9 Times Actors Were Fired From A Role Because Of Their Outrageous Scandals
Note: This post has mentions of sexual assault.
1.Columbus Short played Harrison Wright in the first three seasons of Scandal. He exited the show in 2014 amid domestic abuse claims from his now-former wife.
In 2014, Short was hit with a restraining order from his wife after she claimed he threatened her life during a fight at their home. He was also charged with misdemeanor spousal battery. He later revealed that he was doing cocaine and drinking alcohol in excess during this time in his life.
2.In the sixth season of Empire, Jussie Smollett was written out of the show after an alleged attack on him, which was first investigated as a possible hate crime before being dismissed as a hoax.
In January 2019, Smollett reported to police that he'd been attacked by two masked men in Chicago in a possible racist and anti-gay hate crime.
Smollett claimed he was attacked by two men who threw a chemical at him, put a rope around his neck, called him anti-gay slurs, and referenced President Donald Trump's "MAGA" slogan. After a police investigation, Smollett was accused of paying two acquaintances to stage this attack.
Amid these legal troubles, Smollett's character was written out of the show in the first episode of the last season.
3.After three seasons playing Dr. Preston Burke on Grey's Anatomy, Isaiah Washington was fired in 2007 after using an anti-gay slur aimed at T.R. Knight before he'd publicly come out.
In the book How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy by Lynette Rice, Grey's writer Mark Wilding recalled that Patrick Dempsey had shown up late to set, and Washington felt disrespected because he and the crew had been waiting.
Fellow Grey's Anatomy writer Harry Werksman said that Washington went after Dempsey, pushed him up against the wall, and said, 'You can't talk to me the way you talk to that little f----- T.R.'"
Washington's last appearance on Grey’s as a series regular was in the Season 3 finale. He later returned for one episode in Season 10.
4.In 2018, the Roseanne reboot was canceled by ABC a few hours after Roseanne Barr, the show’s star and co-creator, posted a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, an African American woman who was a senior adviser to Barack Obama throughout his presidency.
She later apologized, but ABC quickly announced the cancellation of the reboot.
In announcing the show’s cancellation, ABC entertainment president Channing Dungey released a statement saying that “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”
5.From 2003 to 2011, Charlie Sheen portrayed Charlie Harper in Two and a Half Men. He was fired after making a series of negative statements about Chuck Lorre, the show’s creator.
In 2011, Sheen went on The Alex Jones Show and made negative comments about Lorre. Sheen said he was told that if he went on an “attack,” execs would cancel the show. Sheen continually referred to the Lorre as “Chaim Levine” (Lorre’s birth name is Charles Levine).
After those comments, CBS and Warner Bros. announced they were shutting down production of Two and a Half Men for the rest of the season. In response, Sheen wrote a letter to TMZ in which he referred to Lorre as a "little maggot." Afterward, Sheen was fired from the show.
Here's how Sheen's angry letter read:
“What does this say about Haim Levine after he tried to use his words to judge and attempt to degrade me. I gracefully ignored this folly for 177 shows … I fire back once and this contaminated little maggot can’t handle my power and can’t handle the truth. I wish him nothing but pain in his silly travels especially if they wind up in my octagon. Clearly I have defeated this earthworm with my words — imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists. I urge all my beautiful and loyal fans who embraced this show for almost a decade to walk with me side-by-side as we march up the steps of justice to right this unconscionable wrong. Remember these are my people … not yours…we will continue on together… Charlie Sheen.”
6.In 2021, The Mandalorian actor Gina Carano was let go from the show after her problematic posts on social media.
In 2021, Carano posted a photo to social media comparing being a Republican to being a Jew during the Holocaust. Fans then searched for more problematic posts from her past and found some in which she condemned wearing face masks and claimed voter fraud in the 2020 election.
She was then asked not to return to The Mandalorian, and the plans for her character to have her own show were discarded.
A representative for Lucasfilm said in a statement, "Her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable."
7.In 2020, Lori Loughlin was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and served two months in jail for her role in the 2019 admissions scandal.
The admissions scandal was where wealthy parents paid bribes to get their children accepted into prestigious universities. After Loughlin was accused, she did not return to Fuller House.
8.In 2021, Armie Hammer was fired from just about every one of his upcoming films and shows that he was meant to star in once it became public that he had sexual assault allegations against him and had allegedly sent messages in which he referred to himself as a cannibal. The projects he lost include Billion Dollar Spy, Shotgun Wedding, and the TV series The Offer.
He left Hollywood and wasn't seen in public until he was discovered in 2022 seemingly selling timeshares in the Cayman Islands.
9.And finally, Hartley Sawyer was fired from The Flash in 2020 after his old racist, misogynistic, and anti-LGBTQ tweets became public on social media.
One tweet read, per the Hollywood Reporter, “The only thing keeping me from doing mildly racist tweets is the knowledge that Al Sharpton would never stop complaining about me.”
After these posts resurfaced,The Flash producers announced he would not appear in the seventh season of the CW show.
Who are some other actors who lost roles because of their scandals? Let us know in the comments.
