Tinseltown can be tough enough to navigate without off-screen animosity getting in the
way, and for some co-stars, the heat of hatred becomes simply too much to bear.
Whether it's a television program where the actors have to work together for years on
end, a movie where they're isolated for months on set, or even a stage show where everyone
goes home afterwards, things can get bad, fast.
Sometimes even Hollywood's most elite actors couldn't pretend to get along with their colleagues
behind the scenes and helped give them the boot.
Here are some actors who used their celebrity clout to kick their rivals out.
Kevin James
After working with Leah Remini for nearly a decade on The King of Queens, Kevin James
established quite a kinship with his on-screen wife from the show, so it was hardly a surprise
that he'd invite her to guest star on his new program, Kevin Can Wait.
"She's in my life forever.
I can't get rid of her."
But what did come as a surprise was what that meant for his newest on-screen leading lady
Erinn Hayes.
The two had shared the screen for the show's inaugural season, but Hayes was unceremoniously
kicked off the show before its second season because, according to sources, he had a better
chemistry with Remini.
For her part, Hayes didn't betray much in the way of gory details when she confirmed
the news on Twitter, writing, "True, I've been let go from the show.
Very sad, I had a great experience season 1.
Thank you for all the support from our wonderful fans."
But it certainly has to sting that the reason for her departure was clearly her co-star's
interest in working with someone else instead of her.
Ouch.
"Alright, you know what?
You win this my little Carebear.
You win this one."
Will Smith
Although he's since made a name for himself in movies, Will Smith's original breakthrough
role was undoubtedly his turn as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the hit '90s sitcom.
But while the series would last for six seasons and follow the Banks family nephew through
the many ups and downs of teenagedom, there was one castmate who didn't last the length
of the program: Janet Hubert.
And the actress has been more than willing to spill the tea as to why she was shown the
door and replaced with another Aunt Viv actress, Daphne Maxwell Reid, after the show's third season.
"You know Mrs. Banks, since you had that baby, there's something different about you."
In 2013, Hubert told Yahoo, "[Smith] said 'we're just gonna replace her and act like
nothing happened.
Well honey, that is not what happened, is it?
The world has let me know that my place on that show was very, very loved … I
felt demonized and beaten up and crucified for many many years, no one came forward in
my defense."
To be fair to Smith, he wasn't the only one who made a play for her firing.
Alfonso Ribeiro once admitted in a comedic stand-up set, "Long story short…there were
days when we were all on the set and she would literally go off on people."
Still, old feuds die hard; Hubert has continued to lash out at her former co-stars as a result
of the tiff that cost her the job so many years back.
"I spoke out against the injustices of what they did to me, and so yes, I've had a rough
time."
Tori Spelling
Although the TV world has certainly changed its tune on Shannen Doherty as a result of
her brave public battle with breast cancer, the actress has made more than her fair share
of enemies around Hollywood over the years as well.
One such enemy is Tori Spelling, daughter of the legendary '90s television executive
Aaron Spelling, who had her fired from the set of Beverly Hills, 90210 after one particularly
brutal day of in-feuding between Doherty and co-star Jennie Garth.
Spelling later admitted she was the one responsible for having Doherty fired after its fourth
season, by saying, "I remember I could hear the door fly open and everyone screaming and
crying.
That's when I was told the boys just had to break up Jennie [Garth] and Shannen.
It was like a fist fight."
She then turned to her powerful dad to put an end to the madness after the cast unanimously
prompted her to do so.
"I told them, I said I feel really bad doing this.
She's my friend.
I don't feel I should be doing this.
Even so, Spelling said she felt that her decision to have Doherty canned from the show was the
right one.
She did get a chance to reprise her role as Brenda Walsh in the 90210 reboot, but it wasn't
the last time one of Doherty's co-stars to get her axed from a hit series either.
Alyssa Milano
The official line regarding Shannen Doherty's early exit from Charmed, which ran for five
more seasons after the actress was written out, was that the WB encouraged her to pursue
other interests outside of the witchy series.
