Its hard to have sympathy with an actor who gets an obscene amount of money for a few weeks work... even if his or her time is wasted and never seen by anyone that wasn't on set. Sometimes its a film length issue, sometimes its famous cameos being too distracting, sometimes its an issue of adapting the book or sometimes youre Terrence Malick. Its not just minor characters and cameos that have been cut from famous films, recently Malick left scenes by Rachel Weisz, Jessica Chastain, Amanda Peet, Michael Sheen and Berry Pepper on his cutting room floor. The most famous Malick cut has to go to The Thin Red Line where Mickey Rourke, Bill Pullman, Jason Patric, Gary Oldman, Lukas Haas, Viggo Mortensen and Martin Sheen were all ruthlessly omitted from the final cut. Heres some other actors that wasted time on scenes you never got to see;
10. James Gandolfini - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The late Sopranos star even made the trailer of this 2011 Academy Award Best Picture nominee. He played a potential love interest for Sandra Bullocks 9/11 widow but didnt prove positive with test audiences and he was ultimately cut from the final film. Taking out Gandolfinis support group role meant Bullocks character was whittled down to an even less fleshed out character. At least he was mentioned and shown in the trailer and on the posters.