The shocking reasons these 5 Hollywood A-listers were fired mid-production

In one of the most famous examples of an actor getting fired partway through filming, Eric Stoltz was let go from the role of Marty McFly in Back to the Future after it became clear that he had a different vision for the project.

The star reportedly approached the role with more seriousness than was required for the humorous character, which his co-star, Lea Thompson, pointed out in the book We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy.

"Eric had such an intensity. He saw drama in things. He wasn’t really a comedian, and they needed a comedian," she explained. "He’s super funny in real life, but he didn’t approach his work like that, and they really needed somebody who had those chops.”

The director, Robert Zemeckis, made the decision to keep filming while looking for a replacement for Eric, which they found in Michael J. Fox. 

The actor had actually been their first choice, but he was busy filming the hit TV show Family Ties at the time. The network boss eventually let up, and Michael stepped in as Eric was let go.

"The director fired me," the redhead later shared with Bob Costas in 1993. "He didn’t like my work. It was devastating to me. I was a young actor. It was probably the worst thing that can happen to you in your career.”

Robert felt incredibly guilty about the decision, telling CBC that firing Eric was "the worst experience of my career".

"Eric is a brilliant actor," he said. "I simply miscast him, and I learned a very serious lesson. It’s not worth it. It’s too painful for everybody. What you have to do is cast the movie the right way and feel really right about it." 

Despite the setback, Eric went on to enjoy a successful career, even earning a Golden Globe nomination for his work in Mask.

Eric and Michael sweetly became friends decades after Back to the Future, when the activist reached out and asked to clear the air. 

"[He entered] with a smile, and we quickly acknowledged that neither of us had an issue with the other," Michael wrote in his memoir, Future Boy.

"What transpired on Back to the Future had not made us enemies or fated rivals; we were just two dedicated actors who had poured equal amounts of energy into the same role. The rest had nothing to do with us. As it turned out, we had much more in common than our spin as Marty."

They have remained friends ever since, with Michael adding: "His emails are reliably witty and always fun to read [and] a reminder that some of the best parts of our future can come from the past."

In another case of directors and actors failing to see eye-to-eye, Ryan Gosling was fired from The Lovely Bones after he gained 60 lbs for the role of Jack Salmon, the father of Susie Salmon.

"We had a different idea of how the character should look. I really believed he should be 210 pounds," Ryan told The Hollywood Reporter.

"We didn’t talk very much during the preproduction process, which was the problem. It was a huge movie, and there’s so many things to deal with, and Peter [Jackson, the director] couldn’t deal with the actors individually. I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong."

Peter later shared in an interview at the Cannes Film Festival that it wasn’t Ryan's fault that he was recast and eventually replaced by Mark Wahlberg.

"Anytime we recast an actor, it’s actually our fault because we didn’t get the casting right and we cast the wrong person for a role. It’s not because they did anything wrong," he explained.

The film's star, Saoirse Ronan, revealed that she had already started to bond with Ryan when he was recast, but acknowledged that the choice made sense for the film.

"I think I just loved Ryan and his dog, George, and I was just sad that, you know, he wasn’t gonna be around," Saoirse said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.

"But I think the reasons why they parted were totally valid, and I’ve spoken to both [Ryan and Peter] now and it happens. Do you know what I mean? It’s not personal, necessarily. It’s like sometimes you’re just not on the same page."

"Mark was able to step in, and he was a father," she added. "He was a father to, like, I don’t know, three kids? He probably had an experience of that that Ryan felt he didn’t. Ryan was like 27. He was young."

Richard Gere was just starting out in Hollywood when he was fired from The Lords of Flatbush following a scuffle with his co-star, Sylvester Stallone. 

The actor, who was cast as Chico in the film, never quite gelled with Sylvester, as the star recalled during a Q&A in 2006.

"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," Sylvester recounted.

He went on to describe another incident that saw them eating lunch in the backseat of a car. 

"I was eating a hot dog, and he climbs in with half a chicken covered in mustard with grease nearly dripping out of the aluminium wrapper," Sylvester explained, adding that after Richard's lunch spilled on his pants, he "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," Sylvester added. 

Perry King took over the role, yet Richard went on to enjoy decades of success despite the speed bump.

Samantha Morton is experiencing a career resurgence after stealing the show in The Odyssey, but her rise to the top wasn't always smooth. 

The actress voiced the AI system named Samantha in Her, opposite Joaquin Phoenix, but was replaced by Scarlett Johansson during the editing process when director Spike Jonze "realised that what the character/movie needed was different from what Samantha and [he] had created together". 

"I think, unfortunately, it's pretty normal in terms of my not-quite-painless-for-everyone-involved 'process' of discovering what the movie is," Spike told Vulture.

"Samantha was with us on set and was amazing...I love Samantha. I've been friends with her forever, and I hope we make lots of things together in the future."

Samantha later explained on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that while she respected Spike's decision to replace her, she would've liked a second chance at the role. 

"I have to say that it's every director's prerogative in regard to the final cut of the film. For any job, you're never guaranteed to be in it in the end. But with that, I was surprised. A little sad would be an understatement," she said. 

"What I would have wished for was another chance in a booth to do an American accent. But Scarlett Johansson – I mean, come on."

When picturing the legendary character of Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, most minds automatically go to the iconic performance of Viggo Mortensen. 

However, the American-Danish star wasn't the first choice for the role; in fact, Irish actor Stuart Townsend was originally cast in the trilogy, until his mindset got in the way. 

While his youthful looks didn't quite fit in with the role of a hardened ranger, Stuart's co-star, Sean Astin, wrote in his 2004 memoir There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale that he also struggled to settle into the character.

"He just didn't look right, didn't feel right, and he couldn't explain what needed to be done to correct the problem," Sean recalled. 

"Stuart wasn't helping matters. He was a black hole of negative creative energy. I kept wondering why he couldn't just relax and enjoy the process."

Sean continued: "There was something about his acknowledgment of the magnitude of the role, which carried with it the promise of making him a major bona fide motion picture star and serious actor for generations. Maybe he just couldn't handle it. Or perhaps Peter [Jackson, the director] determined that Stuart's way of handling the role would have been inconsistent with the spirit of the production."

Peter eventually let him go, and hired Viggo in the star-making role. The Oscar nominee later told The Irish Times that he felt "awkward" about replacing Stuart, but ultimately he "didn't enquire too much about it".  

"He was part of the team. I am sure he would have done a great job. He’s a good actor. I don’t know how it went down," Viggo said.

"I was just thrown into it and had to do the best I could. That’s all I know. And I did run across Stuart after we finished – I think it was in Los Angeles – and said hi. I hear he’s a nice guy and I am sorry that happened."