Actors REPLACED In Films After Shooting Scenes

Are there any examples of an actor being replaced after the movie’s been completed? Like the Spacey/Plummer situation?

Streisand replaced Dudley Moore with Austin Pendleton in "The Mirror Has Two Faces" after he couldn't remember his lines and was a mess on set.

Bette Midler had Barbara Harris replaced on "Gypsy" because she was upstaging her.

[quote] Are there any examples of an actor being replaced after the movie’s been completed? Like the Spacey/Plummer situation?

Woody Allen is most infamous for this. His film September was completed, but he wasn’t satisfied. Scrapped the entire film and recast Maureen O’Sullivan, Sam Shepherd (who actually replaced Christopher Walken after he shot scenes) and Charles Durning with Eliane Stritch, Sam Waterston and Jack Warden.

Garland being replaced by Betty Hutton in Annie Get Your Gun.

Lucille Ball had Madeline Kahn replaced with Doris Roberts in MAME after she was upstaging her.

I don't love Hutton in ANNIE, but after seeing a clip of a number Garland shot before being replaced, it was a smart move. Garland's was all wrong in the role.

The irony is that SEPTEMBER is a mediocre film even with the re-shooting.

[quote] Lucille Ball had Madeline Kahn replaced with Doris Roberts in MAME after she was upstaging her

Jane Connell, nor Doris Roberts.

Lucy had Madeline Kahn replaced after a table reading of "Mame" with original Broadway cast member Jane Connell as Gooch. Kahn must have been getting too many laughs, and Lucy didn't want competition from someone young and pretty and funny. Bravo to Barbra Streisand in Kahn's debut picture "What's Up, Doc?" for not being intimidated by having another funny lady on-screen with her, as Kahn steals a lot of scenes.

I thought Streisand replaced Dudley Moore with her old "Owl and the Pussycat " co-star George Segal?

Harvey Keitel was replaced by Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now" after a week of filming.

Sandra Bullock replaced Lori Petty a few days into shooting "Demolition Man."

Four days into shooting "The Fellowship of the Ring," Peter Jackson decided Stuart Townsend was too young to play Aragorn and replaced him with Viggo Mortensen

James Purefoy left "V for Vendetta" six weeks into filming and was replaced with Hugo Weaving

Frank Morgan died after having a heart attack after having filmed some of Buffalo Bill's scenes in "Annie Get Your Gun". They recast Louis Calhern for the role.

Buddy Ebsen was hired to play The Tinman in The Wizard Of Oz but after shooting for a couple of weeks he became very ill because of the toxic aluminum spray paint that they dosed him with every day. He was put in the hospital and without being told was replaced by Jack Haley. Buddy stated that he can still be seen as The Tinman in some long shots in the movie.

R13 Buddy, The Tinman.

You can still hear Buddy's voice on some of those "We're Off to See the Wizard" scene endings along with Garland and Bolger (and maybe Lahr) and Toto too! (not Toto's bark though).

The ambitious 1947 movie "Forever Amber" originally starred an actress named Peggy Cummings. But after seeing a number of rushes that had been filmed the producers deemed her too inexperienced and goody two shoes. Therefore established star Linda Darnell was brought in as the new star and the film was completed.

I worked some scenes on "The Truman Show". Word on set was that Dennis Hopper was so stoned constantly that they brought in Ed Harris to replace him after scenes with Hopper had been shot. I wasn't on set at the time.

R16 Peggy Cummings in Forever Amber. Very pretty but they gave her the heave ho.

Janice Rule brought in the replace already completed scene of Barbara Loden in "The Swimmer" co-starring Burt Lancaster's ass.

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Harvey Keitel were both replaced (my some no name actress and Sydney Pollack, respectively) on Eyes Wide Shut after Kubrick took so long to shoot the film that they both had to leave for other obligations.

Marie Richardson.

Thank you, R21. I knew it was Marie but all I kept coming up with was Marie Windsor (which I KNEW was wrong) and I was too lazy to look it up.

Famke Janssen did one day of shooting as the villain in Men in Black 2 before dropping out (due to a supposed family emergency). She was replaced by Lara Flynn Boyle. Janssen was cast in another film at the same studio shortly thereafter.

George Peppard was cast as Blake Carrington in Dynasty and filmed the pilot. Sacked and replaced with John Forsythe.

George and Linda

George Costanza's father was played by an actor other than Jerry Stiller on "Seinfeld." One day that episode was run in syndication and I told my husband, "Watch! When George's father comes on, it's a different guy!"

And Jerry Stilker walked into the scene. I said, "I SWEAR it was a different actor!"

I later found out they reshot the Frank Constanta scenes with Stiller for syndication.

At the end of a season on The Sopranos they introduced an FBI agent who was going to become Adriana's "friend." When they came back the following season, a different actress played the FBI agent. I wonder if they reshot the scene in the previous season for syndication.

Fairuza Balk. That was the actress who originally played FBI agent Deborah Cicerone on The Sopranos.

Courtney Love was replaced by Natasha henstridge in "Ghosts Of mars" (2001)- ostensibly because someone ran over her foot. Her film career fizzled after that.

