15 Actors Unceremoniously Fired And 28 Rightfully Canned
1.
Thomas Gibson had a long tenure on Criminal Minds, appearing in 11 seasons, but he was fired in 2016 after an altercation with a producer on set. He reportedly kicked the producer and verbally abused the cast and crew. In 2010, there had reportedly been another violent incident with an assistant director, after which he was required to attend anger management classes…so it seems like this was the last straw for the network, and their firing was pretty well-justified.
2.
I contrast, I always thought this one was pretty messed-up — Erinn Hayes played Donna in the first season of Kevin Can Wait, but she was fired and replaced by Leah Remini ahead of Season 2. Why? Well, star Kevin James stated that the writers were “literally just running out of ideas,” and that this would drive the show forward. He also said his character was initially supposed to be a single father. But why upgrade Remini’s role? Well, she’d guest-starred on Season 1, and people liked her enough. The two had had great chemistry as a couple on King of Queens.
Honestly, it felt a *little* bit like they’d dumped Hayes for Remini simply because they wanted to hook past King of Queens fans. Hayes’s ousting felt particularly unceremonious, as her death was barely mentioned in Season 2, despite her character sharing three kids with James’s character. Fan reaction was intensely negative, and CBS even admitted they made a mistake. The show was canceled after Season 2.
3.
More justified? When Gina Carano was fired from the Disney+ series The Mandalorian after posting a photo to social media comparing being a Republican to being a Jew during the Holocaust. This caused fans to dig up some other past problematic social media posts by The Mandalorian actor, in which she denounced wearing face masks and claimed voter fraud in 2020. Not only was Carano not asked to return to the show, but plans were scrapped for her character to have her own show. TBH, I think this was deserved.
4.
Jussie Smollett is a *bit* of a murkier case. He was fired from his hit show Empire after a scandal involving a hate crime he said he’d been the victim of in 2019. Authorities claimed he’d staged the attack, and charges were filed against him for making a false police report and wasting police resources. A 2021 trial found him guilty of five out of the six counts he’d been charged with, and he was sentenced to 150 days in county jail.
However, he was released on bond after just six days; later, his conviction was actually overturned. Smollett continues to maintain his innocence, including in a recent documentary about the attack. He claims he was attacked not by the two men who were arrested for the crime (who later claimed he’d paid them to perpetrate it), but by two entirely different men. IDK…I still think this is a bit justified, but I could be wrong depending what the truth is!
5.
Roseanne Barr VERY MUCH deserved to be fired from the Roseanne reboot. She made a truly vile, racist comment about Barack Obama’s adviser Valerie Jarrett, which ABC’s entertainment president, Channing Dungey, called “abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values.” And I agree! In a kind of metal move by the network, the show was canceled and came back as The Conners, with Roseanne’s character killed off.
6.
Less deserved? I loved the storyline with Olivia Wilde’s character in The O.C. It was huge to see a bisexual woman on a teen drama — or TV at all — at the time. But higher-ups didn’t like it, according to series co-creator Josh Schwartz. The network was uncomfortable that she was dating Marissa. “They told us, ‘People are worried about this episode and this storyline and blah blah blah,'” Schwartz said. “So we had to write her out way sooner than we expected, so it just became much more rushed.”
7.
Speaking of Wilde…it wasn’t exactly clear at first why Shia LaBeouf was dropped from Wilde’s film Don’t Worry Darling, and replaced with Harry Styles. However, soon after, LaBeouf was sued by FKA twigs, who accused him of sexual assault, battery, and infliction of emotional distress, as well as of knowingly giving her an STI. It seems Wilde was unaware of this when she fired LaBeouf, with her claiming after the allegations came out that he was dropped because he had a “combative energy” on set and did not create a safe and trusting work environment.
“A lot came to light after this happened that really troubled me, in terms of his behavior,” she added. And…yeah, I’m also troubled, so way to dodge a bullet! LaBeouf later claimed he had left the production on his own.
8.
