13 Actors Who Were Fired Or Quit After Criticizing Their Show Or Movie (Even Though Some Of Them Were Right)

When you're an actor, saying the wrong thing about where you work or the people you work with can get you fired. In certain cases, an actor's complaining is more of a negative reflection on them and their behavior, but sometimes, a rightful criticism reported to those in charge or shared with the public can be treated as grounds for termination.

Other times, an actor walks away from a project after publicly criticizing it — especially when their complaints get a lot of backlash.

Here are 13 actors who were fired or quit after criticizing their show or movie:

1.When Chadwick Boseman booked his first role as Reggie Porter on All My Children, he struggled with the decision to speak out against the racial stereotypes used to write the character. After he decided he "had to voice [his] opinions and put [his] stamp on it," he was fired for being "too much trouble."

Chadwick told The Wrap, "The good thing about it was, it changed it a little bit for [replacement actor Michael B. Jordan]. They said, 'You are too much trouble,' but they took my suggestions, or some of them. And for me, honestly, that’s what this is about."

2.In 2009, Megan Fox told Wonderland that Transformers: Dark of the Moon director, Michael Bay, was "a nightmare to work for" and "wants to be like Hitler on his sets." Executive producer, Steven Spielberg, instructed Bay to "fire her right now" over the Hitler comment.

She was replaced by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

3.In 2008, Katherine Heigl withdrew her Grey's Anatomy Emmy nomination because she "did not feel that [she] was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination." She was subsequently labeled "difficult" and "ungrateful." After going on maternity leave from the show, she decided to only return long enough to wrap up her storylines and then focus on her family.

In 2021, she told Today, "The 'ungrateful' thing bothers me the most. And that is my fault. I allowed myself to be perceived that way. So much about living life, to me, is about humility and gratitude. And I’ve tried very hard to have those qualities and be that person, and I’m just so disappointed in myself that I allowed it to slip. Of course, I’m grateful. How can I not be?"

4.In 2011, Charlie Sheen ranted about Two and a Half Men co-creator Chuck Lorre live on the radio and then to TMZ. He called him a "clown" and a "charlatan" and said that he "violently hate[s]" him. He was promptly fired, and his character was killed off in a freak subway accident.

He was replaced by Ashton Kutcher.

5.In 2013, Selma Blair reportedly criticized her Anger Management costar/executive producer Charlie Sheen's work ethic. In retaliation, he fired her in an expletive-laden text message.

Laura Bell Bundy replaced her.

6.In the late '80s, Cheers actor, Jay Thomas, used his radio show to complain about having to kiss his onscreen love interest, Rhea Perlman. The show's co-creator, James Burrows, promptly fired him because he "insulted Rhea, which meant he insulted all of [Cheers]."

His character was killed off in "a violent yet comedic death" — a Zamboni accident.

7.On the Community set, Chevy Chase used a racial slur while ranting about his character arc. So, ahead of Season 5, NBC made a deal with him to get him to leave the show.

His character was later killed off offscreen.

8.John Rhys-Davies left his role on Sliders after complaining to the writers about the quality of their work. He told Digital Spy, "They would say, 'John, why don't you just say the words as written?' and I'd say, 'I'll tell you what, I will actually say the words as written when you can actually write intelligent sentences!'"

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He said, "You have to have writers who can write — and who understand that if you're writing science fiction, you should have read some science fiction and you should actually understand some science!"

9.Good Times actor John Amos's character was killed off after he criticized the way the non-Black writers wanted to portray the show's Black characters.

He told Sway in the Morning, "They’d go on about their credits and the rest of that, and I’d look at each and every one of them and say, 'Well, how long have you been Black? That just doesn’t happen in the community. We don’t think that way. We don’t act that way. We don’t let our children do that'...I left because I was told that my services were no longer needed because I had become a 'disruptive element.'"

10.On the Predator set, Jean-Claude Van Damme reportedly complained about having to wear the heavy suit in Mexico's hot weather and had issues with dehydration. He was allegedly fired after refusing to comply with producer Joel Silver's request to stop kickboxing because "that’s how [he sees] the Predator."

He was replaced by Kevin Peter Hall.

11.In the early '80s, Sylvester Stallone was supposed to star in Beverly Hills Cop. However, unhappy with the script, he rewrote it himself. His agent Ron Meyer begged him to just do the original version, but he refused.

The role went to Eddie Murphy instead.

12.In 2014, Zendaya walked away from the Lifetime biopic Aaliyah: Princess of R&B because "the production value wasn't there, there were complications with the music rights, and [she] just felt like it wasn't being handled delicately considering the situation."

On Instagram, she said, "I tried my best to reach out to the family on my own and I wrote a letter, but, I was unable to do so. Therefore, I felt not really morally okay with moving forward with the project."

She was replaced by Alexandra Shipp.

13.And finally, when Disney fired Steve Whitmire, who'd voiced Kermit the Frog for 27 years, in 2016, they gave him two reasons — "unwanted notes during the short-lived Muppets reboot on ABC and a union disagreement."

Whitmire told the New York Times, "This is my life's work. The only thing I've done my whole adult life, and it's just been taken away from me. I just couldn't understand why we couldn't resolve this"