20 stars who were dropped due to controversy

Few Hollywood stars have had as spectacular a flameout as Mel Gibson. For much of the 1980s and 1990s, he was one of the most in-demand stars in Hollywood, and he also cemented his reputation as a formidable director thanks to the success of films like Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ. After Gibson went on an abusive and anti-Semitic tirade against a police officer, his career underwent a remarkable decline (it didn’t help that he’d also made several other controversial statements throughout his career). Unlike others, however, he has gradually been welcomed back into the fold, and he has even gone on to direct films that have been nominated for Academy Awards.

Megan Fox has had a very varied career in Hollywood, acting in film and television. For a time, she had a particularly productive relationship with director Michael Bay, particularly in the 2007 film Transformers. However, working conditions were apparently quite tense, as was the relationship between the director and the star. Fox landed in a bit of hot water when she compared working with Michael Bay to working with Hitler. There remains some ambiguity as to who was ultimately responsible for her firing — whether Bay did it of his own volition or at the direction of Steven Spielberg — but either way, she was let go and did not star in the third Transformers film.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, Chevy Chase was one of the biggest comedy stars in Hollywood. Though his career stalled in the 2000s, it began to resurge in the late 2000s and into the 2010s, thanks to his appearance in the hit comedy Community. While Chase’s comedic instincts were as sharp as ever, he courted no small amount of controversy thanks to an outburst about the direction his character was going. He was ultimately written out of the show, and though he has acted in a few things since, he has yet to quite recapture the same height of his earlier success. 

Kevin Hart has long earned praise for his comedic abilities in front of the camera and in his stand-up. His increased visibility and the success of his comedy led him to be asked to host the Oscars in 2019. However, as happens quite often in Hollywood, this particular gig was undermined when various homophobic tweets were brought to light. While he might have been able to survive the scandal this created, the ambiguous nature of his apology ultimately led to his stepping down from the role. The Oscars would go on, but they would do so without a host for that year’s ceremony. 

For a while, James Franco was one of those actors who could seemingly do no wrong, and he was as adept in a romantic comedy as he was in a superhero film like Spider-Man.  Arguably, his most productive creative partnership, however, was with Seth Rogen. Throughout the 2010s, however, numerous allegations emerged about his sexual improprieties, ranging from flirting with young women to sexual assault. This led to the shelving of a number of his projects, and even Rogen sought to distance himself from his former collaborator. Indeed, Franco hasn’t appeared in a film since 2021, a clear sign of the allegations’  impact on his career. 

Jussie Smollett had been a fixture in Hollywood ever since his childhood years, but he gained even more fame thanks to his starring role in the series Empire, in which he played Jamal Lyon, one of the sons of a powerful music mogul who struggles for control of the company. Though he was widely praised for the role, he became the center of controversy when he claimed to have been the victim of a hate crime. The whole thing was later revealed to have been a hoax on his part, and he was ultimately pulled from the last couple of episodes of the fifth and the entirety of the sixth season of Empire. 

After a role in the long-running soap opera The Young and the Restless, Hartley Sawyer managed to procure a guest role and later a main role in the popular CW superhero series The Flash. He portrayed the character of Ralph Dibny/Elongated Man. He starred on the series until 2020, when several tweets he’d made earlier in his career resurfaced, many of which were racist and misogynist. This led to his termination from The Flash and was, effectively, the end of his career in Hollywood. He has largely withdrawn from public life and has likewise vanished from both the big and small screens.

Armie Hammer is one of those stars who has repeatedly struggled to break through and achieve lasting success. He came very close with his critically acclaimed role in the romantic drama Call Me By Your Name. Beginning in 2021, however, things began to go south for the actor. Texts surfaced that suggested he might be into various dangerous sexual practices — there were intimations of cannibalism — and, more ominously, several women also accused him of assault. This led to his being dropped by his agency and his termination from several forthcoming projects.

The 2020s was shaping up to be a particularly good decade for star Jonathan Majors. Not only did he have a major role in the sports drama Creed III, but he was also cast as a major villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In 2023, however, he was accused of physical assault — and later convicted on two counts in the domestic violence trial — which led to a cascading effect. Most notably, he was dropped from the MCU, where he was slated to play several characters, including big bad Kang the Conqueror. He was also let go from several other projects in which he was involved, including several recruiting commercials for the Army.

Step by Step was in many ways a quintessential ‘90s comedy, focusing on a blended family, headed by Patrick Duffy’s Frank and Suzanne Somers’ Carol and their large brood of children. An additional and much-beloved member of the cast was Sasha Mitchell, who played Frank’s lovable but doofy nephew Cody. Due to his highly publicized legal troubles, which revolved around alleged spousal abuse, Mitchell was eventually fired from the show after the fifth season. He was replaced by Bronson Pinchot, though the series only managed to limp along for another couple of seasons, thanks in no small part to a change in the network.

