Stephen Baldwin was originally supposed to star in a romantic comedy alongside Jennifer Aniston but was apparently focusing too much on the comedy part.
The “Usual Suspects” actor was due to star in 1998’s “The Object of My Affection” with the former “Friends” star but got a surprising note from producers.
“After like the second day of shooting, after lunch, this producer comes to my trailer and goes, ‘There’s a problem,’” he recalled on the “One Bad Movie” podcast. “I go, ‘What’s up?’ He goes, ‘You can’t be funnier than Jennifer.’ “[I said] ‘Is this a joke? This is a comedy movie! Am I about to get punked? What do you even mean by that?’
Baldwin continued, “They didn’t say it’s not working first. They just went, ‘There’s a problem. Can you just say the words [and] use your instinct for your responses that you’ve come up with?’ And I’m now like, ‘You’ve just mauled my face like a f****** wolverine asking me to just numb myself.’”
The 60-year-old actor was left feeling confused and “castrated comedically”.
“I was wondering was it really about my good looks and was I fat? I was freaking out,” he said.
Baldwin says he attempted to take on board the feedback but was ultimately let go and replaced by John Pankow.
“I get back in there and I try not to be me. They let me go. They told me I could go home and that was all cool. But that’s just awkward.”
The “Bio Dome” star stressed he wasn’t sure if the initial feedback had come from producers, director Nicholas Hytner, or Aniston herself.
After Baldwin’s guest, T.J. Miller, defended his “Office Christmas Party” co-star Aniston as “really funny”, Baldwin clarified, “This isn’t to shred anybody. This is just to simply say Hollywood is Hollywood.”
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