Sharon Stone has revealed that she was cast and then abruptly dropped from Paul Feig's upcoming thriller sequel "Another Simple Favor."
The Amazon MGM Studios film, which premiered at SXSW and is set for release on May 1, brings Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick back together in leading roles. Taking to Instagram, Stone claimed she was set to be part of the cast — only to be unexpectedly dropped from the project later.
"I LOVED being cast and removed from my role unexpectedly for no reason at all LOVED it," she posted under an E! News Instagram reel about the film, according to Variety.
Stone's casting was never officially reported, leaving her potential role in the film unclear.
Last-minute changes like this are common in Hollywood. As Deadline noted, one of the most well-known cases involved two-time Oscar winner Adrien Brody, who was originally cast as the lead in Terrence Malick's war epic "The Thin Red Line," only to be almost completely cut from the final version.
It is also becoming increasingly common for actors to drop out of projects days before filming commences. This notably occurred with Joaquin Phoenix last year, when the actor abruptly dropped out of Todd Haynes' untitled gay romance five days before filming was set to begin in Mexico. No official reason for his last-minute exit was provided. Weeks later, it emerged that this was not the first time he had pulled out of a film at the last minute.
Actor James McAvoy claimed that he was called in at the last minute to replace Joaquin Phoenix in the psychological thriller "Split" after the "Joker" star dropped out just before filming began.
Commenting on being cast days before filming commenced during an appearance on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast in September, McAvoy said, "Sometimes coming in last minute is the best way."
"I think he ditched it two weeks before they started shooting," he said. "It was really last minute. I had a couple of weeks [to prepare]. Two weeks. The script was well put together, so a lot of it was clear what I wanted to do straight away."