10 Actors Who Quit Movies Because Of Other Actors
2. Terrence Howard Quit Because Robert Downey Jr. "Took His Money" - Iron Man 2
Terence Howard was the first actor cast in the original Iron Man, and with a recent Best Actor Oscar nomination to his name for Hustle and Flow, he was able to angle the highest salary among the cast for playing Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) pal James Rhodes.
Howard was reportedly paid roughly $4.5 million, while the riskily-cast Downey made just $500,000 upfront.
With the film teasing Rhodey donning the War Machine suit for the sequel, Howard was widely expected to return for Iron Man 2, until Marvel made the decision to renegotiate his salary.
Because Rhodey's role was apparently made smaller during rewrites, Marvel Studios offered him just $1 million to return, when Howard was expecting to be paid $8 million per his contract.
Howard ended up quitting the project and being replaced with Don Cheadle, later claiming that the $7 million taken away from him was given to Downey instead.
Amid reports that Howard was a difficult presence on the first film's set, he stated, "the contracts that we write and sign aren't worth the paper that they're printed on sometimes."
Howard also claimed that Downey "took the money that was supposed to go to [him] and pushed [him] out," and that despite apparently helping the actor secure the Iron Man role, Downey took three months to get back to him about the issue.