11 Famous Actors Who Had Their Roles Cut Way Down (Or Entirely Eliminated!)

You see, it's not uncommon for Movies,to have deleted scenes. But when a big name actor gets cut down to size, it's a whole different ball game. Why would you pay top dollar for a star only to give them the boot in the final edit? It doesn't make sense, does it? But alas, it happens more often than you'd think.
Sometimes it's simply because the film is running long and needs to be trimmed down for time. Other times, it's due to the director's fickle-mindedness or just plain old bad luck. But whatever the reason, the following major actors have all been victims of the dreaded editing room floor, seeing their roles drastically reduced, or even eliminated entirely.
So, without further ado, let's take a look at some of Hollywood's most surprising cases of star-studded cuts. It's like the ultimate game of "Where's Waldo?" but with A-list celebrities!

#1 Julianne Moore: The Fugitive

Source: Warner Bros.

Julianne Moore was originally set to play the role of an ER doctor who would have a romance with Richard Kimble (played by Harrison Ford) in the movie The Fugitive. However, director Andrew Davis decided to remove most of her scenes from the script just before production started, as he thought it would slow down the pace of the film.
She later explained: “It was going to be a big part. Two weeks before shooting, they made a decision to cut that part from the movie. It was devastating. Because this was my big break! It was a really big deal. Instead I showed up and worked for those few days - and that was it.”

#2 Christopher Lee: The Return of the King

Source: New Line Cinema

Christopher Lee had gained fame as a horror icon by playing Dracula in multiple films produced by Hammer. He was already a legendary actor when he was cast in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, despite his stature, he was left feeling insulted when Jackson chose to exclude his character Saruman from the final installment of the trilogy.
Saruman's storyline had been wrapped up in a brief scene at the end of the previous movie, The Two Towers, but Jackson decided to move it to the beginning of the third film. Ultimately, he decided to remove the sequence altogether, and as a result, Lee's performance was cut from the film entirely. Lee was so angry about this that he refused to attend the premiere.

#3 Jon Lovitz: A League of Their Own

Source: Columbia Pictures

In the movie A League of Their Own, Jon Lovitz played the role of baseball scout Ernie Capadino in a scene-stealing supporting role. He was known for his sarcastic one-liners which earned some of the movie's biggest laughs. However, during test screenings, the audience laughed the hardest at some of his meanest lines, leading director Penny Marshall to remove anything that didn't emphasize his surliness.
This decision upset Lovitz, who believed that some of the deleted scenes would have garnered him award nominations. Marshall responded, "You're in the film just enough."

#4 Jack Nicholson: On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

Source: Paramount Pictures

Looks like Jack Nicholson had a bit of a misadventure in the movie biz back in the day. By that time casting for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, he's already been in Little Shop of Horrors and Easy Rider, no big deal. But then he lost out on a role in a Barbra Streisand flick directed by the legendary Vincente Minnelli, and you just know he wasn't happy about it.
Apparently, Nicholson didn't do too well on a song in the movie, and to make matters worse, he couldn't get along with Minnelli. But it wasn't all his fault. The movie was trying to be both traditional and cutting-edge at the same time, and they couldn't decide which way to go. In the end, they went for the traditional look, and poor Jack's hippie hairdo got the chop. Talk about a bad hair day!

#5 Jared Leto: Suicide Squad

Source: Warner Bros.

Suicide Squad was quite the ride, wasn't it? Especially for Jared Leto, who played the Joker in the flick. The reviews were brutal, but it still made a whopping $325 million in the US alone. Unfortunately, Leto's screen time was shorter than a miniskirt on a windy day.
Director David Ayer has been crying foul about the studio meddling with his vision and reducing Leto's performance. Meanwhile, fans are begging Warner Bros. to release the "Ayer Cut" and give Leto the screen time he deserves.
Leto himself has been vocal about his disappointment, saying, "There were so many scenes that got cut from the movie, I couldn’t even start. I think that the Joker… we did a lot of experimentation on the set, we explored a lot. There’s so much that we shot that’s not in the film."

