Costars don’t always get along, but sometimes, a behind-the-scenes feud escalates to the point where they can’t stand working together a second longer.
Here are 17 times actors allgedly tried to get their costars fired:
1.
LisaRaye McCoy reportedly admitted to getting Stacey Dash fired from Single Ladies. In a promotional clip for Being, LisaRaye said, “In Hollywood, I’ve learned to be a boss. I had to say to Stacey Dash, ‘If you don’t get your motherfucking finger out of my face…’ So for our second season of Single Ladies, there was a replacement for Stacey Dash.”
2.
On the set of The Notebook, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams argued a lot. Director Nick Cassavetes told VH1, “Maybe I’m not supposed to tell this story, but they were really not getting along one day on set. Really not. And Ryan came to me, and there’s 150 people standing in this big scene, and he says, ‘Nick, come here.’ And he’s doing a scene with Rachel, and he says, ‘Would you take her out of here and bring in another actress to read off camera with me?’ I said, ‘What?’ He says, ‘I can’t. I can’t do it with her. I’m just not getting anything from this.'”
Nick continued, “We went into a room with a producer; they started screaming and yelling at each other. I walked out. At that point, I was smoking cigarettes. I smoked a cigarette, and everybody came out like, ‘All right, let’s do this.’ And it got better after that, you know? They had it out…I think Ryan respected her for standing up for her character, and Rachel was happy to get that out in the open. The rest of the film wasn’t smooth sailing, but it was smoother sailing.” Ryan and Rachel famously experienced an “enemies to lovers” romance, and they dated for two years after the movie’s release.
3.
On Celebrity Lie Detector, Tori Spelling admitted that, on the Beverly Hills, 90210 set, tensions between Shannen Doherty and the rest of the cast were high. Describing the incident that was the last straw, Tori said, “Shannen runs in and sits down to get hair done, and you could just feel everyone was turning and looking. I knew someone was gonna say something.” Shannen got into a “heated fight” with Ian Ziering, who allegedly told her, “You are a C-U-N-T: Can’t Understand Normal Thinking.” Afterwards, the cast banded together to get Shannen fired, so Tori brought the issue to her dad, series creator Aaron Spelling.
Tori said, “I felt like I was a part of something, a movement, that cost someone their livelihood… Was she a horrible person? No. She was one of the best friends I ever had.” However, she felt she made the right decision “in the workplace, as a coworker.”
4.
Shannen Doherty was allegedly fired from Charmed because of an ultimatum Alyssa Milano gave producers. On Shannen’s podcast Let’s Be Clear, costar Holly Marie Combs said, “[Producer Jonathan Levin] said, you know, ‘We’re basically in a position where it’s one or the other. We were told [by Alyssa] that it’s [Shannen] or me, and Alyssa has threatened to sue us for a hostile workplace environment.'” She also said Alyssa allegedly “built a case for herself,” bringing a mediator in to document all the instances she felt uncomfortable.
During a MegaCon panel, Alyssa denied her costars’ allegations. She said, “I’m the most sad that a show that has meant so much to so many people has been tarnished by a toxicity that is still to this day, almost a quarter of a century later, still happening. And I’m sad that people can’t move past it. And I’m sad that we all can’t just celebrate the success of a show that meant so much to all of us.”
Later, on Instagram, Alyssa added, “This was so long ago that any retelling of these stories from anyone is just revisionist history. I will add, though, with absolute certainty—everything was documented. There was a professional mediator (I was told Holly and Shannen would not participate in any mediation) and an on-set producer/babysitter who were both brought in to investigate all claims. It was then recommended by this mediator, after collecting testimony from cast AND crew — what changes should be made if the show was going to continue. The studio, Aaron Spelling, and network made the decision to protect the international hit that was Charmed. I did not have the power to get anyone fired. Once Shannen left we had five more successful seasons and I am forever grateful.”
5.
Heidi Swedberg’s Seinfeld character, Susan, was killed off because the rest of the cast didn’t like acting alongside her. On the Howard Stern Show, Jason Alexander said, “I couldn’t figure out how to play off of her. Her instincts for doing a scene, where the comedy was, and mine were always misfiring. And she would do something, and I would go, ‘OK, I see what she’s going to do — I’m going to adjust to her.’ And I’d adjust, and then it would change.” He said that, later on, after Jerry Seinfeld and Julia Louis-Dreyfus shared scenes with Heidi, “They go, ‘You know what? It’s fucking impossible. It’s impossible…And Julia actually said, ‘Don’t you want to just kill her?’ And Larry [David] went, ‘Ka-bang!'”
