as the old adage goes quit your day job
wait that can’t be right
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top ten
actors who left a movie for shocking
reasons that I was fed before we begin
we publish new videos every day so be
sure to subscribe for more great content
for this list we’re looking at shocking
and/or interesting reasons why actors
turned down left quit abandoned or got
fired from a particular role the fault
can lie with them the director or some
other member of production all that
matters is that the story behind their
departure is noteworthy he always had
some very good reason number ten Sean
Connery the Lord of the Rings the
Fellowship of the Ring 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 offered to play the
bearded wizard because when it came to
the script he quote never understood it
you know who did understand it
Ian McKellen
the worst part is that had Connery taken
the role he would have owned 15% of the
trilogy’s worldwide box-office receipts
a number that could have mounted to over
400 million dollars that’s a lot of
money Mr Bond Mr Bond I suppose you
wouldn’t care to raise the limit I have
no objection number nine James remar
aliens I’ll shove that bed up your ass
and turn you in what pops at home James
remar best known for his portrayal of
Ajax in the cult classic The Warrior’s
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 stood for
years the reason for the change was
chalked up to creative differences but
the truth turned out to be 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 you finished number 8
Ed’s crime Hellboy ok
I encourage distractions in the wake of
whitewashing complaints actor EDS grind
he will recognize as the body from 2016
s Deadpool dropped out of the plan 2019
Hellboy reboot whitewashing is the
infamous Hollywood practice that
involves the casting of white actors in
the roles of historically non-white
characters Strine had been cast as
Vendemmia who is described in the
graphic novel the film is based upon his
being of Japanese American descent
grants decision to leave the film was
widely praised and his replacement
Korean actor Daniel Dae Kim lauded him
for the move
number 7 Ryan Gosling the lovely bones
lovely bones you were gonna do that one
and then it didn’t happen 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 sixty pounds
overweight to physical transformations
he had not discussed with director Peter
Jackson Jackson was understandably
perturbed by the sudden change in the
lead actors 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 I
was 150 pounds and he hired me and I
showed up on set 210 pounds number 6 Cal
O’Neill there will be blood stop crying
sniffling and stop your nonsense 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 Cal O’Neill
had originally been cast in the role of
the pastor but left him it’s reports
that lead actor Daniel day-lewis his
style was way too much for him to handle
day-lewis of course is notorious for
staining 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’Neal 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 and I think you
understand who you’re dealing with here
okay cuz I could make sure Joan
disappear link number five jean-claude
van damme predator 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 the characters
costume among other things Van Damme
felt that the cloaking cost who 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 number
four James Purefoy D for Vendetta people
should not be afraid of their
governments government should be afraid
of their people British actor James
Purefoy was director James McTighe first
choice to play the mask wearing
vigilante known only as B 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 had claimed made it
extremely difficult to act in six weeks
into filming peroid decided he’d had
enough he quit the production and was
replaced by Hugo Weaving seeing as how
the characters mask was a major part of
his identity anyone who couldn’t act
beneath it clearly wasn’t good enough
for the role
weaving sure pulled it off though
beneath this mask there was an idea mr.
greed
and ideas bulletproof number three
Christian Bale Steve Jobs so it’s an
extremely difficult part and he’s gonna
crush it well you’d be hard-pressed to
argue against Michael Fassbender’s
portrayal of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs
and Danny Boyle’s 2015 biopic he was
nominated for an Oscar after all at one
point in the film’s 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 Jobs Widow
Loreen Jobs called bail and begged him
not to do the film while his official
position is that he left you two
conflicted feelings over the part we
think the pleas of Loreen Jobs had
something to do with it wonderful
director everything seems absolutely
fantastic sometimes you have to realize
that you’re not the right piece of the
puzzle number two buddy Ebsen The Wizard
of Oz
he probably didn’t know it at the time
but when he was cast as the Scarecrow in
1939 s The Wizard of Oz buddy Ebsen was
on the verge of becoming part of film
history
well first he was asked to switch roles
with ray Bolger to play the Tin Man
instead then unfortunately just 10 days
into shooting Epson was gone it turned
out Epson was allergic to the aluminum
powder makeup necessary to complete his
transformation from man to Tin Man the
incident was actually pretty serious its
Epson was brought to the hospital in
critical condition
suffice it to say he had to drop out
number 1 Kevin Spacey all the money in
the world my grandfather wasn’t just the
richest man in the world he was the
richest man in history
20:17 was the year of the Hollywood sex
scandal and Kevin Spacey was one of the
celebrities who lost the most after he
was accused of assaulting a 14 year old
Anthony Rapp in 1986 within two weeks of
Rapp coming forward Spacey had not only
been accused by others
Netflix also dropped him from both house
of cards and a gore fatale biopic he was
set to star in perhaps even more
shocking was the fact that Spacey was
completely removed from all the money in
the world and replaced by Christopher
Plummer about a month before it’s
released recasting actors during
production is one thing but swapping
them out so close to the release date is
pretty much unprecedented
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from watch mojo
and subscribe for new videos every day
