13 Actors Who Dished About What It’s Like To Get Fired In Hollywood

Find out why these actors got fired…

1. Eric Dane

Eric Dane starred on Grey’s Anatomy for six seasons and fans were surprised when he unexpectedly left the show. Looking back, Eric says he’s pretty sure he “was probably fired” and admitted that his sobriety was definitely a factor. Dane says he was “f--ked up longer than I was sober” during his time on Grey’s and “that was when things started going sideways for me.” On top of that, his salary became a big expense for the show.

“I was starting to become, as most of these actors who have spent significant time on a show, you start to become very expensive for the network. And the network knows that the show is going to do what it’s going to do irrespective of who they keep on it. As long as they have their Grey, they’re fine,” Eric said on the Armchair Expert podcast.

He added, “I wasn’t the same guy they had hired. So I had understood when I was let go…But I was probably fired. It wasn’t ceremoniously like, ‘You’re fired,’ it was just like, ‘You’re not coming back.’”

2. Mariska Hargitay

In 1995, Mariska Hargitay was set to play Queen Dulcea in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. She arrived on set in Australia but was often on hold from filming. Around December 21st, she hadn’t been filming and decided to go home to the US for Christmas. After the holidays, she was ready to return but ended up being told not to come back.

“I call them and I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m ready!’ And they were like, ‘Sweetie, you’re good, don’t worry about it.’ They fired me…because I wanted to go home for Christmas and be with my family. I watch my Ps and Qs on SVU now. And when they say, ‘We need you,’ I say, ‘I’m there and I’m ready!' So far, so good,” Mariska said on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

3. Ryan Gosling

When The Lovely Bones was announced, Ryan Gosling was cast in the part of Jack Salmon. He completed all of the pre-production on the film but when he arrived on set, he and director Peter Jackson disagreed about the creative direction of his character. Ryan had gained 60 pounds for the role and while he believed the weight gain was an accurate reflection of the grieving character, he says Peter thought otherwise. Ryan was fired and replaced with Mark Wahlberg.

“We had a different idea of how the character should look. I really believed he should be 210 pounds...We didn’t talk very much during the pre-production process, which was the problem. It was a huge movie, and there’s so many things to deal with, and he couldn’t deal with the actors individually. I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong. Then I was fat and unemployed,” Ryan told THR.

4. Eric Stoltz

Eric Stoltz was originally set to star as Marty McFly in Back to the Future and had actually filmed a majority of the movie before he was fired. Director Robert Zemeckis decided to replace him with Michael J. Fox, whom he had reportedly always wanted to star in the film. Looking back Eric admits it was a difficult time being let go from the movie.

“You know, it was 20-something years ago and I rarely look back, if at all, but in retrospect, I think just getting through that difficult period helped me realize how freeing it really was,” he told Moviehole. “I went back to acting school, I moved to Europe, I did some plays in New York, and I actually invested in [pause] myself in a way that was much healthier for me. If I had become a massive star, I don’t know if I wouldn’t have gone into therapy. On the other hand, I would’ve been exceedingly rich, which would’ve been wonderful!”

5. Melora Hardin

When Eric Stoltz got the boot from Back to the Future, his co-star Melora Hardin was also let go. Melora later explained that it all had to do with her height as the studio felt that it “emasculated their lead character to have a taller girlfriend.”

“[It was] so very, very painful. There’s no doubt it was very painful. I’d already had painful things happen, so I knew how to get through things,” she told Page Six. “I feel like it’s an interesting sign of the times that it was the female executives that felt like they had to be protecting the masculinity of their lead character that way."

6. Megan Fox

Megan Fox was fired from Transformers 3 after making derogatory comments about director Michael Bay. In a 2009 interview with Wonderland magazine, Megan compared Michael to both Napoleon and Hilter, explaining that he was a “nightmare” to work for and wanted to “create this insane, infamous mad man reputation.” Executive producer Steven Spielberg didn’t appreciate the comments and Megan was quickly fired. She later looked back and said that she should have apologized.

“That was absolutely the low point of my career,” Megan told Cosmopolitan UK. “But without -- ‘that thing’, I wouldn’t have learned as quickly as I did. All I had to do was apologize -- and I refused. I was so self-righteous at 23, I couldn’t see [that] it was for the greater good. I really thought I was Joan of Arc.”

She continued, “It hurt me and a lot of other people. However, that darkness that descended caused enormous and brisk spiritual growth. Once I realized I [had] brought it on myself, it was an invaluable learning experience, looking back on it.”