However, Jason later apologized for how he told that story, tweeting, “OK, folks, I feel officially awful. The impetus for telling this story was that Howard said, ‘Julia Louis-Dreyfus told me you all wanted to kill her.’ So I told the story to try and clarify that no one wanted to kill Heidi… [She] was generous and gracious, and I am so mad at myself for retelling this story in any way that would diminish her. If I had had more maturity or more security in my own work, I surely would have taken her query and possibly tried to adjust the scenes with her. She surely offered. But, I didn’t have that maturity or security.”
6.
Lawrence Tierney, who played Elaine’s father on one episode of Seinfeld, was never brought back because the rest of the cast found him intimidating and scary. In a Season 2 DVD extra, Julia Louis-Dreyfus said, “It’s too bad he was so cuckoo because I’m sure he would’ve been back otherwise.” Jason Alexander said, “There was every reason in the world to have that be an ongoing character because there was just so much tension between him and every other character. It was brilliant.”
However, the cast went on to describe an alleged incident where Lawrence stole one of Jerry’s knives from the set and hid it in his jacket. After Jerry Seinfeld called him out on it, Lawrence tried to make a joke then pulled the knife out, made the Psycho sound, and advanced on Jerry a bit. Jason added, “Lawrence Tierney, I think, scared the living crap out of all of us.”
7.
Thirteen years after his Heroes character was killed off, Leonard Roberts alleged that he was written off the show because of tensions with Ali Larter, who played his onscreen wife. He told Variety, “The script suggested D.L. and Niki had a volatile relationship — and it wasn’t long before art was imitating life, with me on the receiving end of pushback from my co-star regarding the playing of a particularly tense scene.” He said he gifted Ali a bottle of wine and a note as an olive branch, but she allegedly never responded to either.
He also said, “In a private rehearsal [of a bedroom scene], Greg Beeman, our director, asked if she was willing to lower the straps of the top she was wearing and expose her bare shoulders only above the sheet that covered her, in order to give the visual impression she was in the same state of undress as me, as I was shirtless. My costar refused Beeman’s request, and I was instantly aware of the tension on the set. I remember instinctively checking to make sure both my hands were visible to everyone who was there, as not to have my intentions or actions misconstrued. Despite Beeman’s clear description of what he was looking for visually, my co-star insisted she was, indeed, being asked to remove her top completely, and rehearsal was cut. She then demanded a meeting with Beeman and the producers who were on set and proceeded to have an intense and loud conversation in which she expressed she had never been so disrespected — as an actress, a woman or a human being.”
He claimed that she asked him to keep the “discussion” between them, and the scene was completed with her straps visible. He said that, after watching a scene where Ali’s character seduced Adrian Pasdar’s, “I asked Pasdar if there had been any concerns similar to what I witnessed during my episode. He replied to the contrary, and mentioned her openness to collaboration and even improvisation…I couldn’t help wondering whether race was a factor.” Leonard alleged that, after the upfronts, series creator Tim Kring informed him via voicemail that his character was going to be killed off off-screen before Season 2 because of “the Ali Larter situation.”
Leonard continued, “[In person] Kring began by reiterating that because of my co-star, he just couldn’t make my remaining on the show work story-wise. I’m typically not one who refers to himself in the third person, but in that instance, I felt compelled to channel my inner Alexander O’Neal and pointed out he fired Leonard Roberts, but only mentioned Leonard Roberts’s co-star as the reason for his firing, and that Leonard Roberts found that…curious. Kring said he felt my character had been painted into a corner, due to the fact that ‘we’ didn’t have ‘chemistry’…I replied that I found it interesting he had created a world where people flew, painted the future, bent time and space, read minds, erased minds; and were indestructible, yet somehow the potential story solution of my character getting divorced left him utterly confounded. I also questioned how a ‘we’ issue could be cited as justification for the firing of ‘me.'”
Leonard ended up being able to actually film his character’s death scene, though “the shot ended not with [him], but with Niki’s face alone in the frame, splattered with D.L.’s blood.”
