Words are powerful in the entertainment industry. So powerful, in fact, that they can instantly shatter careers that were forged over many years of iconic performances. For these 10 actors and actresses, voicing their political convictions almost cost them their entire legacies.
Charlie Sheen
In 2011, Charlie Sheen proved that not every meltdown comes with a laugh track. After unloading antisemitic insults about Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre during a radio interview, the actor was fired faster than you can say “tiger blood.” Warner Bros. banned him from the studio lot and swapped him out for Ashton Kutcher. It was the end of an era—and the start of Sheen’s very public crash landing.
Charlie Chaplin
Well before the days of social media, words traveled more slowly, but the paranoia surrounding communism finally got to Charlie Chaplin in 1942, when his anti-fascist beliefs put him in the sights of McCarthyism, essentially exiling him from America.
Kevin Sorbo
Once the star of TV’s Hercules, Sorbo’s outspoken X posts usually harshly criticize liberal policies and figures. He’s now exclusively working on faith-based films and claims to be blacklisted for his conservatism.
Kirk Cameron
Cameron shifted from Growing Pains to Evangelical films. That alone didn’t affect his reputation – at least, not as much as one of his 2012 interviews on CNN, where he called homosexuality “unnatural”.
Stacey Dash
Things were looking great for Dash after Clueless, but her controversial takes on race relations earned her a bad reputation. In 2016, she called for the end of Black History Month, cementing her position and further alienating her fans.
Jason Biggs
After enjoying a successful stream of hits with American Pie, Biggs transitioned towards voice acting roles. He was fired from his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles role after posting inappropriate tweets regarding Paul Ryan’s wife during the 2012 RNC.
James Woods
Woods used to be an Oscar-worthy A-lister, but these days, his fringe political rants on X have cost him the high-profile roles he was used to. He still does voice acting and focuses on political commentary.
Mel Gibson
Following The Passion of the Christ, controversy surrounded Gibson’s life. Beyond the complaints of racism, Gibson shocked the world with his 2006 DUI arrest, where he went on an anti-semitic tirade that claimed that the Jews were behind “All the wars in the world”.
Roseanne Barr
A veritable sitcom icon, Roseanne Barr’s long-awaited reboot series was canceled overnight due to a bizarre series of racist tweets she made directed at ex-President Barack Obama’s senior adviser, Valerie Jarrett. The infamous post read “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby = vj”. Her agent immediately dropped her after the debacle.
Kathy Griffin
A shock comedian by trade, Griffin took things way too far in 2017, when she posted a photo of herself holding the (fake) bloodied, decapitated head of Donald Trump. The Secret Service took the post as a not-so-thinly veiled threat and launched an immediate investigation. According to Griffin, the stunt cost her endorsements, voice roles, tours, and gigs with CNN.
Gina Carano
Disney’s messy divorce with Gina Carano began when The Mandalorian actress voiced her displeasure with COVID regulations. Things took a turn for the worse when Carano compared the treatment of conservatives in the U.S. to Jews under Nazi Germany.
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