Lori Loughlin, on the other hand, probably deserved to be axed from her show. Best known as Aunt Becky in Full House, she reprised the role in the Netflix follow-up Fuller House. However, she was fired after she was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud in 2020. She served two months in jail for her part in the 2019 admissions scandal, which is getting off light, IMO. In case you don’t remember, in the scandal, wealthy parents paid bribes to get their children accepted into prestigious universities.
She was also fired from When Calls the Heart. However, post-jail time, she did appear as her When Calls the Heart character in the show’s spinoff, When Hope Calls. Lori, I hoped you learned your lesson!
9.
In a more problematic example, Amy Adams claimed that she was fired from Dr. Vegas for “not being sexy enough” to play Rob Lowe’s love interest, a claim Lowe echoed in his book Love Life, adding that Adams wasn’t pretty “in a TV way.” Adams did clarify she wasn’t technically fired, but they “brought in a really tall blonde, and I knew.” This one pisses me off…have you SEEN Amy Adams? And why is it not more about her acting, either? No offense to Lowe, but Adams is a six-time Oscar nominee.
10.
Mark Webber was also allegedly fired from Stumptown after the pilot for not being attractive enough. Webber was replaced by Jake Johnson after the pilot, claiming that it was because network executives felt he wasn’t handsome enough for the role in a long social media tirade. Webber wrote, “Look, I’m a straight white male so I know my journey has been way less painful in this warped industry, but I’m being recast in a network television show because I’m not handsome enough for the executives,” calling his treatment “degrading.” I love Johnson, but if what Webber says is true, I’m kind of with him.
11.
Up-and-coming actor Jason Mitchell was more deservedly fired from the Netflix movie Desperados after claims of misconduct — including, according to the Hollywood Reporter, making “highly inappropriate remarks” to two female costars on the Desperados set while “lingering close to their quarters.” He was also fired from The Chi after being accused of misconduct by showrunner Ayanna Floyd Davis and costar Tiffany Boone, though they were not the only ones to make complaints about his behavior. His agency dropped him in the wake of the allegations.
12.
Cas Anvar was also fired from The Expanse after being accused of harassment, assault, and misconduct in 2020. Anvar denied the claims, but the production company behind the show carried out an investigation, after which point it was reported that Anvar would not be returning to the show.
13.
This example still makes me angry. Despite being a fan favorite and main character, Charisma Carpenter was unceremoniously booted off of Angel after a season-long arc essentially destroyed her character, then put her in a coma. Carpenter says show creator Joss Whedon assured her that she wouldn’t be fired after her character was put in the coma, but later, when the press called her for comment, she discovered she had, in fact, been fired. Carpenter believes she was fired as retaliation for becoming pregnant. Whedon allegedly asked her if she was “going to keep it” and then accused her of sabotaging the show when he found out about her pregnancy.
In the wake of numerous allegations of misconduct and bullying against Whedon (who denied all), this is perhaps unsurprising. Cordelia did end up appearing in one episode of the final season, waking up from her coma before it was later revealed she was actually dead. Though her return was well-received, the slow ruin of her character and Carpenter’s eventual firing continues to be universally hated by fans.
14.
Danneel Ackles was similarly unfairly, IMO, written off One Tree Hill. After starting as a villain, she had a great character arc. But then in Season 5, she had a heroin addiction and stole from fan-favorite Brooke, who was only trying to help her. She returned in Season 7 as a villain. After the allegations against show creator Mark Schwahn, Ackles implied that he was “done with” her and thus wrote her out in “the worst possible way.” She said, “There have been a lot of things that have come out recently about One Tree Hill, so I’ll let you just kind of decide why you think that happened to her.”
15.
T.J. Miller was already the subject of multiple controversies when he was accused of sexual assault during the #MeToo movement. He’d previously made waves for calling in a fake bomb threat on an Amtrak train in 2018. And after appearing with him on Silicon Valley, co-star Alice Wetterlund called him a “bully and petulant brat,” with other costars referring to him as “explosive.” With the newest allegations (which Miller denied), How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World decided to recast him. (Good riddance!)
