{"id":711577,"date":"2026-06-18T14:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/711577\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T14:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:06:11","slug":"hollywood-actor-claims-he-was-fired-from-classic-romcom-for-being-funnier-than-jennifer-aniston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/711577\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood actor claims he was fired from classic romcom for being \u2018funnier than Jennifer Aniston\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Stephen Baldwin<\/a> has finally addressed his dismissal from hit romcom The Object of My Affection after 30 years, claiming that it was all down to him being \u201cfunnier\u201d than co-star Jennifer Aniston<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The 1998 film, which starred Aniston as a pregnant woman who develops feelings for her gay roommate (Paul Rudd<\/a>), originally cast Baldwin in the role of Vince McBride, the boyfriend of the Friends star\u2019s character. <\/p>\n

However, Baldwin left the project shortly after filming began, with Mad About You star John Pankow taking over the role. It was reported at the time that the actor \u2013 known for his roles in Born on the Fourth of July and The Usual Suspects \u2013 had been let go \u201cover different interpretations of the part\u201d. <\/p>\n

The 60-year-old has now spoken out about his departure from The Object of My Affection, claiming that producers had \u201ca problem\u201d with him being \u201cfunnier\u201d than Aniston. <\/p>\n

\"StephenStephen Baldwin says he felt ‘castrated comedically’ after receiving feedback from producers (One Bad Move with Stephen Baldwin)<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I get there and I’m me. Jennifer\u2019s cute and whatever. I got a girl. I\u2019m good,\u201d he told TJ Miller on his podcast, One Bad Move with Stephen Baldwin. \u201cAfter lunch, this producer comes to my trailer and goes, \u2018There\u2019s a problem. You can\u2019t be funnier than Jennifer.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI go, \u2018Is this a joke? This is a comedy movie, am I about to get punk\u2019d?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After Miller, who worked with Aniston on Office Christmas Party in 2016, said that the comment probably didn\u2019t come from Aniston as she is \u201creally funny\u201d, Baldwin continued: \u201cI don\u2019t know. This isn\u2019t to shred anybody. This is just simply to say \u2018Hollywood is Hollywood\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baldwin added that he got fired \u201cfor the same thing\u201d on 1989 drama Casualties of War, which starred Michael J Fox and Sean Penn as American soldiers during the Vietnam War who kidnap a Vietnamese woman. <\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve created a character and they went, \u2018It\u2019s not working\u2026 here\u2019s your money. Go home.\u2019 This one was similar, but they didn\u2019t say, \u2018It\u2019s not working,\u2019 first,\u201d Baldwin said on the podcast. \u201cThey just went, \u2018There\u2019s a problem. Can you just say the words?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston in ‘The Object of My Affection’ (20th Century Studios)<\/p>\n

He added that being given the critique felt like a Wolverine had \u201cmauled\u201d his face and like he\u2019d been \u201ccastrated comedically\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re asking me to, like, just numb myself?\u201d he said, admitting that he was \u201cfreaking out\u201d that the criticism was actually about other things. \u201cI was wondering, was it really about my good looks? Was I fat?\u201d <\/p>\n

Baldwin said that after he confronted producers over the feedback, they let him go. \u201cThey told me I could go home and that was all cool, but that\u2019s just awkward.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted Aniston\u2019s representatives and 20th Century Studios for comment. <\/p>\n

Baldwin, who is the brother of actors Alec, William and Daniel as well as the father of model Hailey Bieber, has failed to land big Hollywood roles in the last 20 years \u2013 with his last blockbuster being The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas back in 2000. <\/p>\n

Since then, he has taken roles in a number of direct-to-video films and faith-based dramas. He\u2019s also competed on various reality shows in recent years, including Celebrity Big Brother, The Celebrity Apprentice, I\u2019m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! and SAS: Who Dares Wins\u2019 American cousin, Special Forces: World\u2019s Toughest Test. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-711577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}