Speaking to Variety, Greg Beeman denied hearing a “a loud argument or [Ali] saying anything about being disrespected.” Tim Kring said, “I acknowledge that a lack of diversity at the upper levels of the staff may have contributed to Leonard experiencing the lack of sensitivity that he describes.” Ali Larter told TV Line, “I am deeply saddened to hear about Leonard Roberts’s experience on Heroes, and I am heartbroken reading his perception of our relationship, which absolutely doesn’t match my memory nor experience on the show. I respect Leonard as an artist, and I applaud him or anyone using their voice and platform. I am truly sorry for any role I may have played in his painful experience during that time, and I wish him and his family the very best.”
8.
At the Television Critics Association’s 2015 press tour, John Stamos admitted that rumors he tried to get Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen fired from Full House were true — and he temporarily succeeded! He said, “It’s sort of true that the Olsen twins cried a lot. It was very difficult to get the shot. So I [said], ‘Get them out…!’ That is actually 100 percent accurate. They brought in a couple of unattractive redheaded kids. We tried that for a while, and that didn’t work. [Producers] were like, all right, get the Olsen twins back. And that’s the story.”
9.
In a since-deleted TikTok, Miss Benny alleged that Candace Cameron Bure tried to get her removed from Fuller House. She said, “One of the Tanner sisters is like very publicly, uh, not for the girls, if that makes sense. I remember I got sat down by the writers and the studio to basically warn me how this person allegedly was trying to get the character removed and not have a queer character on the show.”
“I was also sort of warned and prepared that this person’s fanbase might be encouraged to target me, specifically. The fact that this teenage actor, who’s coming in to make jokes about wearing a scarf, is suddenly a target from an adult is crazy to me. So, to this day, despite working on the show every day for two weeks straight, I have only had a conversation with one of the Tanner sisters. Positive is that I had a really fun time actually shooting the show with all of the other actors who were willing to talk to me,” she said.
However, Candace denied Miss Benny’s claims, telling Entertainment Weekly, “I never asked Miss Benny’s character to be removed from Fuller House and did not ask the writers, producers or studio executives to not have queer characters on the show. Fuller House has always welcomed a wide range of characters. I thought Miss Benny did a great job as ‘Casey’ on the show. We didn’t share any scenes together, so we didn’t get a chance to talk much while filming on set. I wish Miss Benny only the best.”
10.
On How Rude, Tanneritos!, Christine Lakin alleged that she was fired from Fuller House before filming any scenes because of a video she made criticizing Candace Cameron Bure’s brother’s anti-gay remarks. She said, “About two days before the table read, I got a call from my manager saying, ‘Yes, something happened.’ They’re pushing the table read. I think there’s some stuff with the script they want to rewrite. The next day happened, and my manager calls and says, ‘Hey, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’ve been let go.’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, they just said they’re rewriting the character, and they’re not going to need you anymore.’ And I was like, ‘What did I do wrong?’ I didn’t even go to a table read.”
She said that she asked one of the show’s writers about it, but they couldn’t provide a reason. As she mulled over it, she speculated her firing may have had to do with Candace. Christine said, “I participated in a Funny or Die video that a friend of mine made, and at the time, Funny or Die had just come out. Kirk Cameron had said some public things about the LGBTQ community, and I thought those were very damaging…I’ve tried to use humor to sort of pop that bubble of discord or maybe call people out in a satirical way. So I participated in it, and it went viral, and [a] bunch of other people in it, and blah, blah, blah. And all I can think of is that it created some bad blood, and seven years later, my presence was not wanted. That’s maybe what I think. It was a bummer for me. It really was.” Candace and Netflix’s reps didn’t respond to People‘s request for comment.
11.
Mel Gibson was cast to play a tattoo artist in The Hangover Part II, but due to protests from some of the rest of the cast and crew, he was dropped. In a statement, director Todd Phillips told Variety, “I thought Mel would have been great in the movie, and I had the full backing of Jeff Robinov and his team. But I realize filmmaking is a collaborative effort, and this decision ultimately did not have the full support of my entire cast.” The announcement came several months after a rant in which the actor allegedly made racial and threatening remarks towards Oksana Grigorieva, his ex-girlfriend, leaked and went viral.
Previously, Mel’s would-be costar Zach Galifianakis told the podcast Comedy Death Ray, “I’m in a deep protest right now with a movie I’m working on, up in arms about something. But I can’t get the guys to [listen]…I’m not making any leeway.”
12.
Richard Gere originally played Chico in The Lords of Flatbush, but he had a lot of tension with lead actor Sylvester Stallone. In a Q&A, Slyvester said, “We never hit it off. 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.”