Alexis Smith replaced Helen Lawson, due to "creative differences" on ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH (75), after an on-set tantrum with director Guy Green.

Kate Mulgrew replaced Genevieve Boujold on the TV show Voyager. Genevieve couldn't keep up with the demands of shooting a TV show. Genevieve was there a week and shot some scenes.

Can we keep this to FILMS only and not TV, It is more common in TV for actors to be replaced after filming, than in film.

Interesting, I wonder what Voyager would have been like with a different Katherine Janeway.

Excuse me, but I own this thread.

More Woody Allen. What a genius! Only a true exceptional brilliant genius could do all these replacements.

Naveen Andrews replaced by Keanu Reeves in Little Buddha?

[quote] More Woody Allen. What a genius! Only a true exceptional brilliant genius could do all these replacements.

No that is just the way he shoots his films. He doesn't do a complete script, but just a basic outline. Then he shoots scene by scene and somehow puts it together. Actors don't get paid for a film, but just a days work, 10K per day they are on the set. On his films 40% of his budget is set aside of re-shoots as he constantly does re-shoots on his films. because once he gets into editing, and sees things aren't working he just does a re-shoot of the scene or a new scene.

Just to follow up on what I wrote in R37 during editing if Woody feels an actor isn't working out, he will just trash those filmed scenes, recast and re-shoot all the scenes with a different actor.

Winona Ryder replaced by Sophia Coppola in Godfather III.

R39 But Winona didn't shoot a single scene, this is about actors who FILMED scenes and then was replaced.

Vivien Leigh signed to play the female role in the 1954 movie Elephant Walk but had to drop out after a number of weeks due to her fragile mental condition. She was replaced by Elizabeth Taylor.

Leigh can still be seen in some of the long shots.

R41 Ever had elephants in your living room?

Yeah, Jonathan Rhys Meyers said he was scared to death at the beginning of the Match Point shoot Allen was going to fire him. Allen has form for firing actors already on set. I also remember a quote from a MP producer that JRM was a nightmare to handle but it had been worth it.

Fuck you, r32, I'll post whatever I want.

The Son of Anarchy spinoff is being reshot. Almost the entire cast has been replaced.

Pity he didn't, r43, JRM is a terrible actor.

Wasn’t the hot actor, love interest of Khaleesi, in Game of Thrones, played by three actors across the series? It’s hard enough keeping the characters straight, without them changing actors.

One of them said something about quitting because he was Christian and was not comfortable with the nude/love scenes. Well, there goes his career.

Boris Karloff died during filming “Plan 9 From Outer Space”. He was replaced by California chiropractor Tom Mason, who hid his face for his scenes, and hunched over, since he was much taller. He finished the film, so the character was played by two actors in the movie.

This is more of a stretch, but Doris Day starred in "Move Over, Darling" a reworking of Marilyn's ill-fated, never-completed "Something's Got To Give".

Actually, r46, 8 different parts on Game of Thrones have been recast.

R47, that was Bela Lugosi, I think.

I was mercilessly replaced by Gwen Verdon in the film Damn Yankees. All because I kept calling them the Dickless Dodgers.

Rita Hayworth became ill 4 days into shooting Tales that Witness Madness, then she flew back home to LA (movie was shot in England) and was seemingly not aware she was working a film shoot. Kim Novak replaced her.

Deborah Kerr replaced Kim Novak in Eye of the Devil.

[quote]Bravo to Barbra Streisand in Kahn's debut picture "What's Up, Doc?" for not being intimidated by having another funny lady on-screen with her, as Kahn steals a lot of scenes.

Actually Barbra was intimidated. I heard Peter Bogdonovitch speak at a screening of What's Up Doc once. He said at the first table reading Madeline had people in hysterics. Even on small little things like the way she said "Howard".

Streisand half jokingly said "I feel like an extra in my own movie."

R27, yes the re-shot with the new actress for the season 3 DVD.

I always thought it must have been so humiliating for Andie MacDowll in Greystoke.

They shot the whole film and then thought she sounded so bad they hired Glenn Close to come in and dub all her dialogue.

I think this happened to Demi Moore early in her career too.

[quote] Husbands and Wives – Emily Lloyd couldn’t master an American accent no matter how hard she tried in her filmed scenes. Woody Allen wasn’t satisfied, fired her and replaced her with Juliette Lewis

I read the sleazier version about how woody was so turned on by De Niro's seduction scene with the young Lewis in Cafe Fear.

R54 At least Barbra didn't have her fired. Turns out both she and Madeline, plus Ryan O'Neal, Austin Pendleton and Kenneth Mars are wonderful in that film.

Didn't Marilyn Monroe film scenes for "Something's Got To Give" before the Kennedys had her killed? Who replaced her?

The first episode of "Leave It To Beaver" had gay actor Casey Adams as Ward and another actor as Wally. Beaver and June were played by Jerry Mathers and Barbara Billingsley.

No Lucy didn’t have Kahn fired from Mame because she was too funny. It was the exact opposite in fact. Kahn realized she wanted to do What’s Up Doc instead so she barely mumbled brought the table read so that she would be let go. Lucy famously asked her when exactly she was going to start giving them Gooch. Lucy was a perfectionist and simply would not tolerate Khan’s unprofessionalism.

