10 Times Actors Were Edited Out Of Movies
You're never too famous to be given the chop.
No matter how flawlessly the pre-production and shooting of a movie goes, the filmmakers never really know how it's going to turn out until they sit down in that editing suite and start piecing their footage together.
Something that sounds great on paper just might not work when it's been put on camera, or one of the best scenes that they shot simply might not jive with the scenes around it: editing is where the movie comes alive, and it's here where any previously unseen problems will start to rear their heads.
Very rarely, this can mean that an entire subplot or character doesn't land the way it was intended, which can lead to an actor's work being left on the cutting room floor. It's an unenviable call to make, but we've seen several cases where an actor has filmed a major part in a film, only to be chopped from the final cut that's shown to audiences.
The reasons for this are aplenty, from behind-the-scenes shake-ups to story purposes, and it's always fascinating to consider what these films would have looked like if they were presented to us with these actors included.
10. Sienna Miller - Black Mass
After appearing in Oscar hopefuls Foxcatcher and American Sniper in 2014, Sienna Miller was set to star in another potential awards candidate the following year.
Black Mass charted the crime career of famous gangster Whitey Bulger (Johnny Depp's best performance of the decade), and while the biopic did try and stick closely to Bulger's real-life story where possible, one major part of his life was omitted from the final film.
Miller was cast as Bulger's girlfriend Catherine Greig, the woman who helped him evade capture for over 15 years. Greig paid for Bulger's medications, ran errands for him, and in general, was an important asset to his criminal activities. Miller had to perfect a Boston accent for the role so she poured a lot of effort into her scenes, but for reasons beyond her control, they never saw the light of day.
Director Scott Cooper told The Boston Globe that while the actress was "fantastic" in the film, the decision to remove her "came down to narrative choices" - namely, Cooper felt that Bulger's later years with Greig were "less dramatic" than the rest of the film.