16 Actors That Starred in Films, but Their Scenes Were Deleted

When directors shoot their movies, they end up with several hours of material. In order to fit the film narrative into 1.5-2 hours, they sometimes have to delete entire scenes with certain actors. And even if you’re a big star, you’re not completely safe. This brutal kind of editing happened to Uma Thurman’s role in Savages, as well as to the other actors below.

1. Tobey Maguire

In Life of Pi, Tobey Maguire played a writer interviewing the main character in his adulthood. But the director decided to cut out the scene because he thought that Maguire was too famous and would attract too much attention to his small part. So, the scene was redone with a different actor, Rafe Spall.

2. Ellen Pompeo

Ellen Pompeo was cast for the role of Naomi, the ex-girlfriend of the main character Joel Barish in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. All her scenes were done, but during editing, the director felt that her role would detract from the central relationship between Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey. So, the scenes were deleted.

3. Tim Roth

Tim Roth was in several Quentin Tarantino movies, for example, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and The Hateful Eight. The director invited him to appear his 10th film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, where he played the butler Jay Sebring. But the film ended up being too long (around 5 hours). Tarantino decided to focus on other plot lines, so he deleted all the scenes with Roth’s character.

4. Katherine Langford

In Avengers: Endgame, Katherine Langford played Morgan Stark, the adult daughter of Iron Man. In the scene, Tony and Morgan discuss what he’s just done and then she forgives him. But the episode was deleted because the director didn’t see the emotional connection between Tony and his adult daughter.

5. Michael Biehn

Michael Biehn played Kyle Reese in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In the original script, Sarah Connor saw him in a nightmare, reminding her that John was the target of Skynet. James Cameron deleted the scene due to time concerns and because the people who hadn’t seen the first film would have no idea who Kyle was.

6. Uma Thurman

Uma Thurman played “Paqu,” O’s mother, in Oliver Stone’s Savages, but her scenes were cut from the movie.

7. Kevin Costner

The comedy The Big Chill starts with the main characters attending the funeral ceremony for their fellow student Alex Marshall. Kevin Costner played Alex, but almost all the shots with him were deleted. He is still visible at the very beginning during the preparation for the ceremony.

8. Sarah Michelle Gellar

In 1988, the star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer appeared in Funny Farm with Chevy Chase in the main role. For unknown reasons, all the scenes with Sarah were deleted.

9. Robert Pattinson

In 2004, the star of Twilight got a small part in Vanity Fair, where he played the son of Reese Witherspoon. However, all the scenes with Robert were deleted from the final cut. And the actor found out about it during the special screening. Robert later said, “I’m sitting there going, ’Ummm...really?’ No one had told me that I had been cut out.”

10. Carice van Houten

In Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies, Carice van Houten played the wife of the main character. But the scenes with her were deleted from the final version of the film. Her name is only mentioned in passing.

11. Matthew Fox

In World War Z, the star of Lost (2004-2010) played a small role as a parajumper who saves Gerry Lane and his family. He was supposed to play a much bigger role, but the script was rewritten 5 times, so Matthew Fox only got 5 lines of dialogue and all the other scenes with him were cut out.

12. Liv Tyler

In 1996, the star of Stealing Beauty was in a scene of Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You. Tyler spent some time on set playing the girl who Scott Dandridge is in love with. But the scene was deleted because Allen wanted to make the film shorter.

13. Ashley Judd

In Oliver Stone’s crime drama Natural Born Killers, Ashley Judd played the sole survivor of one of main characters Mickey and Malory’s attacks. Judd had a long court scene, but it was deleted.

14. Jamie Dornan

In Burnt, Jamie Dornan had a 2-minute scene that was deleted. He was supposed to play Helene’s former partner, appearing in a scene in which they have a big fight. Test audiences disapproved of the scene, so it was removed.

15. Michelle Monaghan

In Constantine, the actress played Ellie, a half-demon Constantine had a relationship with. But during editing, the director deleted almost all the scenes with Michelle Monaghan because he wanted Keanu Reeves’ character to look more lonely.

16. Harrison Ford

Steven Spielberg filmed Harrison Ford in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The actor played a short role of the school principal. But the director later decided that the scene with Ford’s character simply took too much focus, so he decided to delete it.

In your opinion, which of these films would have been better with these famous actors in them?