Replacing Miller on How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was no easy task; he’d already recorded all his lines, and his character had been animated to match. Justin Rupple stepped into the role and overdubbed his lines with ADR, attempting to match Miller’s speech patterns. “I was reluctant to make the change but it was a decision that came [from] on high, you know, tied to his headlines last year,” said the film’s writer/director, Dean DeBlois. Still, it was the right decision, IMO, especially considering this was a film for kids. Executives clearly felt it was justified if they went to all that trouble.
16.
We can’t make this list without mentioning Kevin Spacey, who was starring in the Emmy Award-winning role of Frank Underwood in House of Cards when Anthony Rapp made sexual assault allegations against him. Soon, other people came forward and alleged inappropriate behavior, harassment, and assault, and Spacey was promptly — and very rightfully — fired from the Netflix series. Netflix also scrapped his planned film Gore.
He was also fired from All the Money in the World — even though he had already completed filming. He was replaced by Christopher Plummer, who re-filmed all his scenes in nine days and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance. Considering how well Plummer’s performance was received and how distracting Spacey’s presence would’ve been, this seemed a smart move for the studio, which, TBH, probably benefited from the extra publicity.
17.
Janet Hubert’s ousting is similarly famous, but for a very different reason. She played Aunt Viv on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for three seasons before she was infamously replaced with a new actor, Daphne Maxwell Reid. Word on the street for years was that star Will Smith got her fired. Speaking of the controversy, Hubert actually said she left after rejecting a “bad deal” where she couldn’t film for any other show. She claimed producers then decided to recast her instead of renegotiating, and told her that this was due to Will Smith wanting her out. Smith later said Hubert “wanted the show to be The Aunt Viv of Bel-Air Show.”
The two finally reunited in 2020, with Smith admitting he “made the set very difficult” during the show’s third season, during which Hubert was pregnant. For her part, Hubert acknowledged she wasn’t in a good place then, which caused friction on set, but said she wasn’t unprofessional. “I just stopped talking to everybody because I didn’t know who to trust because I had been banished, and they said it was you who banished me. … It was hard.” The two resolved their differences with apologies and hugs. I’m glad this was resolved, because I always felt Smith was out of line. (No, let’s not get into *other* times Smith was out of line. Do you want to be here all day???)
18.
Let’s switch to another classic sitcom. Sasha Mitchell was fired from Step by Step, but for a much more justified reason; he was let go after being arrested for domestic abuse. Surprisingly, he wasn’t kicked off the show until his second arrest for domestic abuse — he had initially been sentenced to probation, but violated this with further abuse, sending him to jail. At this point, the show fired him — but he still returned for a Season 7 episode as a guest. Mitchell later said it was “probably a good thing” that he was fired and pushed out of the limelight. “I needed to get my family life in order.”
19.
Another sitcom — Brett Butler was eventually fired after numerous instances of problematic behavior on the set of Grace Under Fire. In one particularly bad incident, the actor playing her son, 12-year-old Jon Paul Steuer, left the show after an alleged incident where “Butler hiked up her skirt and flashed her bosom in front of Steuer.” She also reportedly flashed others on set and threw a soda can at the show’s executive producer, shouting expletives at him in front of a studio audience. The producers promptly ended the show.
Butler later acknowledged addiction issues at that time and said, “At the bloody bitter end, I really was difficult. I was out of my mind. Drugs will do that to you.” Even Butler agreed she should have lost her job: The show should have been pulled sooner than it was.”
20.
While Columbus Short got his start in choreography and film, he was most recently known as one of the stars of Scandal. However, he was fired from the series post-Season 3 after his wife, Tanee McCall, alleged domestic abuse and claimed he had threatened her life while they fought. She filed a restraining order against him, and he was charged with misdemeanor spousal battery. He was also arrested that year for violence at an LA restaurant. Columbus pleaded no contest and was sentenced to perform community labor. So…yeah, I’m gonna say this one is also justified.
21.
In one of the most horrific examples on this list, Danny Masterson, best known for playing Hyde on That ’70s Show, was accused of sexual assault by three women in 2017. He was subsequently fired from the show he was then appearing on, The Ranch, and his character, Rooster, was killed off. He has since been found guilty of two counts of forcible rape and is currently in prison.
