Have you ever quit a job before your first day? I did once (because I had a strong feeling I shouldn’t move to China for a job teaching English, and thank goodness, because COVID hit, like, a month before I was supposed to start, and I would’ve wound up stuck and unemployed on the other side of the world). ANYWAY, actors take on new jobs (i.e. roles) fairly frequently, and they can be hard to get, which is why it’s surprising when they decide to walk away.
Here are 17 actors who dropped out of a role before the cameras started rolling:
1.
In 2026, Odessa A’zion signed on to play Zoe Gutierrez in an upcoming adaptation of Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley. The casting announcement sparked instant backlash because the character is Mexican, and Odessa is white and not Latina. A lot of criticism also pointed out the timing of the decision to whitewash a Mexican character when ICE is targeting Latino communities in the US.
A few days after the announcement, Odessa decided to drop out. On her Instagram story, she said, “Guys!! I am with ALL of you and I am NOT doing this movie. Fuck that. I’m OUT. lemme make myself clear… THANK YOU guys for bringing this to my attention. I AGREE WITH EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU! This is why I love you guys. I’m so so sorry that this happened. It is SO important for me to let you in on how it all went down: I went in for Percy, but was offered Zoe instead and instantly said yes! I’m so pissed y’all, I hadn’t read the book and should have paid more attention to all aspects of Zoe before accepting… and now that I know what I know??? Fuck that! IM OUT.”
2.
Similarly, in 2017, Ed Skrein was cast as Major Ben Daimio — who’s Japanese American in the comics — in the reboot of Hellboy. He dropped out of the role a week later following backlash to the role being whitewashed.
In a statement shared to social media, Ed said, “Last week it was announced that I would be playing Major Ben Daimio in the upcoming HELLBOY reboot. I accepted the role unaware that the character in the original comics was of mixed Asian heritage. There has been intense conversation and understandable upset since that announcement, and I must do what I feel is right. It is clear that representing this character in a culturally accurate way holds significance for people, and that to neglect this responsibility would continue a worrying tendency to obscure ethnic minority stories and voices in the Arts. I feel it is important to honour and respect that. Therefore I have decided to step down so the role can be cast appropriately.”
The role went to Daniel Dae Kim, who told the Hollywood Reporter, “I applaud the producers and, in particular, Ed Skrein for championing the notion that Asian characters should be played by Asian or Asian American actors. He could not have addressed the issue more elegantly, and I remain indebted to him for his strength of character.”
3.
In 2023, Joaquin Phoenix was set to star in an untitled gay romance movie. Director Todd Haynes told Variety, “It’s a love story between two men set in the 30s that has explicit sexual content that or at least it challenges you with the sexual relationship between these two men. One is a Native American character, and one is a corrupt cop in LA. It’s set in the 30s. They have to flee LA ultimately and go to Mexico. But it’s a love story and with a strong sexual component.”
However, a mere five days before shooting was scheduled to start in 2024, the actor dropped out altogether. The project reportedly hinged on having him at the helm, preventing a recast and thus dooming the film entirely. According to the Hollywood Reporter, producer Christine Vachon of Killer Films reportedly made (and later deleted) a Facebook post about Joaquin’s departure. Sharing an article about it, she added, “A version of this did happen. It has been a nightmare.”
He allegedly got “cold feet” about the production, according to a source who spoke to Variety. Crew members reportedly speculated that he decided to drop out because of the graphic sex scenes, though other sources said Joaquin was the one who proposed the script to the director in the first place.
4.
However, that wasn’t the first time Joaquin Phoenix dropped out of a role so close to the start of production. In 2015, he reportedly backed out of the lead role in Split a few weeks before filming.
He was replaced by James McAvoy, who later told Variety, “He’d give a very different performance than the one I did but an incredible one. Sometimes, coming in last minute is the best way. I think he ditched it two weeks before they started shooting. It was really last-minute. I had a couple of weeks [to prep]. Two weeks. The script was well put together, so a lot of it was clear what I wanted to do straight away. A couple characters took a little longer to find. Patricia came quick. Hedwig took awhile.”
5.
In 2023, Andrew Garfield was cast as the Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. However, he wound up dropping out due to scheduling conflicts related to the Writers Guild of America strike.
