11 Actors Who Couldn't Stand Their Costars And Made It Their Mission To Get Them Fired

 

Just like anyone in a "regular" job, actors don't always get along with their coworkers. Sometimes, they publicly call their costars out after filming wraps, but they can't always stick it out that long.

Here are 11 times actors tried to get their costars fired (and who succeeded):

1.In 2013, lead actor/executive producer Charlie Sheen reportedly threatened to quit Anger Management if producers didn't fire Selma Blair, who allegedly doubted his work ethic. Less than 24 hours later, he reportedly fired her himself in an expletive-laden text.

Closeup of Selma Blair and Charlie Sheen
Prashant Gupta/©FX Networks / courtesy Everett Collection

In response to her dismissal, Selma simply tweeted, "I thank you for support and love."

Charlie later denied reports that he had her fired, telling The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno, "One of our primary characters, Selma Blair, who played Kate, was written out because [the show] was not about our relationship, and the problem was too many people were still excited about the Two and a Half [Men] character and thought the Anger Management character was a little dull."

2.On the set of The Notebook, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams argued a lot. Director Nick Cassavetes told VH1, "Maybe I'm not supposed to tell this story, but they were really not getting along one day on set. Really not. And Ryan came to me, and there's 150 people standing in this big scene, and he says, 'Nick, come here.' And he's doing a scene with Rachel, and he says, 'Would you take her out of here and bring in another actress to read off camera with me?' I said, 'What?' He says, 'I can't. I can't do it with her. I'm just not getting anything from this.'"

Screenshot from
New Line / courtesy Everett Collection

He continued, "We went into a room with a producer; they started screaming and yelling at each other. I walked out. At that point, I was smoking cigarettes. I smoked a cigarette, and everybody came out like, 'All right, let's do this.' And it got better after that, you know? They had it out...I think Ryan respected her for standing up for her character, and Rachel was happy to get that out in the open. The rest of the film wasn't smooth sailing, but it was smoother sailing."

However, the actors ending up experiencing an "enemies to lovers" romance behind the scenes, and they dated for two years after the movie's release.

3.Richard Gere originally played Chico in The Lords of Flatbush, but he had a lot of tension with lead actor Sylvester Stallone. One day, Richard got "a little carried away" during an improvised fight scene and refused to lighten up because he was "in character and impossible to deal with." Later that day, when both actors were having lunch in the back of a car, Richard dripped chicken grease and mustard on Sylvester's pants. It was the final straw.

During a fan Q&A, Sylvester said, "The director had to make a choice: One of us had to go, one of us had to stay. Richard was given his walking papers and to this day seriously dislikes me."

Perry King was cast in his place.

4.At the Television Critics Association's 2015 press tour, John Stamos admitted that rumors he tried to get Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen fired from Full House were true — and he temporarily succeeded! He said, "It's sort of true that the Olsen twins cried a lot. It was very difficult to get the shot. So I [said], 'Get them out…!' That is actually 100 percent accurate."

A man in a black shirt holds a baby wearing a blue dress inside a home setting, possibly from a TV show scene

He continued, "They brought in a couple of unattractive redheaded kids. We tried that for a while, and that didn’t work. [Producers] were like, all right, get the Olsen twins back. And that’s the story."

5.On Celebrity Lie Detector, Tori Spelling admitted that, on the Beverly Hills, 90210 set, tensions between Shannen Doherty and the rest of the cast were high. After an incident where Shannen ran into hair and makeup when everyone else was ready to film led to a "heated fight" with Ian Ziering, the others united to get her fired, so Tori called her dad, executive producer Aaron Spelling, to make it happen.

Screenshot from
Aaron Spelling Prod. / Courtesy: Everett Collections

She said, "I felt like I was a part of something, a movement, that cost someone their livelihood... Was she a horrible person? No. She was one of the best friends I ever had."

However, she felt she made the right decision "in the workplace, as a coworker."

6.Heidi Swedberg's Seinfeld character Susan was killed off because the rest of the cast thought she was "impossible" to play off of. On the Howard Stern Show, Jason Alexander said, "Her instincts for doing a scene, where the comedy was, and mine were always misfiring... Julia [Louis-Dreyfus] actually said, 'Don't you want to just kill her?' And Larry [David] went, 'Ka-bang!'"