Betty Buckley's scenes were reshot for the pilot of The Sally Field Program.

[quote] No Lucy didn’t have Kahn fired from Mame because she was too funny. It was the exact opposite in fact. Kahn realized she wanted to do What’s Up Doc instead so she barely mumbled brought the table read so that she would be let go. Lucy famously asked her when exactly she was going to start giving them Gooch. Lucy was a perfectionist and simply would not tolerate Khan’s unprofessionalism.

You do know production started on Mame nearly a year after What's Up Doc was released, right?

Oliver Reed drank himself to death while filming Gladiator. The studio spent millions recreating him or his face for some unshot scenes.

I was replaced by Helen Hayes in Victoria Regina.

[quote] they hired Glenn Close to come in and dub all her dialogue.

Somewhat better than having Glennie on the screen. She'll do anything.

The whole thing with Andie McDowell and GREYSTOKE is one of those "what were they thinking when they hired her" scenarios (other than the possible casting couch element). McDowell had been primarily a model up to that point and surely they had her read before casting her - she certainly wasn't trained enough to mask her South Carolina drawl to do a convincing British accent. I always believed that they planned to dub her all along, and just cast her for her looks, but heaven knows there were good-looking British actresses who could be cast.

McDowell is no great actress but I do give her credit for overcoming this and establishing some kind of career. One of her roles after GREYSTOKE was in the Brat Pack movie ST. ELMO'S FIRE, and she's one of the few good performances in that film, albeit in a small role.

Steve Martin replaced George Segal in The Apple Pie Hub Bub.

Shemp Howard had lots of shorts where he never finished.

Stockyard Channing replaced Bette Davis in Grease

GoT fans, has Michiel Huisman's penis replaced anyone else's penis?

Jack Carter we hardly knew ye.

I'm surprised it took so many posts, r34.

r26, interestingly they did not do that with the original guy who played Jerry's father. I believe the fake Morty is in a season 1 episode.

Believe it or not, R72, not everyone is a member of the "Divas Do It in Black & White" club.

Woody Allen recast the male lead in Purple Rose of Cairo: they started with Michael Keaton, but he looked "too modern" so they called Jeff Daniels.

I wonder if Jerry Stiller has survivors guilt, having replaced 2 actors like that.

We can skip anything about Joan and Bette that Ryan Murphy put in his show., and we know it.

Bette Midler did not have Barbara Harris fired from Gypsy tv movie. She wanted to hire Harris but Barbara had retired to New Mexico (or Arizonza, can't remember which) and turned the offer down.

Robert De Niro was cast in an early draft of "The Goodbye Girl"; then-director Mike Nichols and writer Neil Simon were unhappy with his reading of the role. De Niro was fired and Warner Bros eventually had the entire production scrapped. Simon then went and rewrote the entire script and cast Richard Dreyfuss in De Niro's role.

No, R78, Harris shot scenes for the movie, but was fired by Midler after she too good. Harris was traumatized by the whole incident and permanently retired from acting because of it.

When Tyrone Power died of a heart attack during the filming of the epic “Solomon and Sheba,” Yul Brynner was hired to replace him, though apparently Power can still be seen in various long shots.

I loved JRM in Matchpoint...I really liked that movie.

Garbo was replaced by Judy Canova in "Ride That Bronco, Sister! " GG wasn't getting into the spirit of the piece.

I know I will be angering that above poster, but getting back to TV, I just learned this week the entire ORIGINAL cast of the pilot of THE MIDDLE was replaced with the superb, under-rated current "original" cast.

In regard to film, most people don't know that the Little Women was already being filmed with Shirley Temple, Rhonda Fleming and then-wife Jennifer Jones but then he abandoned it mid-filming and sold the property to MGM who re-cast every role with MGM's glamorous stars June Allyson, Mary Astor, Rossano Brazzi, Janet Leigh and of course Elizabeth Taylor.

And by he I mean David O. Selznick

I had no idea there was another, partially-filmed LITTLE WOMEN!

[quote]Robert De Niro was cast in an early draft of "The Goodbye Girl".

Robert DeNiro is HOPELESS in any comedy. I think his talents were vastly overrated for years, as he is really only suitable for very specific roles and has little range.

Version of Apt Pupil (Stephen King Novel) that was filmed with Nicol Williamson & Rick Schroder, but only half the film was completed before it was shut down due to financing. Ultimately the film was abandoned, but I'd be curious to see what if any footage survived

Woah! There's footage somewhere of Barbara Harris in Gypsy? What I wouldn't give to see that. I bet she was phenomenal. Hell, she should have been playing Rose instead of Bette.

[quote] Turns out both she and Madeline, plus Ryan O'Neal, Austin Pendleton and Kenneth Mars are wonderful in that film.

I'd agree with you about everyone except Ryan O'Neal, who is stiff and unfunny. But, at least he is at his most beautiful.

