Top 10 Actors Who Left A Movie For Shocking Reasons

A staple on pretty much every list of “Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles”, Sean Connery’s decision to turn down the role of Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy is a serious head scratcher. The Academy Award winner reportedly declined Peter Jackson’s offer to play the bearded wizard because when it came to the script he “never understood it”.You know who did understand it? Ian McKellen. The worst part is that had Connery taken the role he would have been owed 15% of the trilogy’s worldwide box office receipts; a number that would have amounted to over $400 million dollars. That’s a lot of money Mr. Bond.

James Remar, best known for his portrayal of Ajax in the cult classic “The Warriors” and for playing Dexter’s father Harry Morgan on “Dexter”, was director James Cameron’s first choice to play Corporal Dwayne Hicks in the sequel to 1979’s “Alien”. However, a couple of weeks into production he was replaced by Michael Biehn. For years the reason for the change was chalked up to “creative differences”, but the truth turned out to be much more shocking. Remar was dealing with a fairly serious drug problem when he was cast as Hicks, and was ultimately fired from the picture after being arrested for drug possession; although some shots of him remain in the film.

In the wake of whitewashing complaints, actor Ed Skrein, who you’ll recognize as the baddie from 2016’s “Deadpool”, dropped out of the planned 2019 “Hellboy” reboot. Whitewashing is the infamous Hollywood practice that involves the casting of white actors in the roles of historically non-white characters. Skrein had been cast as Ben Daimio, who the graphic novel the film is based on describes as being of Japanese-American descent. Skrein’s decision to leave the film was widely praised, and his replacement, Korean-American actor Daniel Dae Kim, lauded him for the move.

In yet another instance of an actor being fired only to claim he left over creative differences with the director, the truth behind Ryan Gosling’s departure from “The Lovely Bones” is far more intriguing than what was originally reported. Gosling, who’d been cast in the role of Jack Salmon, which later went to Mark Wahlberg, showed up on set bearded and 60 pounds overweight; two physical transformations he had not discussed with director Peter Jackson. Jackson was understandably perturbed by the sudden change in his lead actor’s appearance and fired him. Gosling would claim that he was too young for the part, but the truth, as it’s been known to do, eventually came out.

“There Will Be Blood” is the story of a ruthless oil tycoon who clashes with a local pastor during Southern California’s turn-of-the-century oil boom. Kel O’Neill had originally been cast in the role of the pastor, but left amidst reports that lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis’ style was too much for him to handle. Day-Lewis, of course, is notorious for staying in character regardless of whether or not the cameras are rolling. While both Day-Lewis and director Paul Thomas Anderson have denied these claims, it’s not hard to imagine O’Neill being thrown off his game when he realized his co-star had decided to live as the man who relished berating the character he was portraying.

Before he was an internationally recognized action star, Jean-Claude Van Damme was just a young Belgian actor trying to make it in Hollywood. His career appeared to be heading in the right direction when he was cast as the titular bad guy in 1987’s “Predator”. Unfortunately, JCVD didn’t see eye-to-eye with director John McTiernan when it came to his character’s costume - among other things. Van Damme felt that the cloaking costume made him look silly, unaware that it would be edited out by the visual effects team in post-production. Two days into shooting Van Damme dropped out and was replaced by Kevin Peter Hall - who donned a significantly redesigned costume.

British actor James Purefoy was director James McTeigue’s first choice to play the mask-wearing vigilante known only as “V” in the 2005 dystopian thriller “V for Vendetta”. However, the role required him to wear a Guy Fawkes mask for the entirety of the shoot; which he claimed made it extremely difficult to act in. Six weeks into filming Purefoy decided that he had had enough. He quit the production and was replaced by Hugo Weaving. Seeing as how the character’s mask is a major part of his identity, anyone who couldn’t act beneath it clearly wasn’t a good for for the role - Weaving sure pulled it off though!

While you’d be hard pressed to argue against Michael Fassbender’s portrayal of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in Danny Boyle’s 2015 biopic – he was nominated for an Oscar after all – at one point in the films development the role belonged to someone else. Christian Bale was cast as Jobs in 2014 but relinquished the role shortly after. The story goes that Steve’s widow, Laurene Jobs, called Bale and begged him not to do the film. While his official position is that he left due to “conflicted feelings” over the part, we think the pleas of Laurene Jobs had something to do with it.