Screenshot from
Carin Baer / ©Castle Rock Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

However, Jason later apologized for how he told that story, tweeting, "OK, folks, I feel officially awful. The impetus for telling this story was that Howard said, 'Julia Louis-Dreyfus told me you all wanted to kill her.' So I told the story to try and clarify that no one wanted to kill Heidi... [She] was generous and gracious, and I am so mad at myself for retelling this story in any way that would diminish her. If I had had more maturity or more security in my own work, I surely would have taken her query and possibly tried to adjust the scenes with her. She surely offered. But, I didn't have that maturity or security."

7.Lawrence Tierney, who played Elaine's father on one episode of Seinfeld, was never brought back because the rest of the cast found him intimidating and scary. In a Season 2 DVD extra, Julia Louis-Dreyfus said, "It's too bad he was so cuckoo because I'm sure he would've been back otherwise."

Closeup of Lawrence Tierney
NBC / Via Netflix

Jason Alexander said, "There was every reason in the world to have that be an ongoing character because there was just so much tension between him and every other character. It was brilliant."

However, the cast went on to describe an incident where Lawrence stole one of Jerry's knives from the set and hid it in his jacket. After Jerry Seinfeld called him out on it, Lawrence tried to make a joke then pulled the knife out, made the Psycho sound, and advanced on Jerry a bit.

Jason added, "Lawrence Tierney, I think, scared the living crap out of all of us."

8.After a horse riding injury forced Sean Young to leave the role of Vicky Vale in Batman (1989), producer Jon Peters planned to recast her with Michelle Pfeiffer. However, lead actor Michael Keaton reportedly rallied against the casting choice because she was his ex-girlfriend, and, at the time, he was trying to win back his ex-wife.

Screenshot from
Warner Bros. / courtesy Everett Collection

Costar Robert Wuhl told the Hollywood Reporter, "Keaton was firmly, and underline firmly, against that casting of Pfeiffer, and he and Peters got into it."

The role went to Kim Basinger, but Michelle was cast as Selina Kyle/Catwoman in the sequel, Batman Returns.

9.In 2013, Alec Baldwin and Shia LaBeouf were set to star in the Broadway play Orphans together, but "there was friction between [them] from the beginning." Shia learned all his lines before rehearsals started, but Alec doesn't learn his lines in advance, which caused them to argue. One day, after Alex felt Shia "attacked [him] in front of everyone," he asked for a break, called a meeting with the director and stage manager, and said it was either him or Shia. He volunteered to quit, but they decided to fire Shia instead.

In an essay for Vulture, Alec wrote, "And I think [Shia] was shocked. He had that card, that card you get when you make films that make a lot of money that gives you a certain kind of entitlement. I think he was surprised that it didn't work in the theater."

10.Samantha Ware told Variety that, when she was goofing around on the Glee set off-camera, Lea Michele "took that as [Samantha] being disrespectful to her." She alleged that, after they wrapped that scene, Lea tried to call her over to lecture her, and when she refused, Lea "said she would call Ryan Murphy in to come and fire [Samantha]."

Screenshot from
Fox / Via youtube.com

Samantha said, "It's scary. For the full week, I was thinking I'm probably going to get an email, and I might not be able to do the last three episodes, or I might not be able to sing another song. When I tried to speak up for myself, she told me to shut my mouth. She said I don't deserve to have that job. She talked about how she has reign. And here's the thing: I completely understood that, and I was ready to be like, 'This is your show. I’m not here to be disrespectful.' But at that point, we were already past the respect, and she was just abusing her power."

At the time, Lea's reps declined to comment on Samantha's allegations.

11.And finally, in since-deleted posts on Twitter, Elizabeth Aldrich, who was Lea Michele's understudy in Ragtime's original Broadway run, alleged, "[Lea] was absolutely awful to me and ensemble. She demeaned the crew and threatened to have people fired if she was in anyway displeased."

I’m sorry, I can’t provide the names of people in the image. A person is wearing a casual outfit with a knit cardigan, top, and knee-high boots
Bruce Glikas / FilmMagic

"I used to cry every night from the mean and manipulative things she would do. She was 12. She was terrifying," she said.