9 Lead Actors Who Were Fired From Movies
6. Jean-Claude Van Damme - Predator
Reason For Termination: Too Much Whining
Predator was the sci-fi action movie that helped further establish Arnold Schwarzenegger as an action megastar. Fresh off the heels of Conan the Barbarian, Terminator, and Commando, this time Arnie would join up with other rising stars Carl Weathers, Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and...Jean-Claude Van Damme? Well, almost.
Van Damme was originally cast as the stunt actor to put on the alien hunter suit. The future martial arts star - whose only prior experience in a studio film was as the villain in the little-seen No Retreat, No Surrender - apparently took exception to the unwieldiness of the suit, however, and basically griped himself out of a job.
To be fair, the original concept for the Predator suit was pretty awful, looking more like a man-crab hybrid than the badass, dreadlocked beast it would eventually become. Also, Van Damme was painfully misinformed about the role, believing the suit would only cover portions of his body so that his face could be seen and he could execute his repertoire of martial arts moves in fight scenes. None of that was true.
Accounts of Van Damme's parting are a little murky, but suffice to say that the rookie actor's attitude was not welcome on the set, and once the special effects team rebooted the suit to its now legendary glory, they had little need for JCVD.
5. James Remar - Aliens
Reason For Termination: Creative Differences
Is there a more ambiguous and pussyfooted term when talking about people parting ways from a production than "creative differences"? It's a catch-all for every grievance, big or small, and almost always involved some level of dickery, and is used to gloss over the often unsavory nature of making movies. But that's the phrase that was bandied about when James Remar was given the axe from the Alien sequel in the middle of filming.
Remar was originally cast to play Corporal Dwayne Hicks, which you might recall is a significant role, pretty much the number two to Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. In recent years, Remar has blamed his drug habit for the awful behavior he displayed on set, which ultimately forced James Cameron's hand:
"I was initially cast as Corporal Hicks, and I was fired after a couple weeks of filming because I got busted for possession of drugs, and Michael Biehn replaced me."