22.
Another horrifying example? Allison Mack didn’t go on to much work after initially rising to fame from Smallville, but she did record lines for a 2017 animated series called Lost In Oz. And then she was arrested on charges of sex trafficking and forced labor after leading a sex cult within the “personal development company” NXIVM, which had recently been exposed as an MLM and cult. Her cult-within-a-cult allegedly involved starving and branding women, essentially enslaving them. After her arrest, she was replaced in the series, and her lines were re-recorded. I think it’s safe to say that was a good call.
23.
Stephen Collins was best known for appearing as the beloved patriarch in 7th Heaven in the ’90s and 2000s. However, in 2014, he was exposed as having sexually abused multiple young girls between the ’70s and ’90s — which he admitted to People magazine. “Forty years ago, I did something terribly wrong that I deeply regret. I have been working to atone for it ever since,” he said, denying that he had done anything similar since. He was quickly fired from The Fosters and Ted 2 and has appeared in no projects since. My reaction: good.
24.
This is also horrifying, but for a different reason — Eliza Dushku was fired from the series Bull after complaining about sexual harassment from her costar Michael Weatherly. Dushku said she “found myself the brunt of crude, sexualized, and lewd verbal assaults” and “suffered near constant sexual harassment” from Weatherly. “This was beyond anything I had experienced in my 30-year career,” she said. He allegedly called her “Legs” and “would smell [her] and [leeringly look her] up and down. Off script, in front of about 100 crew members and cast members, he once said that he would take [her] to his ‘rape’ van and use lube and long phallic things on me and take [her] over his knee and spank [her] like a little girl.”
Dushku was later paid a $9.5 million settlement over these claims of harassment. To which I say…good for her.
25.
In 2017, Trace Lysette accused her Transparent costar Jeffrey Tambor of sexual harassment on set. She described one incident where he said, “I want to attack you sexually” before filming a scene, then “waddled over to me in his pajamas and put his feet on top of mine, and started these little, like, thrusts on my hip. They were discreet and insidious and creepy. I felt his genitals on me. And I pushed him off.” He was rightfully fired from the Amazon series after an investigation.
26.
Charlie Sheen was also rightfully fired from Two and a Half Men for erratic behavior, drug use, and inflammatory comments. Warner Bros. cited their “reasonable good faith opinion that Mr. Sheen has committed felony offenses involving moral turpitude (including but not limited to furnishing of cocaine to others as part of the self-destructive lifestyle he has described publicly).” Warner Bros. also mentioned Sheen’s self-destructive conduct, difficulty at work, and inflammatory comments.
Time has certainly been kinder to Sheen, who was clearly going through a drug-related crisis. Still, when you call your series co-creator (in this case, Chuck Lorre) a “stupid, stupid little man,” I don’t think you give them much choice but to fire you. Despite the risk in replacing him, it must have seemed more sensible than continuing. His character was killed off, and Ashton Kutcher stepped into the co-leading role.
27.
Speaking of Sheen…Selma Blair was fired from Sheen’s later star vehicle, Anger Management, after complaining about Sheen’s on-set behavior. Blair — along with others on set – was reportedly sick of Sheen showing up late and delaying production. Sheen then threatened to quit if Blair was not fired. He then allegedly fired her through a text message, which also called her a “c**t.”
Sheen later claimed she “was written out because [the show] was not about our relationship, and the problem was too many people were still excited about the Two and a Half Men character and thought the Anger Management character was a little dull.” Uh…I don’t know about that. Justice for Blair!
28.
Like Sheen, Robert Downey Jr. was also fired for drug use. He was appearing on Ally McBeal at the time. It actually took a few arrests for Downey Jr. to be fired from the show, but he was eventually fired in March 2001, the same day he was arrested for investigation of being under the influence of drugs; Downey entered rehab soon after his release, but continued to struggle before turning it around in a true redemption arc. I won’t say he deserved to be fired, but the decision makes sense, and I’m glad Downey Jr. was able to get well and come back to Hollywood!
29.
