First of all let’s keep in mind that the actors on this list have earned their respect throughout the years by putting in one great performance after another and finding their niche after a while or at least earning legendary status after so long. Criticizing actors is pretty easy since after a misstep the media and the fans are either bound to turn on the actor until they can somehow ‘redeem’ themselves in a suitable way to become popular once again. In reality they might have gone against popular opinion and decided to stand their ground and this is what cost them their job and the influence that so many of them work so hard to establish. Of course there are plenty of moments in which the actors are just being jerks and don’t want to play ball with the director, producers, or even their fellow actors, so the reason that actors get fired from movies tends to vary from one situation to the next. The act of getting fired isn’t necessarily a bad mark on their career, it simply means that they didn’t measure up in one way or another and the people in charge told them to hit the bricks. When you’re famous it’s not exactly a death sentence for your career if you get fired, unless of course an actor finds a way to make it that serious.
Here are some of the more noticeable actors who were fired from movies.
5. Megan Fox – Transformers franchise
This one made headlines to be certain since it was determined that Megan was kind of hard to work with and her personal hygiene issues even came to light as it was claimed that she was a little gross to be around at times. But thankfully that’s not the reason she was fired from the Transformers franchise since otherwise that might have become a massive issue. Nope, she was fired because she didn’t enjoy working with Michael Bay apparently, and actually likened him to Hitler. That might sound a bit petty and it is in a way to be certain, but if you can’t get along with the guy that’s supposed to be giving you direction then it’s usually best to move on.
4. Christian Bale – American Psycho
I can already sense the eyes widening in confusion since Bale DID play Patrick Bateman. But as it’s been explained by more than one site Bale was nearly replaced by Leonardo DiCaprio, who took a look at the script and decided that he just didn’t agree with it. Keep in mind this was likely before Leo had decided to do something like The Wolf of Wall Street and The Departed, so going absolutely nuts wasn’t really a part of his identity just yet. In any case, Leo backed out and Bale stepped back in, but one has to imagine that there were a few hard feelings that had to be smoothed over.
3. Eric Stoltz – Back to the Future
A lot of us might have watched Eric Stoltz in a few movies throughout the years, and no offense to the guy, but he’s not really cut out for comedy, which didn’t exactly work for the Back to the Future movie since Marty McFly really needed to have a sense of humor. Funnily enough Eric was kind of hilarious as the heroin dealer in Pulp Fiction, but in a much darker and likely less intentional manner. It does go to show however that some actors are more suited for dramatic roles that might make use of a few comedic moments here and there, but aren’t steeped in silliness.
2. Richard Gere – The Lords of Flatbush
As the story goes Richard actually got mustard on Sylvester Stallone’s pants and that was the end of it, but if that was all it took to get fired then Stallone would look like a diva and Gere would look like a slob, so obviously there’s a bit more to it. As Stallone has told it, Gere played up his role of being the bad*ss a little too much and decided to get into character in a way that was kind of off-putting to a lot of people, and he actually started a fight when attempting to assert himself in his role. The mustard on the pants was apparently the last straw and Gere was told to take a walk, something that the two men still recall to this day.
1. Jean-Claude Van Damme – Predator
As it’s told in Screenrant there are a couple of reasons why JCVD was fired from Predator, and it stems from not being being enough to be imposing (remember that Arnold and Carl Weathers are big guys) and it continues with the idea that he was complaining all the time and didn’t want to wear the red suit that was necessary to turn the character invisible on screen. In other words, the actor just didn’t want to conform to the role and he was given the boot. Obviously his career kept moving up and up after this, so it wasn’t a horrible move for his career.
It’s true that some actors act a bit too big for their britches, but there’s usually someone in the wings ready to take their spot if they don’t want to perform.
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