by Matthew HuffBuzzFeed Contributor@huffmatt // Podcast Co-Host: PS You're Wrong // Author: Marathoner (Rizzoli, 2021) // Improviser: Magnet Theater // Wannabe Slurpee Influencer

Quitting a job isn't just for us regular folks. Movie stars can do it too! In fact, throughout Hollywood history, numerous actors have walked off film sets mid-shoot, leaving whole productions in the lurch.

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Whether it be for unrealistic expectations, "creative differences," or because their makeup team was poisoning them with aluminum face paint (more on that in a second), sometimes actors just can't make it to the wrap party.

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Here are 19 times actors quit films during production:

Action star and martial artist, Jean-Claude Van Damme, was originally cast as the titular monster in Predator, but quit because of the uncomfortable costume.

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JCVD was initially cast because of his martial arts prowess, but when he arrived on set in the Mexican jungle, he wasn't able to complete the stunts due to the bulky suit. “My head was in the neck. My hands were in the forearms, and there were cables [attached to my fingers to move the creature’s head and jaws]. My feet were in his calves, so I was on [stilts]. It was a disgusting outfit,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. After being asked to do an impossible stunt by the producers, JCVD quit, and the predator suit was given a complete makeover to emphasize the creature's height rather than speed. Kevin Peter Hall, who towered at 7'2" was hired to replace JCVD, who was only 5'10".

The original star of V for Vendetta, James Purefoy, dropped out after several weeks of filming due to difficulties acting under the Guy Fawkes mask.

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“I had [Purefoy] in the mask for the first two weeks of filming, and it wasn’t working out,” the film's director James McTeigue told IndieWire. “It happened over an Easter break as I remember, and I could sort of feel it coming. I think James wasn’t really feeling it, so we made the decision. It was difficult at the time, but we made the best decision.” McTeigue then called in Hugo Weaving, with whom he'd previously worked on The Matrix films. “[Hugo] had done a lot of mask work at drama school. Noh theater, kabuki, and Greek tragedy,” McTeigue continued. “He came into it, and he wasn’t afraid of the mask. He was like, ‘This is going to be completely freeing.’”

After 10 days playing the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, Buddy Ebsen was hospitalized due to an aluminum makeup emergency and had to drop out of the film.

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In order to make Ebsen's face appear to be made of tin, the makeup team applied a base layer of white paint and then dusted aluminium particles over top. Unfortunately, after 10 days of repeated dustings, Ebsen was rushed to the hospital because the aluminum had coated his lungs to the point he couldn't breathe. "I was in the hospital under an oxygen tent for two weeks, and went from there to the Coronado Hotel in San Diego to recuperate. MGM had to get on with the picture and gave the role to Jack Haley. I spent a month at the Coronado and finally felt well enough to go home,” Ebsen said. Ironically, Ebsen was originally cast as the Scarecrow, but swapped roles with Ray Bolger right before filming.

James Remar was arrested for heroin possession while filming Aliens, leading to Michael Biehn replacing him as Hicks.

Remar, who you may know as Dexter's father on Dexter, left several weeks into filming the Alien sequel. While the real reason was not reported at the time, Remar later admitted his drug addiction was the cause of his exit from the project. Remar's time on the Aliens set was a rocky one, as he accidentally fired a round of live ammunition from a prop gun while filming that blew a hole into the neighboring set of The Little Shop of Horrors.

John Travolta forfeited a $17M payday when he dropped out of The Double during rehearsals for the Roman Polanski film.

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If you've never heard of The Double, that's because the film was never released. Travolta agreed to shoot the adaptation of the little-known Fyodor Dostoevsky novel in 1996. According to reports, Travolta and Polanski didn't see eye-to-eye on a revised version of the script, prompting Travolta to exit the project days before filming was to begin. Both parties sued each other, with a settlement reached in 2001.

Bette Davis exited her final film, Wicked Stepmother, halfway through shooting for *checks notes* dental reasons.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Bette Davis took a week of

19 Famous Actors Who Quit Films Mid-Production