It has Streisand's funniest performance, and a classic Kahn one. And Austin Pendleton gets to deliver what the movie's funniest single line: "Don't you *dare* strike that brave, unbalanced woman!"

I know this thread is for films but it should be noted that several actors are replaced every year after the pilot is shot and tested. Shows that get picked up will often recast and reshoot the pilot before going to series.

more

Loretta Swit was the original choice for Cagney in the Cagney and Lacey series. But she couldn't get out of M*A*S*H. The role was then offered to Meg Foster. Meg Foster was dumped after 6 episodes due to a combo of poor ratings and CBS execs feeling that Foster was too butch/tough, giving the series a lesbian aura ("we perceived them as dykes"). A more femmy Sharon Gless was then offered the role. Gless initially didn't want to be yet another replacement, as she had just taken a role in House Calls replacing Lynn Redgrave. Gless eventually relented.

[quote]Version of Apt Pupil (Stephen King Novel) that was filmed with Nicol Williamson & Rick Schroder, but only half the film was completed before it was shut down due to financing. Ultimately the film was abandoned, but I'd be curious to see what if any footage survived

I had never heard that. Who directed the uncompleted version? Presumably not Bryan Singer, who directed the completed version with Brad Renfro and Ian McKellen?

It's surreal to think that Sharon Gless was the 'straight' option after another actress read as too 'dyke-y'. That's like choosing Paul Lynde in something to butch it up.

I know this is for film but I have a good TV one!!

Lorna Patterson was cast as Suzanne Sugarbaker in 'Designing Women'. She actually started to film the pilot.

Linda Bloodworth-Thomason has actually written the part for Delta Burke, who she had written for on Filthy Rich. However, the network did not want Dixie Carter and Delta Burke on another show together, as they had cancelled Filthy Rich 3 years prior. Delta Burke was devastated as she had already been offered the part of Katherine Wentworth in Dallas, (3 years prior) and had to turn that down as she was under contract to Filthy Rich even though the show was on hiatus and going to be cancelled. So the network were again preventing her taking a part because of that show.

Anyway, Patterson was apparently very bad in the part and on the day before the audience recording, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason got her way and the network allowed Delta to come in and take over. Meaning the Suzanne Sugarbaker we all knew was born.

I cannot for the life of me picture Lorna Patterson playing Suzanne. Who decided if not Delta Burke, Lorna Patterson??

Betty Buckley was escorted off the set during a lunch break for Simply Irresistible (shooting title was Vanilla Fog) and the rest of her scenes were rewritten for Lawrence Gilliard Jr.

Gerard McSorley worked five days on The Departed before he was replaced by Martin Sheen. McSorley’s behavior on set was apparently becoming increasingly bizarre, perhaps triggered by the death of his son a few months earlier.

Mrs. Stephens was the funniest thing in What's Up Doc?

^^ Agreed.

Lauren Graham replaced Maura Tierney in Parenthood.

r93 Loretta Swit actually did the TV movie of Cagney and Lacey. Then when it became a series she couldn't do it because of MASH and that is when Meg Foster and then Sharon Gless came onboard.

Meg Foster always scared me as a child. Her eyes were so piercing. She was in a TV version of The Scarlet Letter that I'd see ads for and it always freaked me out.

Loretta Swit is still bitter decades later. Meg in The Scarlet Letter was one of the finest performances an actress has ever given. Her eyes really were something else.

[quote]Betty Buckley was escorted off the set during a lunch break for Simply Irresistible (shooting title was Vanilla Fog) and the rest of her scenes were rewritten for Lawrence Gilliard Jr.

What the hell is the story with that? What exactly did she do that warranted being escorted off the set? I know she's a kook but that just seems extreme.

r105 supposedly (from what I've read on DL in the past) she said to Geller "Are you going to say it like that?" after some line reading.

Geller got upset and had her removed. Not sure if it is true but that's the DL story.

R103 Cagney and Lacey was originally a TV movie. The creators wanted Sharon Gless from the start, but CBS had a contract for a certain number of movies for Loretta Swit, so the network insisted they use Swit, who was actually very wrong for the part.

When it went to series, again, the producers wanted Gless, but this time she'd committed to another series. Meg Foster was cast instead. When Gless became available, it's true that she was very reluctant to replace Foster. They eventually convinced her, and the rest is history.

Yes, it always made me laugh that they replaced Meg Foster with Sharon Gless to make the character of Cagney less dykey.

[quote]Kahn must have been getting too many laughs, and Lucy didn't want competition from someone young and pretty and funny.

Wrong. Not what happened. It was just the opposite. It was a table read, and Lucy wanted Kahn to play full out, to show her a finished Gooch. Kahn said she would develop the character in rehearsals. Lucy said "Get me that gal who did it with Lansbury!" And they did.

As to being afraid of competition from young and pretty, Lucy admired talent, period. Barbara Eden, who was extremely young and extremely pretty when she did I Love Lucy, has talked about how friendly Lucy was to her, and how she she helped her with advice.

The story's been told already, R109. Except what Lucy actually said was, "Get me Gooch!"

[quote]Robert DeNiro is HOPELESS in any comedy. I think his talents were vastly overrated for years, as he is really only suitable for very specific roles and has little range.

