6 Movie Roles That Got People Fired
3. Radio Host Sook-Yin Lee Was Fired For Unsimulated Sex Scenes (Until Hollywood Stepped In) - Shortbus
Sook-Yin Lee was a presenter on Canadian radio station CBC in 2003 when she was offered the lead role in John Cameron Mitchell's erotic dramedy Shortbus.
Lee accepted the part, but when the film's sexually explicit nature was made public - requiring Lee to perform unsimulated sex acts on-screen - her employers at CBC gave her her marching orders.
Lee's boss, Jane Chalmers, hastily informed her she was fired if she agreed to move forward with the part.
This resulted in several of Lee and Mitchell's high-profile acquaintances, such as Yoko Ono, Gus Van Sant, Francis Ford Coppola, Julianne Moore, and David Cronenberg, writing to CBC to protest her dismissal.
As a result of the public pressure, a few weeks later Chalmers backed down and agreed to reinstate Lee, while Lee went on to appear in the film without any further threats to her job.
Despite all this fuss, Lee continued to work periodically with CBC for roughly 15 years after the incident. A happy ending, then.