Sometimes it’s hard to be famous. Sure, people usually worship you far much than they should, but your low moments are also out there for anyone to see. If you get fired, god forbid, everyone is going to be able to read all about the how and why of the matter. This just makes it all the more awkward whenever someone famous gets fired for being insensitive, violent or just plain dumb.
Let’s take a look at some actors that got fired because of controversies.
Armie Hammer
Armie was in a bunch of projects and then all of a sudden early last year, a true storm of rape and sexual assault allegations just swarmed around the man. He’s been dropped from all his projects pending investigation but it’s not looking too good for Armie Hammer’s future in Hollywood.
Kevin Spacey
Right before the last season of House of Cards, Kevin Spacey was hit with several sexual assault allegations. Spacey saw no better time than that to out himself as being gay and the backlash of the entire situation led to him getting fired from the show and pretty much cancelled in Hollywood. Some movies even went so far as to reshoot all his scenes with a different actor.
Johnny Depp
Well, we all know what happened here, don’t we? Johnny got sued for domestic abuse by Amber Heard, he lost his job as Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts, he won the lawsuit and then they tried to give him back his job. How and when his career will recover yet remains to be seen, but let’s have this case be a lesson to big movie studios that you shouldn’t take everything at face value.
Gina Carano
Despite being one of the more interesting and original characters to come out of The Mandalorian, it couldn’t save Gina’s job when she compared being a Republican to being a Jew during the Holocaust. It’s … not a thing you say, really. Disney wasn’t amused either.
Charlie Sheen
Where do we even begin with the great tragedy of Charlie Sheen? His spiraling down into madness was made very public and very much out there, and it cost the man his job as the lead character in one of the most popular sitcoms at the time, Two and a Half Men.
Jussie Smollett
This star was fired from Empire for maybe the dumbest reason on this list. He actually hired two people to stage a hate crime against himself, but got found out super fast. Making a false police report usually isn’t something people appreciate, so he was immediately fired from the show.
Robert Downey Jr.
Before we all came to know Robert Downey Jr. as a genius billionaire playboy philantropist who spends his downtime saving the universe in an iron suit, he starred in the popular show Ally McBeal. He got fired from the show in early 2001 for drug use and he pretty much stayed off the grid until he made his comeback as Iron Man.
