11 famous actors who have actually been fired from a movie or TV show

While it may seem as if movie stars are untouchable - what with their Hollywood-worthy good looks and the slew of successful ventures they hold to their name - it's evident that even the top one per cent are liable to on-set disasters. We all know that Taylor Momsen's bad girl persona came in the way of her playing the social-climbing Jenny Humphrey in Gossip Girl, but there's a whole other coterie of stars who, for some reason or another, got axed from production.

From Ryan Reynolds to Megan Fox, read on to see why some of our favourite actors just didn't make the cut.

1. Anne Hathaway 

The Princess Diaries star was originally offered Katherine Heigel's role in 2007's Knocked Up. However, she was replaced before production began - and it was rumoured that this was because she and Judd Apatow had creative differences when it came to the explicit birth scene.

"I thought that Judd [Apatow] was right to include the shot. I didn't disagree with the shot," she later revealed to Allure. "My issue with it was that having not experienced motherhood myself, I didn't know how I was gonna feel on the other side about giving birth."

2. Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen's time on the set of Two and A Half Men was riddled with controversy. But after the actor made "inflammatory comments" and failed to continue a drug rehabilitation programme, producers decided that it was time to sever ties with Sheen - and they did so in an 11-page letter to his lawyers.

3. Megan Fox 

In 2009, Fox made several contentious remarks about the director of the third instalment of Transformers, Michael Bay. In an interview with Wonderland, the actress asserted that Bay wanted "to be like Hitler on his sets", alleging that he was "a nightmare to work for". The actress was accordingly fired and replaced by Rosie Huntington-Whitely.

4. Shannen Doherty 

After getting into several physical spats on set, Doherty's co-star Tori Spelling was credited for getting the actress kicked off 90210. Once punches were thrown, Spelling phoned up her dad - who created and produced the series - and he accordingly fired Doherty for bad behaviour.

5. Selma Blair 

Blair was playing Charlie Sheen's girlfriend on the FX comedy show Anger Management before her role was terminated in June of 2013. The actress went on to sue Sheen and Lionsgate Entertainment for $1.2 million, alleging that this was the money she would have earned if she was not fired. She asserted that she was wrongfully terminated after she complained that Sheen wasn't learning his lines on time and was holding up filming.

6. Edward Norton 

Norton played Bruce Banner (The Hulk) in The Avengers but wasn't invited back for the sequel. A statement from Marvel's President of Production, Kevin Feige, elaborated on the decision, writing "We have made the decision to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers. Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members."

Ouch.

7. Ryan Gosling

While Gosling is one of today's biggest stars, that doesn't leave him immune from the odd misstep. The actor was tipped to play father Jack Solomon in the adaption of the bestselling novel, The Lovely Bones. However, he was fired by director Peter Jackson on account of his 60-pound (27 kilo) weight gain. Gosling packed on the pounds because he imagined the character being heavy-set. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Gosling said that he believed that the character would have weighed around 210 pounds - which is why he purportedly drank melted tubs of Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Unfortunately, Jackson and Gosling didn't discuss the role beforehand. "I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong," the actor asserted. "Then I was fat and unemployed."

8. Taylor Momsen

Momsen was let go from Gossip Girl on account of her "unreliable and erratic behaviour" on set. During the filming of season four, an insider alleged that Momsen was always absent, saying "Taylor wasn’t on set filming much this season, but when she did show up she wasn’t very level-headed. The show’s executives didn’t trust that she was really giving it her all, so they dismissed her as a regular."

9. Colin Firth 

After he finished recording the lines for the role of Paddington, producers realised that the British actor's tone wasn't the right fit for the youthful, naive bear. Firth was fired and replaced by Ben Whishaw.

10. Samantha Morton

It was only in post-production that director Spike Jonze realised that he didn't like Morton in the titular role in Her. He later confirmed to Vulture that Scarlett Johansson would be taking over as the voice of the operating system.

11. Lisa Bonet

Bonet played the oldest daughter of Cliff and Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show from 1984 to 1991. However, the director of the hit television series fired Bonet after season seven because of alleged "creative differences". The actress had recently posed nude for a magazine and it had garnered much press attention - and not all of it was positive.

Well, there you have it. While some of these come as no surprise (we're looking at you, Charlie Sheen), no one would have expected that Colin Firth or Anne Hathaway would be dropped so suddenly from a project.