Downey Jr.’s comeback was, of course, further cemented by his starring role in Iron Man. Terrence Howard memorably played Tony’s best friend Rhodey in the film, but he was replaced ahead of the second film. Howard claimed this was because Marvel refused to pay him what they had originally promised for the second film, as set out in their three-picture deal. “It turns out that the person I helped become Iron Man … when it was time to re-up for the second one, (he) took the money that was supposed to go to me and pushed me out,” Howard said, presumably referring to Downey Jr. Don Cheadle played the character in subsequent films. Marvel didn’t comment on the switch, but it feels a little bit shady to me! Cheadle is great, but I don’t love this firing.
30.
In one more MCU example, Emma Fuhrmann played Scott’s daughter in Avengers: Endgame, though she only appeared in one scene. However, the scene was memorable and emotional, so fans were surprised when she was replaced by Kathryn Newton for the third Ant-Man movie. Taking to Twitter, Fuhrmann seemingly implied she’d learned the news online at the same time as everyone else, when Newton’s casting was announced. For Marvel’s part, they never gave a reason for the recast, but it seems likely they wanted a bigger star. Still, considering this is a Marvel movie, a sequel, and starred Paul Rudd…did they need one?
31.
Blake Jenner was also replaced by another actor. He was set to star in Merrily We Roll Along, which was meant to be filmed over decades. But after his ex-wife (and former costar) Melissa Benoist accused him of abuse* in 2019, he was replaced with Paul Mescal. Jenner admitted to the abuse and apologized, though he also accused Benoist of “mental, emotional and physical abuse.” Sounds like the right decision to recast him, TBH.
32.
Isaiah Washington was rightfully, IMO, fired from Grey’s Anatomy after using an anti-gay slur on set. He’d later claim it wasn’t directed at anyone, though some sources claim he used it in connection with his costar T.R. Knight, who is gay. The word was apparently uttered after a physical and verbal altercation between Washington and male lead Patrick Dempsey (after Dempsey was late), in which Washington told the star, “You’re not going to punk me, you’re not going to treat me like a B-word and you’re not going to treat me like an F-word.”
Washington claimed he “was speaking to [him]self as we refer to as a schoolyard taunt and weakness,” but that the narrative was twisted so that people thought he was talking about Knight. He also said his firing was actually “an agenda to cover up for the toxic and bad behavior of many of my former castmates on that show.” He also alleged that he wasn’t wanted on the show from the start and was offered money not to audition. I don’t know about that, but I also think that whether or not he used the slur at Knight specifically, he shouldn’t have said it. DESERVED. ✔
33.
Undeserved? Rene Russo. She was cast in Batman Forever when Michael Keaton was still set to play Batman — but when Val Kilmer replaced him, Russo was fired for being “too old” to believably be Kilmer’s love interest. She is five years older than Kilmer (she’s three years younger than Keaton). In Russo’s place, they cast Nicole Kidman, who is eight years younger than Kilmer. So…basically, a five-year-plus age difference between love interests was fine, as long as the woman was younger.
34.
I can’t believe this one even happened, but it’s definitely deserved: Jay Johnston has been working in comedy since the ’90s, and up until 2021, he regularly appeared on TV projects, most notably Bob’s Burgers. However, he was fired from the show after he was arrested for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to about a year in jail, though he was later pardoned by President Donald Trump. (Which means nothing to me.)
35.
Steve Burton is another actor fired for a “political” reason. (AKA, something that never should’ve been politicized, but idiots will idiot.) He was fired from General Hospital for refusing to get the COVID vaccine. His character, who he had played since 1991, was killed off after Burton decided to leave the show rather than get the vaccine.
36.
In a more vintage firing, Judy Garland was fired from Annie Get Your Gun, with Betty Hutton taking over the role instead. Why was she fired? She was often late to set, drunk, and/or unstable. She was apparently overweight for the role. Fine, okay, being late or drunk on set is not okay (I don’t want to even unpack the horrible body standards I’m sure Garland was held to) — but let’s look at why she was those things.