#6 Jamie Lee Curtis: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Source: 20th Century Fox

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is about an adventurer named Buckaroo Banzai, played by Peter Weller, and his team trying to save the world from aliens. The movie was supposed to have a prologue that would give some background on Buckaroo's tragic childhood. In this prologue, Jamie Lee Curtis was supposed to play his mother. The idea was to have a famous actress like Curtis make a cameo in the film and draw in more viewers. After all, she was already a big name thanks to hits like Halloween, The Fog, and Trading Places.
But as it turned out, the director, W.D. Richter, didn't think the prologue was necessary, and decided to leave it out of the final cut. Unfortunately for Curtis, that meant her entire role got the ax along with it. However, if you happen to have the Blu-ray of the movie, you can still catch a glimpse of her in the deleted scenes.

#7 Shailene Woodley: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Source: Columbia Pictures

Back in the day, Shailene Woodley became known as one of the best young actresses around after she starred alongside George Clooney in The Descendants. Director Marc Webb must have taken notice of her star power to cast her in his movie, The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Woodley was supposed to play Mary Jane Watson, another love interest for Peter Parker.
The original plan was for MJ to have a small part in the movie, and maybe a bigger role in the sequel. But after the movie was put together, Webb realized that adding her character took away from the emotional ending where Peter's girlfriend Gwen Stacy tragically dies. The audience needed time to grieve for Gwen before moving on, so he decided to cut out a few scenes featuring MJ.
Unfortunately, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 didn't do as well as expected at the box office, and Sony scrapped plans for a third installment. As a result, Woodley never got the chance to play Mary Jane on the big screen.

#8 Sean Young: Wall Street

Source: 20th Century Fox

Sean Young had an impressive start to her acting career, with major roles in popular movies like Stripes and Blade Runner. Her performance in No Way Out with Kevin Costner cemented her status as a star. However, rumors of her difficult behavior on set began to surface.
Her behavior ultimately cost her a prime role in a movie, where she had a major disagreement with co-star Charlie Sheen and clashed with director Oliver Stone. When Stone took away her lines during a scene after she stood up for a friend, Young was fired from the project. What was supposed to be a substantial supporting role for her ended up being reduced to a mere cameo.
Young said: 'I don’t understand? I have no lines now. What’s the point of me being in this scene?' And Stone went, 'You’re right. You’re fired.'

#9 Matthew Fox, 'World War Z'

Source: Paramount Pictures

The production of the movie "World War Z" was famously troubled. It surprisingly became a hit at the box office, which was good for Brad Pitt, but not for his co-star Matthew Fox. Fox played a Navy SEAL. He was meant to be an antagonist and had a relationship with Pitt's wife. However, during filming, many issues arose, and the director, who was new to big-budget special-effects movies, struggled to make decisions.
As a result, the filming process slowed down. After the production ended, it was clear that the ending of the movie didn't work, and the studio brought in new writers to create a new third act. Fox's role was mostly removed during reshoots. He can only be briefly seen in the final cut of the movie, guiding Pitt and his family to safety.

#10 Jessica Chastain: The Life and Death of John F. Donovan

Source: IMDb

Xavier Dolan made a questionable decision to cut Jessica Chastain's role from his 2018 drama "The Life and Death of John F. Donovan." Chastain played a gossip columnist who threatened to expose the sexuality of a young actor. She discovers his correspondence with a deceased TV star.
Despite her pivotal role, Dolan had to remove her subplot as the initial cut of the movie was four hours long. To address the decision, Dolan took to Instagram and expressed his admiration for Chastain as an actress, but explained that the choice was made purely for editorial and narrative reasons. Not a reflection of her performance, surely.

#11 Uma Thurman: Savages

Source: Universal Pictures

In Oliver Stone's film "Savages," characters mention a character who is never seen but played a significant role. Uma Thurman was cast as that character, Paqu. She is the mother of the main character "O" (Blake Lively). The purpose of Thurman's scenes was to show how O became the unpredictable person she is in the film.
However, due to time constraints, Stone had to cut out all of Thurman's scenes, even though they were crucial. Stone explained that they had to consolidate the script and editing due to the book's many scenes, leaving only a few to be played in the film.
The loss of Thurman's scenes meant that audiences missed out on a reunion between her and her Pulp Fiction co-star John Travolta, who played a corrupt DEA agent in the film.