Being cast in a movie doesn't guarantee that your name will be in the final credits. These
actors got let go from projects that were already in production.
Dennis Hopper, one of the groundbreaking actors and directors of the '60s and '70s,
had a notable niche in the '90s playing villains in films like "Speed," "Waterworld,"
and even "Super Mario Bros." That's why it makes sense that he was cast as Christof,
the all-powerful TV producer controlling Truman Burbank's life in "The Truman Show." However,
two days into filming Christof's scenes, which were expected to take around 10 days to complete,
Hopper was let go from the film due to "creative differences."
Hopper said he had an agreement with producer Scott Rudin that he'd be fired should his
work be unsatisfactory. The performance must have been extremely underwhelming,
given director Peter Weir was described in "The Truman Show"
DVD extras as extremely reluctant to ever remove an actor from a movie.
Finding a replacement was difficult,
with production set to shut down if the role couldn't be filled in time. Ultimately,
though, Ed Harris took the job and earned an Academy Award nomination for the role.
The "Paddington" movies, based on the classic children's books written by Michael Bond, are
two of the most critically acclaimed family films of the 21st century. For a brief time, "Paddington
2" even outranked "Citizen Kane" as the most universally praised movie ever on Rotten Tomatoes.
"'Paddington 2' is incredible." "I f—ing told you."
One of the many things that makes this particular series great is Ben Whishaw's
voice performance as the hyper-polite, marmalade-loving bear. That's why it's
a bit surprising to learn that Whishaw was a last minute replacement for the previous voice actor.
Oscar winner Colin Firth was attached to voice Paddington in the first movie all the
way through production, with a trailer even being released while he was still involved.
The amicable decision to replace Firth with Whishaw came during post-production:
as reported by Entertainment Weekly, Firth said of the split —
"It's been bittersweet to see this delightful creature take shape and
come to the sad realization that he simply doesn't have my voice."
Director Paul King released a statement saying —
"We love the voice and we love the bear,
but as our young bear came into being we agreed that the two didn't seem to fit."
The 2015 Pixar flop "The Good Dinosaur" is an unusual case where almost the entire cast
of a movie was replaced midway through production. At the D23 Expo in 2013,
a voice cast was announced featuring Lucas Neff, John Lithgow, Frances McDormand,
Neil Patrick Harris, Judy Greer, and Bill Hader. The finished film
featured none of those actors except for McDormand, who played Momma Ida.
Why did the cast completely change? Because "The Good Dinosaur" became an entirely different
movie in the meantime. Less than a month after D23, the film's original director,
Bob Peterson, was replaced by Pete Sohn. The film was having story problems,
so Sohn made substantial changes — including making the apatosaurus
protagonist Arlo younger and changing the style to more of a survival story.
The final cast ended up featuring the talents of Jeffrey Wright, Steve Zahn, Anna Paquin,
and Sam Elliott. Given the mixed reception from both critics and general audiences,
whether these changes were enough to improve
the struggling production remains a question that may never be answered.
The announcement that Johnny Depp would play Gellert Grindelwald in the "Fantastic Beasts"
movie series proved instantly controversial. In 2016, the same year "Fantastic Beasts and
Where to Find Them" was released, Depp was accused of domestic abuse toward his
then-wife Amber Heard in a heated divorce trial. With Depp's portrayal of the villain
even more prominent in 2018's "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald," the
controversy continued — and author J.K. Rowling defended the decision to keep Depp in the series.
After losing his libel case against British tabloid The Sun in 2020 however,
Depp was ultimately asked to resign from playing Grindelwald. Depp had already shot one scene for
"Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" when the decision was made, and he was paid his
full $16 million salary for the production. When Mads Mikkelsen ultimately took over the role,
the actor made a conscious choice not to imitate Depp's interpretation of the character.
Kevin Spacey's firing from "All the Money in the World" was particularly unusual in that it
happened after filming was already complete and post-production was nearly finished.
Ridley Scott's 2017 drama originally had Kevin Spacey in the supporting role of J. Paul Getty,
the real-life billionaire who refused to pay a ransom after his grandson was kidnapped.
"How much would you pay to release your grandson,
if not $70 million?" "Nothing."
Less than two months before the film's holiday season release date,
Spacey was accused of sexual assault amidst rising calls for accountability in Hollywood.
In response, Scott did something unprecedented:
he reshot all of Spacey's scenes with Christopher Plummer now playing Getty in
his place. Most of these scenes were shot in the same locations as the original versions,
with a single one requiring green screen and the digital removal of Spacey from the
original footage. Plummer's performance ended up being the most praised aspect of the film,
with the then 88-year-old becoming the oldest-ever acting nominee in Academy Award history.
Despite the accolades for Christopher Plummer, very few major Hollywood
productions have followed the same path of recasting actors accused of horrific
crimes after filming has already completed. That doesn't mean it's never happened again, though.
One of the rare exceptions was Zack Snyder's 2021 Netflix zombie movie "Army of the Dead."
Comedian Chris D'Elia was originally part of the film — but following a series of sexual
misconduct allegations, Snyder reshot all of D'Elia's scenes with Tig Notaro in his place.
The reshoots reportedly cost millions of dollars,
with producer Deborah Snyder comparing the cost to the entire budget of the prequel film
"Army of Thieves." Making the process more complicated was that Notaro had to film all
of her scenes alone in front of a green screen due to coronavirus precautions.
"Were you never on set with, like, Dave Bautista or anybody?"
"I've never met Dave Bautista in my life."
It seems now like it was worth the effort: not only was it the right decision morally,
but Notaro's character of Marianne Peters ended up being one of the best-liked parts of the film.
Judy Garland's life was as tragic as her performances were beloved. Her physical
and mental health problems left her unable to participate in a number of films she was set
to star in — two of which had already begun filming before she got fired.
The first of these was the 1950 musical "Annie Get Your Gun." She was fired over
a month into a chaotic production in which her co-star Howard Keel was injured from falling
off a horse and director Busby Berkeley was let go. In the May 10, 1949 firing letter,
MGM executive L.K. Sidney blamed Garland for some of the delays in production. Betty Hutton replaced
her in the leading role of Annie Oakley, and Garland parted ways with MGM the following year.
Years later, 20th Century Fox executives claimed that Garland "resigned for personal
reasons" from 1967's "Valley of the Dolls," but Garland claimed she was fired. Reportedly,
Garland would not come out of her dressing room for days,
resulting in very little usable footage being shot. Co-star Patty Duke has said that Garland
was mistreated by director Mark Robson, and rumors circulated about Garland objecting
to the content of the script. Susan Hayward replaced Garland in the role of Helen Lawson,
and "Valley of the Dolls" ended up being the final film Garland worked on before her death in 1969.
Garland was also replaced on 1949's "The Barkleys of Broadway" and 1951's
"Royal Wedding," but those had not already begun filming when her roles got recast.