Jacob Elordi replaced him. Andrew later told Deadline, “I love Guillermo, and I love Oscar [Isaac] and everyone that he assembled, so I was disappointed. But meeting Jacob felt really, I don’t know, serendipitous, so that I could really see and hear that, Oh, no, maybe he really needed that experience more than me. That was cool to feel that he had a really spectacular time on that job.”
6.
For context, in Never Have I Ever, pro tennis player John McEnroe serves as the narrator for episodes focused on the main character, Devi. In 2021, Chrissy Teigen was set to narrate a Season 2 episode focused on Devi’s love interest, Paxton. However, after Chrissy spoke out about facing “relentless bullying” on Twitter, her past cyberbullying tweets and alleged DMs to Courtney Stodden — who was only 16 when they famously married 51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison — resurfaced.
Gigi Hadid took over as Paxton’s narrator. In the episode, she said, “You may be asking yourself, ‘Why is old Gigers taking time out of her busy skedge to narrate the story of a 16-year-old boy?’ Believe it or not — I relate to this kid. We’re both constantly underestimated because people only see us as sex symbols.”
7.
At the end of 2016, Amy Schumer was cast in a live-action Barbie movie from Sony. Hilary Winston wrote the script, but the actor reportedly planned to rewrite it with her sister, writer/producer Kim Caramele. No director was attached to the project.
However, three months later, Amy backed out. In a statement, she said, “Sadly, I’m no longer able to commit to Barbie due to scheduling conflicts. The film has so much promise, and Sony and Mattel have been great partners. I’m bummed, but look forward to seeing Barbie on the big screen.”
Several years later, the movie finally landed at Warner Bros. with Margot Robbie as its star and Greta Gerwig as its director/cowriter. In 2023 — the year the film was released — Amy admitted that her script hadn’t felt “feminist and cool” enough. She told Watch What Happens Live, “It really was just creative differences. But you know, there’s a new team behind it, and it looks like it’s very feminist and cool, so I will be seeing the movie.”
8.
Initially, Ben Affleck was supposed to cameo in Barbie! At a Q&A, Michael Cera, who played Allan, said, “I wasn’t even supposed to fight in the movie. Am I allowed to say what it was supposed to be? It was supposed to be Ben Affleck. Right? Am I allowed to say that? … I think Ben wanted to do it, but he was directing his movie.”
The filmmakers didn’t know Ben couldn’t be in the scene where Allan fights construction workers until “the 11th hour.” Michael continued, “They’re like, ‘Okay, Ben’s out, something has to happen here. So you’re gonna fight them.’ So I had to jump in with the stunt team. I had just gotten over COVID, and they had me training, and I almost died. Just doing the warm-up! I had to lay down in my trailer, and they sent the nurse to see me, and I was sent home. So then we had a second rehearsal, and I learned it. That’s the story basically.”
9.
In 2014, Zendaya was set to star as the titular music icon in the Lifetime biopic Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B. However, Aaliyah’s family was reportedly opposed to the Lifetime production and tried to legally block the network from using “any of the music, or any of the photographs and videos that [they] own.”
The movie was supposed to be filmed in the summer, but Zendaya dropped out at the end of June. A month later, she addressed the situation in an Instagram video, saying, “Let me just explain something. The reason why I chose not to do the Aaliyah movie had nothing to do with the haters or people telling me I couldn’t do it, I wasn’t talented enough, or I wasn’t Black enough. It had absolutely nothing to do with that. The main reasons were the production value wasn’t there. There were complications with the music rights. And I just felt like it wasn’t being handled delicately considering the situation.”
She was recast with Alexandra Shipp.
10.
Woody Harrelson was reportedly in talks to play Rick Hatchett on The White Lotus. However, sources told the Hollywood Reporter that he was allegedly unsatisfied with getting the exact same pay as everyone else in the cast and tried to negotiate a higher salary with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
According to the Daily Beast, he actually did sign on to play Frank, but his reps said, “It’s not about money… He was set to do the show, and they moved the date. And because they moved to date, he was no longer available, so they recast.”
He was replaced by Sam Rockwell.
11.