wait that can’t be right
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top ten
actors who left a movie for shocking
reasons that I was fed before we begin
we publish new videos every day so be
sure to subscribe for more great content
for this list we’re looking at shocking
and/or interesting reasons why actors
turned down left quit abandoned or got
fired from a particular role the fault
can lie with them the director or some
other member of production all that
matters is that the story behind their
departure is noteworthy he always had
some very good reason number ten Sean
Connery the Lord of the Rings the
Fellowship of the Ring 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 offered to play the
bearded wizard because when it came to
the script he quote never understood it
you know who did understand it
Ian McKellen
the worst part is that had Connery taken
the role he would have owned 15% of the
trilogy’s worldwide box-office receipts
a number that could have mounted to over
400 million dollars that’s a lot of
money Mr Bond Mr Bond I suppose you
wouldn’t care to raise the limit I have
no objection number nine James remar
aliens I’ll shove that bed up your ass
and turn you in what pops at home James
remar best known for his portrayal of
Ajax in the cult classic The Warrior’s
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 stood for
years the reason for the change was
chalked up to creative differences but
the truth turned out to be 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 you finished number 8
Ed’s crime Hellboy ok
I encourage distractions in the wake of
whitewashing complaints actor EDS grind
he will recognize as the body from 2016
s Deadpool dropped out of the plan 2019
Hellboy reboot whitewashing is the
infamous Hollywood practice that
involves the casting of white actors in
the roles of historically non-white
characters Strine had been cast as
Vendemmia who is described in the
graphic novel the film is based upon his
being of Japanese American descent
grants decision to leave the film was
widely praised and his replacement
Korean actor Daniel Dae Kim lauded him
for the move
number 7 Ryan Gosling the lovely bones
lovely bones you were gonna do that one
and then it didn’t happen 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 sixty pounds
overweight to physical transformations
he had not discussed with director Peter
Jackson Jackson was understandably
perturbed by the sudden change in the
lead actors 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 I
was 150 pounds and he hired me and I
showed up on set 210 pounds number 6 Cal
O’Neill there will be blood stop crying
sniffling and stop your nonsense 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 Cal O’Neill
had originally been cast in the role of
the pastor but left him it’s reports
that lead actor Daniel day-lewis his
style was way too much for him to handle
day-lewis of course is notorious for
staining 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’Neal 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 and I think you
understand who you’re dealing with here
okay cuz I could make sure Joan
disappear link number five jean-claude
van damme predator 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 the characters
costume among other things Van Damme
felt that the cloaking cost who 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 number
four James Purefoy D for Vendetta people
should not be afraid of their
governments government should be afraid
of their people British actor James
Purefoy was director James McTighe first
choice to play the mask wearing
vigilante known only as B 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 had claimed made it
extremely difficult to act in six weeks
into filming peroid decided he’d had
enough he quit the production and was
replaced by Hugo Weaving seeing as how
the characters mask was a major part of
his identity anyone who couldn’t act
beneath it clearly wasn’t good enough
for the role
weaving sure pulled it off though
beneath this mask there was an idea mr.
greed
and ideas bulletproof number three
Christian Bale Steve Jobs so it’s an
extremely difficult part and he’s gonna
crush it well you’d be hard-pressed to
argue against Michael Fassbender’s
portrayal of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs
and Danny Boyle’s 2015 biopic he was
nominated for an Oscar after all at one
point in the film’s 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 Jobs Widow
Loreen Jobs called bail and begged him
not to do the film while his official
position is that he left you two
conflicted feelings over the part we
think the pleas of Loreen Jobs had
something to do with it wonderful
director everything seems absolutely
fantastic sometimes you have to realize
that you’re not the right piece of the
puzzle number two buddy Ebsen The Wizard
of Oz
he probably didn’t know it at the time
but when he was cast as the Scarecrow in
1939 s The Wizard of Oz buddy Ebsen was
on the verge of becoming part of film
history
well first he was asked to switch roles
with ray Bolger to play the Tin Man
instead then unfortunately just 10 days
into shooting Epson was gone it turned
out Epson was allergic to the aluminum
powder makeup necessary to complete his
transformation from man to Tin Man the
incident was actually pretty serious its
Epson was brought to the hospital in
critical condition
suffice it to say he had to drop out
number 1 Kevin Spacey all the money in
the world my grandfather wasn’t just the
richest man in the world he was the
richest man in history
20:17 was the year of the Hollywood sex
scandal and Kevin Spacey was one of the
celebrities who lost the most after he
was accused of assaulting a 14 year old
Anthony Rapp in 1986 within two weeks of
Rapp coming forward Spacey had not only
been accused by others
Netflix also dropped him from both house
of cards and a gore fatale biopic he was
set to star in perhaps even more
shocking was the fact that Spacey was
completely removed from all the money in
the world and replaced by Christopher
Plummer about a month before it’s
released recasting actors during
production is one thing but swapping
them out so close to the release date is
pretty much unprecedented
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from watch mojo
and subscribe for new videos every day
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