As part of the ensemble cast of That ‘70s Show, Danny Masterson was a staple of late ‘90s and early ‘00s television. He continued to work, gaining roles in both Men at Work and The Ranch. However, accusations that he had rapëd several women emerged in 2017 and 2018. Eventually, this led to his termination from the cast of The Ranch, and he was also dropped by his agency. He would subsequently be convicted of several crimes in 2023, eventually being sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.

For much of his career, Kevin Spacey was one of Hollywood’s most respected actors, capable of appearing in small dramas and more high-profile films. In the 2010s, he earned even more praise for his portrayal of the Machiavellian political Frank Underwood in the hit Netflix series House of Cards. However, Spacey’s house of cards came crumbling down when numerous allegations of sexual assault were lodged against him. Though he tried to do some damage control by coming out of the closet, he was ultimately fired from House of Cards  and replaced by Christopher Plummer in Ridley Scott’s film All the Money in the World. 

Scream has proved to be one of the most enduring horror franchises of the 20th and 21st centuries, and it got a new lease on life with the release of Scream in 2022 and Scream VI in 2023. Much of the recent films’ success can be attributed to Melissa Barrera, the daughter of Billy Loomis, who becomes this new iteration’s main character. However, she earned some unwanted media attention when she made public statements concerning the current war in Gaza, which were interpreted by some to be antisemitic in nature. She was subsequently fired from Scream VII, which led to the project entering limbo.

When Roseanne Barr’s series Roseanne premiered in the 1980s, it was a revelation. Here, at last, was a show that focused on the struggles of a real working-class family, with all of the money struggles and personal strife. The show made a triumphant return in the late 2010s, only to be marred by the star’s racist tweet regarding former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Though the show was canceled, it was eventually revived under the new name The Conners, while Roseanne’s character was killed off. She has subsequently continued to court controversy and has been very open about her anger regarding the whole situation.

For those who grew up in the 1990s, Lori Loughlin was famous for playing Aunt Becky in the popular and long-running sitcom Full House. In addition to this role, she gained fame for her work with the Hallmark Channel, particularly for appearing in the series When Calls the Heart. Her career came to a screeching halt, however, when she was revealed to be one of those involved in the college admissions bribery scandal. She was subsequently dropped from both her working relationship with Hallmark and from Netflix, which had been responsible for making Fuller House. 

Gina Carano quickly became a fan favorite on the hit series The Mandalorian after her first appearance as Cara Dune. However, while she certainly fit in with the cast as a formidable action heroine, her off-screen actions proved too much. She made several ill-advised tweets weighing in on such matters as transgender rights, Black Lives Matter, the COVID pandemic, and the 2020 election. Ultimately, this proved too much for her employers, and she was terminated from The Mandalorian. Her character wasn’t killed off after her firing, but she ceased to appear after the second season (though she was referred to by another character).

Given its sheer longevity, Grey’s Anatomy has understandably undergone several cast changes over the years. Some of these have emerged naturally through the demands of storytelling, but others have been driven by controversy. Arguably, the most notable of these was the firing of Isaiah Washington, largely due to his use of a homophobic slur regarding one of his fellow members of the cast. He ceased to appear in the show after the third season. His career managed to survive the controversy, and he would star in several films and television series, including The 100. 

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has the distinction of not only being a beloved sitcom from the 1990s but also for playing a significant role in Will Smith’s rise to superstardom. Though he was the main appeal of the show, he was surrounded by a very talented cast, including, for a few seasons anyway, Janet Hubert, who played the first iteration of Aunt Viv. Rumors consistently swirled about why, exactly, she left the show, with many believing it was because of her difficult behavior on set. In reality, it was a controversy of a different sort, and she actually quit the show of her own volition due to a number of personal difficulties and her friction with Will Smith.

The 1970s sitcom Three’s Company was very much an ensemble comedy, and its early appeal stemmed from the undeniable chemistry among its three leads: John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt, and Suzanne Somers. As so often happens in television, however, friction erupted into the open when contract negotiations began, and they were particularly acute when it came to Somers, who demanded a significant raise and a share in the profits. After engaging in a quasi-strike, Somers eventually left the show, becoming the first in a number of cast changes during its run. 

Charlie Sheen has had a remarkably varied career in Hollywood, starting with notable starring roles in films such as Platoon and then moving into television. One of his most notable roles was in the hit sitcom Two and a Half Men, where he played the womanizing Charlie Harper. Though he was obviously one of the show’s main anchors, his off-screen antics tended to damage his reputation. The last straw was when he engaged in a very public (and very derogatory) fight with the series’ creator, Chuck Lorre. He was subsequently fired, and he was replaced on the show by Ashton Kutcher.