10 Actors Who Walked Off Huge TV Shows (And Why)

These TV actors weren't in the mood to stick around on set and here's precisely why...

By Gareth Morgan /

Work on just about any project set to land on a screen in the end tends to involve a whole host of folks all pulling in the same direction in the hope of creating something memorable and/or successful down the road.

Advertisement

So, you can imagine how difficult it must be to pump life into a show on the small screen when one of the vital on-screen cogs tasked with bringing a character, or just themselves, to the party decides to call it a day and go walkabouts mid-way through the shoot.

But not every actor to have ever stormed off a TV set did so simply because they felt like causing a bit of a fuss. Though some very much did simply choose violence when they woke up that morning, others decided to vacate the area in an act of understandable protest, be that against the creative direction for their character or due to being seemingly blind-sided mid-shoot.

From quickly wandering off set for good on their last day without a care in the world, to clashes with co-stars and creators leading to a dramatic exit, these actors weren't in the mood to stick around in any way, shape, or form.

10. Extras Leave And Don't Come Back - Noughts And Crosses

Finally bringing the television adaptation of Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses novel series to life after being announced as in production some four years earlier, 2020's BBC spin on the Romeo and Juliet-esque love tale set in a dystopian world hit all the right notes with audiences, eventually earning a second season that will land on BBC One this year.

Advertisement

However, in the lead-up to the show's release, it was actually revealed by Paterson Joseph, playing Home Secretary Kamal Hadley, that a number of white extras brought in to shoot the series whilst on location in South Africa weren't best pleased with the material and didn't return to set the next day upon learning of the premise of the show; that being Black people known as Crosses being in the positions of real power in this world, whilst the white Noughts take up lower classed roles in the wake of Africa colonising Europe.

As Joseph put it whilst talking about the show at the Southbank Centre in London:

“I don’t mind saying this, it’s the truth, we had extras - white extras in South Africa - who decided not to come back the next day when they heard the premise of what they just shot because it’s difficult."
Advertisement