting again insisting it wasn’t safe to run and jump in. What it came to was that he got replaced together with the suit – and maybe for the better! This one is more funny than tragic, luckily.
Peter Dinklage not on Destiny
Peter Dinklage’s fans cheered when he got listed on the cast of the Destiny video game as the voice of Tyrion Lannister, one of the pivotal figures in the plot. Who else could have been better chosen? But when the players got to hear the delivery, they felt let down. The lines fell flat and absolutely uninspired. This wasn’t half what everybody expected of Tyrion. Then the expansion was released, and there was no Dinklage on it. According to what the game makers let on, the replacement of the actor by Nolan North was brought about by nothing more crucial than Dinklage’s overflowing schedule. You could believe it only if you hadn’t listened to the original delivery. The actor was obviously criminally careless and no-one in his right mind would swallow the performance. The makers had to find somebody more suitable for a Lannister.
Shannen Doherty losing three movies
It’s no surprise about Shannen Doherty being rejected here and there, for most people who were on the same set with her pin her down like a spoiled kid. She is a truly hated celebrity if there ever was one. It seems she cannot but whimper over virtually anything. Like the time when Jason Priestley (Beverly Hills, 90210) recalls how she started to huff and puff because she wasn’t picked up in a limo – a Lincoln Town car was just not good enough for her. Her endless whining got her removed from the show. Then, on Charmed, she got entangled in a wrangle with Alyssa Milano, who was co-starring, and, as far as it can be gathered, she created so much ruckus that the ongoing bickering set everyone’s teeth on edge, and they ended by asking her out.
Megan Fox not on Transformers any more
The Transformers franchise’s very special beauty Megan Fox managed to hold on for two installments only; afterwards, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley appeared in her place. Maybe you have never given it a thought, but there are some incidents behind this particular replacement. Interviewed for a magazine, Fox had the temerity to compare Michael Bay to Adolf Hitler. Considering that Bay is Jewish of origin, that was a really bold move. As soon as the comparison appeared in print for all to read, Fox was given the order of the boot. It seems that Steven Spielberg, the famous producer and director, known for Schindler’s List and many other titles, advised Bay to get rid of Fox. Later Bay went and hired her for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so the hatchet was buried, but there was one to bury.
Isaiah Washington almost not on Grey’s Anatomy
A homophobic slur was the expression Isaiah Washington, the star of Grey’s Anatomy, used on T.R. Knight, his co-star, and that was the end of him from the point of view of the show makers. When at the Golden Globes, the actor tried to exonerate himself, repeating the opprobrious expression but denying he ever uttered it. Not the best idea to repeat the insult on an awards show seen (and heard) by so many people. Washington then rendered his apologies and got himself reinstalled on the set. As he states, he has troubles fending off bigots eager to give him hugs. They must be loving him for the feeling that he is tarred with the same brush, or isn’t he?
Ryan Gosling not on Lovely Bones
Having landed the part of Jack Salmon on Lovely Bones (father to Susie Salmon), Ryan Gosling decided to make the best of it. His idea of how Jack must look was a person weighing in the vicinity of 120 lbs – it being about twice his current weight. With that thought in his head he headed home to get ready for acting without taking time to discuss it with Peter Jackson, the director, who was supposed to have his say about it. He hit upon the idea of fattening yourself on Hagen Dazs which he melted and drank down. The ice cream helped him to gain the 60 lbs he thought he was missing. As soon as he turned up for filming cast in this mold, he got the sack immediately. While the bloated and jobless Gosling was treating himself to more melted ice cream at home, Jackson gave the part to Mark Wahlberg, proving that if you make hasty decisions you ought to at least discuss it with the people at the helm.
Harvey Keitel not on Apocalypse Now
As they say, Harvey Keitel, justly proud of his work on Mean Streets, was also happy to get invited on Apocalypse Now to play Captain Willard. He imagined his character to be very passive, did his best to portray him like this – and got the sack for it. It wasn’t for anything zany he actually did, it was just a hapless decision on his part, but the point is he might have grown crazy if he had stayed. Well, Keitel was replaced by Martin Sheen who got unhinged one funny day on the set. He ended up with a heart attack and a nervous disorder to boot. Apocalypse Now was a notoriously difficult movie to shoot, those involved used to say a lot about it at the time, joking that they went through Vietnam to make a movie about Vietnam.
Richard Gere not on Lords of Flatbush
You don’t see Richard Gere on Lords of Flatbush because he was trying to bite people or throw things at them. The reason behind his dismissal was a chicken sandwich. It was a greasy affair and he wanted to gobble it up when sitting in Sylvester Stallone’s Toyota in spite of being told by Rocky that he wasn’t to eat it there. Gere disregarded the enjoinment and bit at the sandwich, thereby landing a largish gob of it on Sly’s trousers. Rambo wasn’t too pleased with it which he expressed by throwing Gere out of his car and delivering an ultimatum to the filmmakers that they should choose him or Gere. Actually, it was no choice, and the actor paid for his sandwich with a role. You don’t eat in Stallone’s Toyota, guys, mind it!
Lindsay Lohan losing four movies… or more?
It is a moot question whether Lindsay Lohan has always been a bit unbalanced or not, yet her fatal attraction to drugs and alcohol in immoderate quantities turned her into one really and truly deranged. Ever since 2007 or so, Lohan has been on a steep downslide, so now there may easily be more roles lost than roles played. Let’s look into horror flicks. Losing began with The Edge of Love; Lohan wasn’t insurable and therefore had to go. She was unable to appear on A Woman of No Importance because she had to retreat to rehab. Then came her second DUI arrest, becoming a reason for her rejection from Poor Things. Four years later Lohan lost a part on The Other Side due to her being “not bankable.” Her lasting uninsurability cost her a role on the Linda Lovelace biopic Inferno. Will that ever stop, Lohan?