His comic scenes at the beginning of "New York, New York" are painful and embarrassing.

I'd say DeNiro did comedy in the Fockers movies, but they weren't funny.

R97 Lorna Patterson had a contract with the network and they would have been looking for vehicles for her to star in. Designing Women wasn't even a solid concept. Bloodworth-Thomason just told the network she wanted to write a show where Burke, Carter, Potts and Smart were just in a room together talking. All the format was just cobbled together after that pitch. But the bosses at the network wanted Patterson not Burke in it and Thomason knew it had to have Burke as she knew how Burke and Carter sparked off one another.

Ironically, pretty much exactly the same thing happened 5 years later when Burke left the show. All four women were out of contract and free to leave. Smart choose to leave, Burke wanted to stay but attempted to renotiate as all sit-com stars do at the 5 year point. By this point The McCranney's and The Thomasons hated each other. Gerald McCranney was trying to stoke Delta to claim more from the show and she got Diva like, Harry Thomason was ruling the series like a Dictator. He didn't want Delta back for the sixth season and the network were going to replace the Thomasons and keep Delta. Harry Thomason won the battle and got Delta kicked off the show. But the network made them replace her with Julia Duffy who had a contract and no vehicle. It was a stinking disaster and Designing Women went on to die a slow death!

R106, that’s only one of the things she said to Gellar, who was actually a “silent producer.” She was a constant pain in the ass, beginning on Day 1 when she bitched about being so tired because the wardrobe supervisor kept her up so late for a last minute fitting. The truth is the wardrobe supervisor waited in her apartment lobby for over 90 minutes while Buckley was out to dinner. The capper was when she told the DP he was going to add another camera set up for her and he said “No, I’m not” and she said “Yes, you are.” The director, who was a producer for many years, had enough of her shit and wanted her exit to be as ugly as possible. He ordered security to escort her from the soundstage, which was Silvercup East.

Who the fuck cast Judy in Annie Get Your Gun? fuck man this was bad.

Jesus. Judy looks like Chaka from Land of the Lost!

"Courtney Love was replaced by Natasha henstridge in "Ghosts Of mars" (2001)- ostensibly because someone ran over her foot."

Is that what she said, that somebody "ran over her foot?" Yeah, right! She was replaced because she was a drug addled psycho.

someone did run over her foot. while she was sitting on the curb shooting up.

Cameron Crowe fired Ashton Kutcher a couple of weeks into filming Elizabethtown for a lack of chemisty with Kristen Dunst and not giving him the performance he was looking for. Orlando Bloom replaced him.

Oops Kirsten not Kristen

I don't think anyone has mentioned the infamous Eric Stoltz being replaced with Michael J. Fox on "Back to the Future."

Omar Sharif's son was replaced by Omar Sharif in Dr. Zhivago

Jennifer Esposito was replaced after one day on the remake of Shaft. John Singleton wanted to fuck her so he cast her and Scott Rudin wanted Toni Collette. Rudin did a very smart thing by having the hair department fit Esposito with a horrible red wig. He was counting on Esposito, who already had a rep for being unstable, to freak out. She wouldn’t come to set. Rudin won. Toni Collette was on set the next day.

r121 can't even be bothered to read the OP

[quote] Cameron Crowe fired Ashton Kutcher a couple of weeks into filming Elizabethtown for a lack of chemisty with Kristen Dunst and not giving him the performance he was looking for. Orlando Bloom replaced him.

Isn't that kind of like replacing generic whiskey with actual piss?

A young actress set to play Louise Brooks in the film The Chaperone opposite Elizabeth McGovern was replaced just before shooting began with Haley Lu Richardson. I don’t know her name.

[quote] Yes, it always made me laugh that they replaced Meg Foster with Sharon Gless to make the character of Cagney less dykey.

Actually the suits at CBS felt Tyne Daly and Meg Foster were double too dykey. They wanted an actress who was Feminine, and Sharon was much softer than Meg Foster

Casting for Zobra The Greek had problems with the casting the role of Mme. Hortense. UA insisted on a star, and writer/producer Michael Cacoyannis and star Anthony Quinn thought of Simone Signoret, the great French actress. They went to Paris and pitched her the part. Initially hesitant, Signoret finally agreed, and a few weeks later she was in Crete shooting her first scene. It went disastrously.

As Quinn later wrote in his memoir One Man Tango, the scene called for "Madame Hortense...to prattle on in an expository way about the great admirals who used to be her lovers, but Simone was not ridiculous enough, not pathetic enough in her portrayal. Michael kept after her, trying to get it right. We started shooting at eight o'clock in the evening, and by midnight, when we broke for lunch, the scene had not moved anywhere. As the night wore on, Simone became even more unsure of herself, and for the first time I became concerned...I did not think to worry for the picture itself - Simone would be fine, eventually - but we could not afford to waste a whole night's shooting.

"Then, during a pause between takes, I looked over and saw Simone, on the floor, crying. 'Forgive me,' Simone said, up from her weeping, 'but I can't. I can't do this part. I should never have taken it.'" When pressed why, Signoret finally explained it was because "Hortense is an old woman, and I've got a young husband. I cannot let him see me like this."