7. Suzanne Somers

In 1980, Suzanne Somers was heading into the fifth-season of Three’s Company when she asked to renegotiate her contract so that her salary matched that of her co-star John Ritter. ABC declined to raise her salary that high and in negotiation meetings, they ended up firing her. Looking back before her passing, Suzanne said it was a tough time.

“I just remember sitting in my living room…just thinking, ‘Why?’ And I heard a voice. I think we all hear voices. We just don’t often tune in. But that voice said, ‘Why are you focused on what you don’t have? Why don’t you focus on what you do have? You have enormous visibility. Most of the people on the planet know your name at this point,’” Suzanne told Fox News.

She added, “I will forever, ever be grateful to Three’s Company. Wow, what an opportunity to create a character so beloved. And I would morph into her, and I miss doing her. That was the biggest thing when I got over the shock and the hurt and the anger.”

8. Thomas Gibson

Thomas Gibson joined the cast of ​​Criminal Minds in 2005 but he was fired in 2016 after an on set altercation with producer Virgil Williams. Thomas, who had previously been sent to an anger-management class by the studio, had spoken to Virgil about a line he thought was contradictory but the producer said it was necessary. When Thomas went back to his co-stars in another room, Virgil followed him and they bumped into each other. After having some “choice words,” Thomas thought it was over -- but he was fired the next day.

“He came into that room and started coming towards me. As he brushed past me, my foot came up and tapped him on the leg,” Thomas told Variety. “If I hadn’t moved, he would have run into me. We had some choice words, for which I apologized the next day, and that was it. It was over. We shot the scene, I went home -- and I never got to go back.”

9. Stuart Townsend

Stuart Townsend was cast as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings and even went through two months of training and rehearsals. But just a day before it was supposed to start shooting, he was fired -- and wasn’t even paid for his time.

“I was there rehearsing and training for two months, then was fired the day before filming began,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “After that I was told they wouldn’t pay me because I was in breach of contract due to not having worked long enough. I had been having a rough time with them, so I was almost relieved to be leaving until they told me I wouldn’t be paid. I have no good feelings for those people in charge, I really don’t. The director [Peter Jackson] wanted me and then apparently thought better of it because he really wanted someone 20 years older than me and completely different.”

He continued, “There’s always some good to be found in a bad experience. The guys who played the Hobbits are great people, and Orlando Bloom became a good friend. But it was a weird introduction to big-budgeted projects. Anyway, the night after I was fired, I was sipping cocktails in Australia with my best friends, so really, it was never meant to be.”

10. James Remar

James Remar had only been on the set of Aliens for a few weeks when he was fired from the film. At the time, James said he had left the movie to deal with “urgent matters” at home but it was later revealed that he was actually forced to leave because of a drug problem.

“I had a terrible drug problem, but I got through it. I had a great career and personal life, and messed it up with a terrible drug habit...I was initially cast as Corporal Hicks, and I was fired after a couple weeks of filming because I got busted for possession of drugs, and Michael Biehn replaced me,” he reportedly said on the Sidebar podcast.

11. Dennis Hopper

Dennis Hopper was initially cast as Christof in The Truman Show, but was fired after just a few days. While there’s conflicting reports as to why he got let go, including rumors that he couldn’t remember his lines, Dennis says he believes the executives didn’t like him.

“I was on the set for, like, two days, and got fired…Scott Rudin, the producer, had made an agreement with the director [Peter Weir] that…he didn’t want me to do the part, and if he didn't like what I did after the first day’s dailies, then he would fire me. And they fired me,” Dennis explained to Sabotage Times. “Major blow. I’d gone and really researched the part. It was really an unfortunate situation.”

12. Julianne Moore

Julianne Moore was set to star in Can You Ever Forgive Me? but before filming began, she realized she was not on the same page creatively as director Nicole Holofcener. Just six days before filming started, Julianne was fired. Despite Nicole also later leaving the film, Julianne has never watched it, saying that it’s too “painful.”

“I didn’t leave that movie, I was fired,” she said on Watch What Happens Live. “Nicole fired me. So yeah, that's the truth. I think she didn't like what I was doing. I think that her idea of where the character was, was different than where my idea of where the character was, and so she fired me.”

13. Samantha Morton

In 2013, Samantha Morton provided the original voice for Samantha, an AI operating system in Spike Jonze’s film Her. She recorded all of the dialogue for the role but during post-production, she was fired and replaced by Scarlett Johansson.

“It feels like I created a painting and then put it in the attic, and nobody’s seen it -- but it’s fine because I know it’s there,” Samantha later told Vanity Fair, adding that she was disappointed to not be included in any part of the project. “I would have been happy to go with Scarlett and everybody else and celebrate the film at the premiere, because we all made it. I was like, ‘Oh, I thought I was part of this family.’”