No one is safe in film industry. Even Hollywood's stars run the risk of being recast. Curious as to which actors lost their chance to be in some of Hollywood's biggest hit. Here are top 10 actors who were replaced last minute in major movies.
- Lori petty
Lori Petty was originally cast as Lieutenant Lenina Huxley opposite Sylvester Stallone in the 1993 sci-fi action flick Demolition Man. She made it three days into filming, but was then reportedly fired after voicing complaints about her character to producer Joel Silver.
Petty was eventually replaced by Sandra Bullock. The film is still widely considered Bullock’s breakout role.
- Christian Bale
In a weird twist of events, Christian Bale technically ended up replacing himself in American Psycho. Here’s what happened: Bale was originally offered the role of Patrick Bateman. However, VH1 writes that the, writes that the studio then decided to hire Leonardo DiCarpio instead. Lionsgate announced DiCaprio’s involvement at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1998, according to The Guardian.
Bale was quite surprised by the news, considering he’d been told he would play Bateman.
The Guardian writes that DiCaprio wasn’t satisfied with the film’s direction and had issues with the script and plot. Finally, DiCaprio decided to bail on the film and went to work on a different project. The script landed right back in Bale’s lap, and he was once again cast to play the role of the wealthy New York investment banker and psychopath.
- Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling was fired from Peter Jackson’s 2009 movie, The Lovely Bones. Initially, rumors swirled that Gosling was fired because he was too young. In actuality, Gosling was fired from the film because the directors and producers weren’t fans of his 60-pound weight gain. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Gosling said that he put on the weight because that’s how he had imagined the character of Jack Salmon, the grieving dad, to look.
“We had a different idea of how the character should look. I really believed he should be 210 pounds,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. Additionally, Gosling said he had very little interaction with Jackson in the pre-production process, which contributed to the two not being on the same page. Gosling was dropped just days before production began, and Mark Wahlberg ended up starring in the role.
- Sylvester Stallone
As the face of Rocky and Rambo, Sylvester Stallone knows the ins and outs of leading a successful movie franchise. But one hugely popular film series that Stallone may look back on with regret is Beverly Hills Cop.
According to The New York Times, Stallone was originally cast as the Detroit cop Axel Fpley. in the movie, but but struggled with certain comedic elements in the project. Though director Martin Brest reportedly tried to work with the actor’s requests for specific changes, he threw up his hands when Stallone attempted to rewrite the entire script.
Stallone was eventually replaced by Eddie Murphy, who as we all know now — led the franchise to massive success. Beverly Hills Cop was the highest grossing movie of 1994 and went on to spur two sequels.
- Annette Bening
When you think of the 1992 film Batman Returns, you automatically think of Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. Interestingly, if things had gone as planned, you’d actually be picturing Annette Bening instead. According to Vulture, Bening was the director’s first choice for Catwoman, but she dropped out shortly before filming because she was pregnant.
Many replacement actresses were considered, including Raquel Welch, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Madonna, Ellen Barkin, Cher, Bridget Fonda, and Susan Sarandon, per Vulture
But the role ended up going to Pfeiffer, and most fans wouldn’t have it any other way.
Fun fact: Pfeiffer had 60 rubber catsuits, each costing $1,000, to wear while filming.
- Megan Fox
Megan Fox’s role in the first two films of the live-action Transformers franchise helped catapult her to a new level of stardom, but she didn’t get to stick around for the whole series. The actress was fired from the third installment, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, during production after comparing director Michael Bay to Adolf Hitler and calling him " a nightmare to work for" in an interview.
Producer Steven Spielberg apparently didn’t take the comments well and was the one who urged Bay to pull her from the project. “She was in a different world, on her BlackBerry. You gotta stay focused,” Bay said in 2016. “And you know, the Hitler thing Steven said "Fire here right now"
- Colin Firth
Paddington, the 2014 adaptation of the 1958 book A Bear Called Paddington, was supposed to feature Colin Firth as the voice of the adorable diminutive bear. The actor actually completed all of the voice-over work for the film, but after the finished product was complete, producers concluded that Firth’s mature tone was not right for the character. Firth reportedly agreed and consented to being replaced by Ben Whishaw.
Paddington went on to earn strong reviews and became a surprise hit in the United States.
- James Remar.
A week into filming the 1986 film Aliens, James Remar ended up bailing on the project after being unable to resolve his creative differences with director James Cameron, according to VH1. As a result, Michael Biehn was recast to play the part of Dwayne Hicks.
In an interview with Den of Geek Biehn said everything happened pretty quickly,he received a phone call on Friday asking if he could play the part, and he was shooting on Monday.
Which meant that I didn’t have to do that three weeks of rehearsal period, before the movie started, where they did the round table reading, and they would take all the soldiers out and march them over and over again, and have all the dinners. I just jumped right in, I just did it from the word go, and so that was a relief to me, because any time anyone does an army movie, they take all the actors out and get some old worn out drill sergeant to put ‘em through their paces, and I hate to do that.
- Terrence Howard
Terrence Howard played Lieutenant Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes in 2008’s Iron Man. At the time, he signed a three-picture deal with Marvel and was actually earning more than co-star Robert Downey Jr.
But things changed after Iron Man blew up at the box office. Marvel reportedly offered Howard a small fraction of what he supposed to earn Iron Man 2 and even went so far as to state that the sequel would be a success with or without his involvement. Ouch.
Howard understandably walked away from the project and later suggested that the money that was supposed to go to him was instead offered to Downey. He was eventually replaced by Don Cheadle.
- Samantha Morton
Samantha Morton was originally cast in the voice-only role of Samantha, an operation system that falls in love with a lonely divorced man (Joaquin Phoenix), in 2013’s Her. The British actress not only nabbed the gig, she actually completed all of her character’s filming for the movie — only to ultimately get recast by Scarlett Johansson.
According to The Daily Beast, director Spike Jonze decided that Morton wasn't quite right while in post-production. “In post is when we decided that what we did wasn’t working, and we ended up recasting with Scarlett [Johansson],” he said.