Signoret was on a flight back to Paris the next day. Quinn started calling every possible actress he could think of for the part, including Barbara Stanwyck, Ann Southern and Tallulah Bankhead. All loved the script but could not be ready in Crete quickly enough. (The production was losing money every day of the delay.) Finally Cacoyannis thought of an actress named Lila Kedrova, whom he claimed would be perfect. Trouble was, no one else had ever heard of her and United Artists was totally uninterested. As Quinn wrote, "we traded one problem for another." Quinn put in a call to Darryl F. Zanuck at Twentieth Century-Fox, hoping to convince him to take over the budget - which now totaled $750,000. The outcome was one of those only-in-old-Hollywood stories which would never happen in the business today. After listening to Quinn explain the situation, Zanuck asked, "'You believe in it, Tony?'

"'I think it could be the best picture I've ever done. It's a story about life, and how to live.'

"'I don't know why,' Zanuck said, 'but I believe you. When do you want the money?'

"'Tomorrow.'

"'It'll be there.'

"And it was," Quinn wrote. "He never even asked to see a script. He just sent his son-law over with the money, and we were back in business.'"

The rest was history. Kedrova was indeed perfect and wound up winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

[quote] But the network made them replace her with Julia Duffy who had a contract and no vehicle.

Yes Julia did have a contract, but with ABC (she was doing Baby Talk) NOT CBS. If you beleived that then I seriously doubt what you wrote about Lorna Patterson

Suzanne was different in the first few episodes of Designing Women. She was more the former beauty queen and kind of slutty. Julia would make fun of her for that. It was only as the series evolved that she became the eccentric character of the later days.

Peter Sellers was hired by Billy Wilder to play Orville Spooner in "Kiss Me Stupid." Sellers was stressed out by the atmosphere on the set; Billy Wilder had an "open" set, with lots of visitors and onlookers and friends of the actors around. After six weeks of filming Sellers had a massive coronary thrombosis. He heart stopped six times. Doctors told Wilder it would take him six months to recover. Wilder agonized over what he should do; wait for Sellers to recover or replace him. He ended up replacing him with Ray Walston. But it was still tragic; Wilder said the footage he shot with Sellers was magnificent.

Didn't they realize how shitty Designing Women would be without Suzanne? The interaction between Julia and Suzanne were 80% of the show. The other 20% was the interaction with Suzanne and everyone else.

R132 which is why the show jumped the shark after Delta Burke was fired

It was fucking eaten by the shark. Talk about killing the goose that laid the golden egg. With Delta that show had three more quality seasons left.

Dawson surprisingly called uncle after the 489th load during the filming of The 1000 Load Fuck and TIM had to replace him with George AND find about 400 new guys to shoot their wads.

I'm always surprised to hear that people found Meg Foster dykey. Tyne Daly, sure, but I've met Meg a few times and she's one of the warmest, most soft spoken angels in this world. She doesn't seem butch. Maybe it was just the 80's fashions and hairstyles they had them wear.

Didn't Meg play a lesbian in a made-for-TV movie around that time? Maybe audiences and the industry typecast her after that.

They should have put Julia Duffy in Cagney & Lacey. I can see her rolling her eyes and huffing whilst pulling out her gun to nab the bad guy.

To keep with the Woody Allen theme, Steve Carell replaced Bruce Willis in Cafe Society, apparently because Willis couldn't remember his lines. They filmed a couple of weeks with him before he was dropped.

Meg Foster did play a "lesbian" In A Different Story, but considering her character fell in love with supposedly gay Perry King after their marriage of convenience, I don't know why she would be typecast as gay by the public after the fact.

Lisa Eichorn being replaced by Barbra Streisand in "All Night Long" after three weeks.

R60 is funny. Everyone knows Ball was a demanding cunt offscreen and her insistence on the ridiculous level of sft focus plus the dreadful direction contributed to making the film one of the all-timb bombs.

[quote] Are there any examples of an actor being replaced after the movie’s been completed? Like the Spacey/Plummer situation?

R1 They re-shot all of ZaSu Pitts' scenes with Beryl Mercer in "All Quiet on the Western Front," because preview audiences proved incapable of accepting Pitts in a dramatic role. She was too firmly implanted in their brains as a comedic actress, and apparently they broke into inappropriate laughter during her scenes. Pitts was in the trailer, though (about the 2:45 mark).

Lana Turner was replaced by Lee Remick in "Anatomy of a Murder." Turner and director, Otto Preminger, didn't get along.

R1 Another actor who's work was totally replaced after completion was Colin Firth as the voice of Paddington in "A Bear Called Paddington." Producers eventually decided his voice was wrong for the role (too mature), and they re-did it with Ben Whishaw.

Michael Biehn replaced James Remar in "Aliens" after a week of filming, because Remar and James Cameron didn't get along.

R145, Wiki on Remar says he was replaced due to a drug problem.

R146 Well, I guess that that would certainly be a reason to not get along ..... :>

Delta Burke was fired from Designing Women? I didn't know that. She was behaving really erratically the last year or so she was on and would often not be missing from episodes.

