10 Actors Who Were Almost Fired From Famous Roles

4. Robert Downey Jr. Almost Got Fired From Weird Science For Taking A Dump In A Co-Star's Trailer

Robert Downey Jr. Weird Science
Universal Pictures

Certainly this is one of the weirder entries to make this list, because it involves Robert Downey Jr. - arguably the biggest actor in the world right now - pooping and subsequently getting into trouble for it. You can't make this stuff up.

According to Renee Props, an actress who had a small role in John Hughes' classic teen comedy, Downey Jr. decided to defecate in her trailer for a laugh during the making of Weird Science, in which the actor plays a jerky bully named Ian. "Oh, that's not so bad," you're probably thinking. "So what if he used her toilet one time?" Sure, except he didn't use the toilet - he did it on a chair.

When producer Joel Silver got wind of what had happened, he was apparently so disgusted with the actor that he wanted to fire him. Fortunately, Props denied that Downey Jr. had done such a thing, and so with no evidence to condemn the actor for his, uh, crimes, Silver was unable to get rid of him. Who knew?

Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.