“Then, we were rehearsing at Coney Island, and it was lunchtime, so we decided to take a break, and the only place that was warm was in the backseat of a Toyota. I was eating a hotdog, and he climbs in with a half a chicken covered in mustard with grease nearly dripping out of the aluminum wrapper. I said, ‘That thing is going to drip all over the place.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ I said, ‘If it gets on my pants, you’re gonna know about it.’ He proceeds to bite into the chicken, and a small, greasy river of mustard lands on my thigh. I 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. He even thinks I’m the individual responsible for the gerbil rumor. Not true…but that’s the rumor,’ he said.
13.
Samantha Ware alleged that Leah Michele threatened to have her fired from Glee. Samantha told Variety, “When you’re shooting a scene, sometimes the camera is on you and sometimes it’s not, but you still have to be in the scene. The camera wasn’t on us, so it’s not like we had to give a full throttle performance, but apparently, I was goofing around when the camera wasn’t on me, and she took that as me being disrespectful to her…She waited until the scene was over, and she stopped in the middle of the stage and did a ‘come here’ gesture, like how a mother does to their child… [She said,] ‘You need to come here right now.’ I said, ‘No,’ and that’s when she decided to threaten my job, and said she would call Ryan Murphy in to come and fire me.”
Samantha said that she didn’t think Ryan was ever actually told about the incident, but it still terrified her. She said, “It’s scary. For the full week, I was thinking I’m probably going to get an email, and I might not be able to do the last three episodes, or I might not be able to sing another song. When I tried to speak up for myself, she told me to shut my mouth. She said I don’t deserve to have that job. She talked about how she has reign. And here’s the thing: I completely understood that, and I was ready to be like, ‘This is your show. I’m not here to be disrespectful.’ But at that point, we were already past the respect, and she was just abusing her power.” Representatives for Glee and Lea declined to comment on the Variety story.
14.
In since-deleted posts on Twitter, Elizabeth Aldrich, who was Lea Michele’s understudy in Ragtime‘s original Broadway run, alleged, “[Lea] was absolutely awful to me and ensemble. She demeaned the crew and threatened to have people fired if she was in anyway displeased. I used to cry every night from the mean and manipulative things she would do. She was 12. She was terrifying.”
15.
In 2013, Alec Baldwin and Shia LaBeouf were set to star in the Broadway play Orphans together, but “there was friction between [them] from the beginning.” Shia learned all his lines before rehearsals started, but Alec doesn’t learn his lines in advance, which caused them to argue. One day, after Alec felt Shia “attacked [him] in front of everyone,” he asked for a break, called a meeting with the director and stage manager, and said it was either him or Shia. He volunteered to quit, but they decided to fire Shia instead. In an essay for Vulture, Alec wrote, “And I think [Shia] was shocked. He had that card, that card you get when you make films that make a lot of money that gives you a certain kind of entitlement. I think he was surprised that it didn’t work in the theater.”
16.
In 2013, lead actor/executive producer Charlie Sheen reportedly threatened to quit Anger Management if producers didn’t fire Selma Blair, who allegedly doubted his work ethic. Less than 24 hours later, he reportedly fired her himself in an expletive-laden text. In response to her dismissal, Selma simply tweeted, “I thank you for support and love.”
Charlie later denied reports that he had her fired, telling The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno, “One of our primary characters, Selma Blair, who played Kate, 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.”
17.
And finally, after a horseback riding injury forced Sean Young to drop out of Batman, producer Jon Peters wanted Michelle Pfeiffer to replace her. However, Michael Keaton reportedly blocked her casting as his love interest because they were exes in real life. Costar Robert Wuhl told The Hollywood Reporter, “At the time, Michael told me he was trying to get back with his ex-wife. Keaton was firmly, and underline firmly, against that casting of Pfeiffer, and he and [producer Jon] Peters got into it.”
However, Michael changed his tune when Michelle was cast as Catwoman in Batman Returns. She told Entertainment Tonight, “It was great actually working with him, having had a history, because I was really out of my element. Also, the fact that he had done this kind of picture before, and I didn’t know what to expect. I felt really comfortable with him. I felt really safe with him. I could go to him and say, ‘Why am I feeling so awful? I don’t know what’s going on.’ And he would explain it to me. ‘I know. I went through it on the first one.'”
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