That was dumb to fire her. The show was never any good afterwards (and yet they did another series with her as Suzanne that only ran a few episodes.)

Topsy Jane had a nervous breakdown during the filming of "Billy Liar" and was subsequently replaced by Julie Christie (who had previously tested for the role twice, but rejected).

[quote]Jonathan Taylor Thomas took over the role of Steven, after Balthazar Getty was fired from the movie.

John Wayne replaced Robert Mitchum in "Blood Alley." From IMDb:

[quote] Robert Mitchum was originally cast as Capt. Wilder. He was fired from the film after an altercation in which he shoved the film's transportation manager into San Francisco Bay. Director William A. Wellman complained to John Wayne--whose company, Batjac Productions, was producing the film--that Mitchum "was on dope, always walking about six inches off the ground." Wellman said either he or Mitchum had to go. Gregory Peck subsequently turned down the role because he found it offensive, and Humphrey Bogart wanted a $500,000 salary, which would have put the film over budget. Without a major male star involved, Warner Bros. contacted Wayne, threatening to pull out of their distribution deal for the film unless he took the role himself. To keep his new production company afloat, Wayne agreed to replace Mitchum.

Fred Astaire replaced Paul Draper in musical-comedy, "Blue Skies." Reportedly, the switch was made because of Draper's impatience and criticism of screen partner, Joan Caulfiled, or his speech impediment, or a combination of both.

Matt LeBlanc replaced Sean Patrick Flanery in the 1998 "Lost in Space" movie..lol!

I asked this question on IMDB but no-one seemed to know the answer.

I heard that a distinguished actor [??Peter Ustinov??] had been filming the role of Baron Harkonnen in strenuous conditions in New Mexico for the 1984 movie of 'Dune'.

But he was replaced during the filming by an unknown actor. Does anyone the name of the original actor?

[quote]They shot the whole film and then thought she sounded so bad they hired Glenn Close to come in and dub all her dialogue.

They did the same thing to Klinton Spilsbury in The Legend of the Lone Ranger. He had gay voice abd was dubbed by James Keach.

Sorry, but what part was Barbara Harris playing in Midler’s Gypsy?

I found this addendum to the story of R155's Klinton Spilsbury tale:

The Legend of the Lone Ranger[edit] Klinton Spilsbury's dialogue in The Legend of the Lone Ranger was dubbed by actor James Keach.[1] Considerable controversy surrounded Spilsbury at the time of the film's release, in part because of the studio's treatment of Clayton Moore, star of the popular 1950s TV series, who was prevented through legal action from wearing his black mask during personal appearances.[1] Controversy also was due to Spilsbury's on-set antics, which included fighting with crew members and being uncooperative and combative during the production.[1] It was the only film Spilsbury would make.[7] For his performance in this film, Spilsbury received the 1981 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor. Andy Warhol interviewed Spilsbury during his promotion tour, later describing the interview as "nutty," because Spilsbury was "blowing his whole image" during their conversation. Spilsbury told Warhol that prior to making the movie, he had been an art student married to a rich woman and that they had a baby together. He went on to state that they did not spend much time together because he needed too much time with his own thoughts, a detail that Warhol found amusing. Spilsbury told Warhol that he was a friend of actor Dennis Christopher and had fallen in love with him, and that he also had later fallen in love with actor Bud Cort. Warhol described Spilsbury as "very drunk" during the latter part of the interview, when he also mentioned that "he'd been picked up by Halston and woke up in bed with Halston."[8]

Erna replaced Mrs Patrick Campbell in the 1980s film "Bang MY Bung Hole"!

Roseanne Barr replaced Joan Rivers in Look Who's Talking Two as the voice of the baby daughter.

Another voice-only role that was replaced in post-production was in "Her" - with Scarlett Johansson replacing Samantha Morton as the computer voice called "Samantha."

Barbara Stanwyck was replaced on the set of HEAT OF ANGER in1971 when she collapsed on set while into the first week of shooting. She was replaced by Susan Hayward. Had it been Davis or Crawford, there would have been lots of spitting, hissing and catty remarks. But Barbara was philosophical about it, saying that “at least they got someone from Brooklyn”.

During the filming of "Man About Town," Dorothy Lamour stepped in to replace Betty Grable who'd come down with appendicitis. Betty did make it back to appear in the film, as another character.

Later, Grable herself would replace Alice Faye in "Down Argentine Way," when Faye came down with appendicitis. (I don't think filming had begun yet, though.) Grable considered this her big break and said, "Alice's misfortune was my good luck."

One of those British childrenwho was on Ellen Degeneres’ talk show was Little Red Riding Hood in Into The Woods but didn’t even make it past camera tests.

R129 I can assure you Lorna Patterson was the original Suzanne Sugarbaker. I also don't know what happened with the network, The Thomasons and Julia Duffy - but it was the network who wanted Duffy in the show.

Lots of stuff goes on with TV networks, actors and contracts. But I've heard quite a lot of actors of successful TV shows say there were fortunate to get the part because a Network executive wanted them in the role, they were under contract to another Network and the other Network get their contract released or swapped for another actor that second Network may want. Duffy was likely a swap contract.