"I thought it was time for me personally and I thought it was time for the show because
a show like that needs to stay fresh."
But it's one of the worst-kept secrets in Hollywood that her behind-the-scenes drama
with co-star Alyssa Milano played a major part in the network's decision to let her
go.
"I was not a troublemaker.
I was just …"
"A pain."
Doherty herself told Entertainment Tonight:
"There was so much drama on the set and not enough passion for the work."
"You know, I'm 30 years old, and I don't have time for drama anymore."
Milano has since played coy about the reasons behind Doherty's departure…
"I don't know if she got fired.
We never really found out what what happened."
...but where there's smoke, there's usually fire.
Charlie Sheen
As the embattled star of Two and a Half Men, Charlie Sheen got to learn a thing or two
about how easily a big name can have a disfavored actor ousted from a major series.
His extremely public feud with show creator Chuck Lorre ended with Sheen being killed
off the program after its eighth season.
And Sheen would eventually torpedo that power into his next big series, Anger Management,
to get his co-star Selma Blair kicked off.
Sheen reportedly texted Blair to tell her that she would be dropped from the show after
the two experienced some on-set discord.
Sheen would later point to creative reasons for her exit, telling The Hollywood Reporter
her character "was written out because it was not about our relationship, and the problem
was too many people were still excited about the Two and a Half character and thought the
Anger Management character was a little dull."
But according to TMZ, Sheen had demanded that the actress be terminated, or he would walk,
after she allegedly complained to producers about his notorious off-screen antics.
Alec Baldwin
Although Alec Baldwin is not without his own history of personal controversies, he's still
managed to maintain the upper hand over many of his co-stars over the years.
So, when he and his would-be stage partner Shia LaBeouf couldn't see eye to eye during
preparations for the debut of the play Orphans, producers decided to give LaBeouf the boot
rather than letting their marquee star walk away from it.
"Alec went to the producers and said I can't take it another day, fire him."
"I think that might've been what happened."
As Baldwin would admit to Vulture, "There was friction between us from the beginning.
… And one day he attacked me in front of everyone.
[...] I took the stage manager to another room, and I said one of us is going to go.
I said, 'I'll tell you what, I'll go.'
I said don't fire the kid, I'll quit.
They said no, no, no, no, and they fired him."
For what it's worth, LaBeouf would keep a surprisingly pleasant attitude towards the
production after the fact.
"No, no no, They got the show they need, they got the show they need"
"They got another… who'd they run in?"
"A great actor actually, they didn't run in nobody, his name's Ben Foster, he's terrific"
Sylvester Stallone
Although The Lords of Flatbush would not end up being one of Sylvester Stallone's most
memorable movies, it did have an indelible impact on the history of Hollywood and his
relationship with another icon of the same generation.
The action star was originally supposed to share the screen with Richard Gere for the
film but admitted that he pulled some strings to have him replaced.
He told Ain't it Cool News, "We never hit it off.
He would strut around in his oversized motorcycle jacket like he was the baddest knight at the
round table.
One day, during an improv, he grabbed me (we were simulating a fight scene) and got a little
carried away.
I told him in a gentle fashion to lighten up, but he was completely in character and
impossible to deal with."
Things only got worse from there.
Stallone revealed that during rehearsals, Richard Gere ate a mustard-covered sandwich
in a car with him and spilled some of the condiment on his lap, which was a big no-no
for the action star.
"Then we're rehearsing at Coney Island and it was lunchtime, so we decided to take a
break, and the only place that was warm was in the backseat of a Toyota.
I was eating a hotdog and he climbs in with a half a chicken covered in mustard with grease
nearly dripping out of the aluminum wrapper.
I said, 'If it gets on my pants you're gonna know about it.'
He proceeds to bite into the chicken and a small, greasy river of mustard lands on my
thigh.
I elbowed him in the side of the head and basically pushed him out of the car.
The director had to make a choice: one of us had to go, one of us had to stay.
Richard was given his walking papers and to this day seriously dislikes me."
"It's a real mustardastrophy."
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