7 Actors Who Were Replaced After Filming Had Already Started

Recasting a lead before cameras roll is routine. Recasting one after scenes are already in the can is a different problem, because it can mean reshoots, delays and a lot of money.

The seven cases below span nearly nine decades of film history. The reasons vary: health scares, creative doubts, scandal and legal fallout.

Buddy Ebsen, The Wizard of Oz

Buddy Ebsen was first cast as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, and production started in late 1938. The aluminum dust in his makeup got into his lungs, and he ended up hospitalized with breathing trouble.

Jack Haley took over the role. The studio changed the makeup to an aluminum paste, and Haley had a milder but still unpleasant reaction to it. Ebsen’s voice and some early footage were reportedly replaced, so the film we watch today is essentially Haley’s Tin Man.

Slim Pickens, Dr. Strangelove

Peter Sellers was set to play several roles in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, including Major T.J. “King” Kong, the bomber pilot. He struggled with the Texan accent, and he then injured his ankle, which made the cramped cockpit set unworkable.

Kubrick brought in Slim Pickens, a veteran of Westerns who had the accent naturally. His scene riding the bomb has become one of the film’s best known images. Sellers still played three other characters in the finished movie.

Harvey Keitel, Apocalypse Now

Francis Ford Coppola began shooting Apocalypse Now in the Philippines in 1976 with Harvey Keitel as Captain Willard. Coppola soon decided the casting wasn’t working and let Keitel go early in the shoot.

Martin Sheen stepped in. The production then went through typhoons, delays and a serious heart attack for Sheen himself. The finished film premiered in 1979 and is now regarded as a classic, and the troubled making of it is well documented.

Jean Rochefort, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Terry Gilliam started shooting his Don Quixote film in Spain in 2000 with French actor Jean Rochefort in the title role. Rochefort had spent months learning English and riding, but a herniated disc left him unable to ride. The shoot was also hit by flash floods and military jets flying overhead.

Production collapsed, and the failed attempt was documented in the film Lost in La Mancha. Gilliam finally completed the picture in 2018, and Jonathan Pryce played Quixote in that version. Rochefort’s role was never completed on screen.

Stuart Townsend, The Lord of the Rings

Stuart Townsend was originally cast as Aragorn for The Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand. After a few days of filming, director Peter Jackson concluded that Townsend was too young for the part.

Viggo Mortensen was asked to step in with very little notice. He took on the role and stayed for all three films. The change came early enough that the production kept its schedule.

Johnny Depp, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Johnny Depp had played Gellert Grindelwald in the earlier Fantastic Beasts film, and production on the third film began in 2020. In November of that year he announced he had been asked to resign, following the loss of his libel case in the UK against a newspaper.

Mads Mikkelsen took over the role. The film, The Secrets of Dumbledore, was released in April 2022. Mikkelsen played a subtler, quieter Grindelwald than Depp had.

Kevin Spacey, All the Money in the World

Ridley Scott had already finished shooting All the Money in the World with Kevin Spacey as J. Paul Getty when sexual misconduct allegations against Spacey became public in late 2017. Scott decided to remove him and reshoot his scenes with another actor, weeks before the planned release.

Christopher Plummer stepped in and reshot his scenes in about nine days. The film still came out in December 2017, and Plummer received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. At 88, he was the oldest acting nominee in Academy history at that time.