When Shakespeare in Love went into production in 1991, Julia Roberts was reportedly signed on to play Viola de Lesseps. She was allegedly dead set on getting Daniel Day-Lewis, who’d just won Best Actor at the Academy Awards, to play her William Shakespeare. However, he was already committed to another project, forcing him to reject the role.
The studio had her screen test with all kinds of actors — Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Sean Bean, Jeremy Northam, and Ralph Fiennes. But none of them seemingly measured up to her vision, so she decided to leave the role.
After several years in development hell, the movie found a new leading lady — Gwyneth Paltrow, who won an Oscar for the role.
12.
In 2023, Steven Yeun was reportedly set to play Sentry in Thunderbolts*. However, Marvel never officially confirmed it.
A year later, following the SAG-AFTRA strike, he had to step away. He told Variety, “I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it. But Jake [Schreier, the director], I know, is going to do an incredible job. I wanna do a Marvel movie … It took a lot of drafts on email to make sure that I conveyed the sincerity of how sorry I was to have to back out.”
Lewis Pullman ultimately played Sentry.
13.
In 2018, Scarlett Johansson was set to play real-life crime kingpin Dante “Tex” Gill in Rub & Tug. However, the announcement drew backlash because she was a cisgender woman being cast as a transgender man, rather than a trans actor being cast in the role.
Initially, Scarlett responded to the backlash with this statement to Bustle: “Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment.”
However, she ultimately listened to people’s concerns and stepped down from the role. She told Out, “In light of recent ethical questions raised surrounding my casting as Dante Tex Gill, I have decided to respectfully withdraw my participation in the project. Our cultural understanding of transgender people continues to advance, and I’ve learned a lot from the community since making my first statement about my casting and realize it was insensitive. I have great admiration and love for the trans community and am grateful that the conversation regarding inclusivity in Hollywood continues. According to GLAAD, LGBTQ+ characters dropped 40% in 2017 from the previous year, with no representation of trans characters in any major studio release.”
14.
Jennifer Lawrence was cast as Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in Adam McKay’s movie Bad Blood for Apple TV+. However, in 2022, she decided to exit the role after watching Amanda Seyfried’s Emmy-winning performance as Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout on Hulu.
Jennifer told the New York Times’s Kyle Buchanan, “I thought she was terrific. I was like, ‘Yeah, we don’t need to redo that.’ She did it.” The movie was never made.
15.
In 2013, Charlie Hunnam was set to play Christian Grey in 50 Shades of Grey, a role that felt surprising to many of his fans. However, a month later, Universal released a statement that they “agreed to find another male lead given Hunnam’s immersive TV schedule which is not allowing him time to adequately prepare for the role of Christian Grey.”
Two years later, the actor told V Man, “Oh, it was the worst professional experience of my life. It was the most emotionally destructive and difficult thing that I’ve ever had to deal with professionally. It was heartbreaking.”
The role went to Jamie Dornan.
16.
In 2016, Will Ferrell was announced as the star and producer of Reagan, an upcoming comedy about President Ronald Reagan dealing with dementia induced by his Alzheimer’s disease during his term. In an open letter criticizing the storyline, the late president’s daughter, Patti Davis, said, “Perhaps you have managed to retain some ignorance about Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Perhaps if you knew more, you would not find the subject humorous.”
Two days later, Will exited the role. His spokesperson told the Hollywood Reporter, “The Reagan script is one of a number of scripts that had been submitted to Will Ferrell, which he had considered. While it is by no means an ‘Alzheimer’s comedy’ as has been suggested, Mr. Ferrell is not pursuing this project.”
17.
And finally, in 2020, Nicholas Hoult was announced to play Gabriel Martinelli in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. On Instagram, Director/co-writer Christopher McQuarrie said, “Care to raise a little hell?” and the actor replied, “Though why stop at a little?”
However, he had to back out due to scheduling conflicts. In 2023, he told the Guardian, “I screen-tested for Batman and didn’t get it. Screen-tested for Top Gun, didn’t get it. Then I got the call from Tom Cruise: ‘Hey, how about Mission Impossible?’ OK. Got it. Then I had to drop out because I was already attached to do some more of The Great.”
He was replaced by Esai Morales.