We can trace it back to the role that catapulted her into stardom: Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. To make the then-16-year-old look younger in the film, she was reportedly put on a diet of black coffee, chicken soup, diet pills, cigarettes (80 a day), and amphetamines. Working for MGM, she said she was given rotating bouts of stimulants and depressants to keep her alert and ready to film, then asleep, then alert again, sometimes only hours later — Garland said this was done at the studio head’s request. So it’s perhaps no surprise that she was struggling with substance and drug addiction later in her career. It’s pretty messed up that they fired her for having problems they created. They also dropped her completely soon after.
37.
I might get so mad at this one that I make a typo. Louis C.K. was basically fired, as his show Louie came to an end after his sexual misconduct allegations came to light. FX shut down its deal with Louis and his production company after he admitted to masturbating in front of multiple female colleagues, saying, “Now is not the time for him to make television shows. Now is the time for him to honestly address the women who have come forth to speak about their painful experiences.” Yep!
C.K.’s upcoming film, I Love You, Daddy, was shelved days before its premiere. He was also recast in the Secret Life of Pets sequel, and his planned specials were canceled. That should have been the end of it — unfortunately, he seems to have made a comeback. To which I say…kindly F off.
38.
Maybe it was the right choice to recast the drill sergeant role in Full Metal Jacket, as R. Lee Ermey ended up being one of the most memorable parts of the film, but I still think the way director Stanley Kubrick went about it was a little messed up. Tim Colceri spent weeks rehearsing for his role as a drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket, with Kubrick continuously telling him shooting would begin the next day, then not following through. Eventually, Colceri was given a letter by Kubrick stating he had been recast with Ermey, a Vietnam War veteran who had been initially hired as a technical consultant on the film. Ermey won Kubrick over with an unsolicited audition tape, earning the role over Colceri, who had been cast eight months earlier. Colceri was cast in a smaller role. I just feel bad for him!
39.
Hartley Sawyer was less unsurprisingly fired from The Flash in 2020 after his old racist, misogynistic, and homophobic tweets surfaced on social media. More than one tweet referred to assaulting women, with one reading, “Date rape myself so I don’t have to masturbate.” Sawyer penned an in-depth apology on Instagram, writing that he was ashamed of his “horrible attempts to get attention.” I’m all for apologies, and I hope he’s learned, but ultimately, I think the show made the right choice.
40.
Melora Hardin was fired from Back to the Future for a much dumber reason. After Eric Stoltz was replaced with Michael J. Fox, execs worried about Hardin’s height compared to Fox’s; she was 1 inch taller than him. Surprisingly, the concern came from female executives who “felt that it emasculated their lead character to have a taller girlfriend.” Hardin called it “an interesting sign of the times that it was the female executives that felt like they had to be protecting the masculinity of their lead character that way.” She called losing the job “very, very painful” at the time. Hardin was replaced by Claudia Wells, who was the same height as Fox.
41.
Chris Noth, best known for Sex and the City, appeared in its reboot, And Just Like That…, in 2021. However, as the show began airing, two women came forward claiming that Noth had sexually assaulted them. Noth denied the claims, but the controversy proved too much for HBO, and his character Big was killed off despite being a staple of the series. He was also fired from The Equalizer, and his Peloton commercial (inspired by his character’s fate in And Just Like That…) was pulled. As it should be!
42.
And Percy Hynes White was not asked back for Season 2 of Wednesday despite it looking like he’d have a major role in Season 2 as Wednesday’s love interest. Why? Well, in 2023, Hynes White was accused of sexual assault in Toronto by a woman who claimed he’d throw parties with his friends where he gave drugs and alcohol to minors to get them to have sex with him. While White strongly denied the allegations, he was written out of Wednesday‘s second season…which I think is for the best.
43.
Finally, I gotta mention Armie Hammer. He was fired from just about every upcoming film and show he was meant to be in after sexual assault allegations and alleged messages in which he called himself a cannibal. He was fired from Billion Dollar Spy, Shotgun Wedding, and the TV series The Offer, leaving him fired from everything he was set to appear in that hadn’t wrapped production yet. He was also dropped by his agency and publicist.
What actors do you feel were rightfully or wrongfully fired? Let us know in the comments or via this anonymous form!