As I said, the Network wanted to replace the Thomasons and keep Delta, but the formers legality won out. So the Network had the say over who replaced Delta. Bloodworth-Thomason got the control over the Carlene character and the actress who played her. Even though that character was ill conceived!

It then got even more ridiculous as Jackee Harry was brought in for the final episode of season 6 as the back door replacement for Julia Duffy. However, she was under contract to another show (on hiatus) who wouldn't release her, so they created that BJ Poteet character for Bonnie Hunt. Hunt didn't want the part and Judith Ivey got it.

The series may have gone to an eighth season, but Annie Potts quit during season 7. She finished the season but had no intention of coming back. The Thomasons thought they could bring in another actress (yet again) but the Network said enough and killed the show.

Designing Women was truly a brilliant show that was ultimately destroyed by The Thomasons inability to produce and be good bosses. Notice how they never really managed to go on to produce that many more successful shows after Evening Shade and Hearts Afire.

Delta Burke fell out with them, Julia Duffy hated working on the show and Annie Potts wanted to leave because of their behaviour and went into the sit com Love and War. Dixie Carter kept her mouth shut because her husband was appearing on their other show 'Evening Shade' at the same time, so both were employed by them. However, Burt Reynolds feuded with them on this show and cast members were not happy! So if you look at Delta's departure it's understandable how she'd be frustrated by them and demand more. However they believed they were the only important ones on their shows and allowed the golden goose to be killed and served up for dinner!!

Hearts Afire wasn't really a big hit. It lasted three seasons. I do know that I truly loved the show. It was really well done. Markie Post and John Ritter had great chemistry.

Annie Potts replaced Susan Dey in Love & War. Her character was a 180 from Mary Jo Shively and she was great in it.

R164 yes but you said in a previous response that Julia Duffy was under contract to CBS which is a 100% LIE because Duffy was under contract to ABC (as she was doing the show Baby Talk)

So if you got Julia Duffy contract ownership 100% WRONG how can we trust you with the Lorna Patterson story?

We can't.

Barbara Harris was going to play Tessie Tura in Gypsy. Christine Ebersole was going to be Miss Cratchitt. When Harris left they moved Ebersole up to Tura and hired Andrea Martin for Cratchitt.

I love Barbara Harris, but she was nearly 60 when the Midler Gypsy aired. Playing a stripper? I'm not sure how well that would've worked.

[quote]Roseanne Barr replaced Joan Rivers in Look Who's Talking Two as the voice of the baby daughter.

But did Rivers actually record anything for Look Who's Talking Too? I know she was the voice of the baby at the very end of the first movie but I assumed Roseanne was hired for the sequel since she was a bigger name at the time.

Also in one of Rivers' autobiographies, she claimed to have written all the baby's jokes and dialogue for the first movie and I can find no mention of that anywhere online. Anyone know the real story?

Sarah Jessica Parker was supposed to play the lead female in Vacancy, the thriller costarring Luke Wilson. The movie might have actually been a hit had she been in it, because she would have pulled in more of a female crowd than Kate Beckinsale, whom I'm not sure anyone knows or cares about outside of those shitty Underworld movies.

The story about Dudley Moore being replaced on The Mirror has two faces was sad...the stories were at the time was he was a drunk, but he was sadly deteriorating.

r169 the strippers are usually pretty old. They aren't supposed to be A List strippers like Louise becomes.

When Mike Nichols was going to film Nora Ephron's autobigraphical novel Heartburn, about her break up from Carl Bernestein, he wanted Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep for the leads but Nicholson had another commitment. So he gave the part to Mandy Patinkin. During the table reads and rehearsals, Patinkin was so eccentric and erratic the rest of the cast had trouble working with him. The first day of shooting, he refused to follow Nichols carefully planned out blocking and ruined nearly every shot by doing things like walking out of the frame. The second day of shooting, he started giving Streep notes on her performance between takes.

Meanwhile, Nicholson's project had fallen through and he was available. Patinkin didn't get a third day of shooting.

Keith Moon was furious when they had to scrap Karen Carpenter's footage of the 'Acid Queen' in 'Pinball Wizard,' and replace her with Elton John. It lead to his death and her anorexia.

People know who Kate Beckinsale is.

R78 R80 Who was Bat ata Harris going to play in Gypsy????

[Quote] Husbands and Wives – Emily Lloyd couldn’t master an American accent no matter how hard she tried in her filmed scenes. Woody Allen wasn’t satisfied, fired her and replaced her with Juliette Lewis

I seem to recall Woody saw Juliette in the seduction scene with an older man de Niro in Cape Fear and immediately replaced Emily with her.

Kubrick wanted to replace Shelley Winters in Lolita because she was such a pain the arse but they had shot too much footage and he didn't want to re-shoot. This was before he got totally anal.

Glad this thread was bumped, lots of good stories

The original Daenarys was fired after they filmed the pilot and Emilia Clarke was brought on to replace her.

The original Willow was fired after they shot the Buffy pilot and Alyson Hannigan was brought in to replace her.