Marcus Chong is not a happy man. Hardly surprising, since he's just missed out on the biggest payday of his life.
After starring in "The Matrix" - one of the 40 top grossers of all time - Chong heard the six little words every actor dreads: "Don't call us, we'll call you."
As Tank, one of Morpheus' freedom fighters, Chong was one of the four surviving 'human' characters destined to appear in "The Matrix Reloaded".
When a pay dispute turned nasty, though, the studio decided the franchise could live without him. The man replacing him, and making his own bank manager very happy, is Harold Perrineau (best known for his work on prison drama Oz).
But "The Matrix Reloaded" isn't the first Hollywood sequel to put the squeeze on its supporting actors.
Linda Fiorentino is probably the highest profile absentee. Despite the finale of "Men in Black" being set up for her reappearance, she found herself alienated by the time the sequel finally got made, in 2002.
Margot Kidder was another big-time loser. Although she appears in "Superman III", she was only given five minutes' screen time. The unofficial reason? Bad-mouthing the producers for their decision to sack director Richard Donner from "Superman II".
Someone else paying for her indiscretion was Zo毛 Wanamaker. After playing Madam Hooch in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", she told the press she'd received "**** money" for her work (we'll leave you to guess what the four-letter word is), and that, "If they want me for a second, they'll have to up the rates." Draw your own conclusion over Wanamaker's absence from "Chamber of Secrets".
Then there's Crispin Glover. The ooky, kooky one played George McFly in "Back to the Future", but after a hush-hush contract dispute with the studio about the sequels, actor Jeffrey Weissman quickly replaced him.
Since the two thesps were far from similar, the makeup department disguised Weissman in a fake nose, chin, cheekbones and a wig to make him a dead ringer for Glover. Hundreds of thousands of fans didn't even notice the change, which led to a lawsuit and a radical overhaul of the Screen Actors Guild rules.
Other replacements have been less high profile. No one noticed when the children in the "National Lampoon's Vacation" movies were switched, and no petitions were orchestrated when supporting characters in the "Home Alone" and "Major League" films were recast. Some things, it seems, just aren't worth getting worked up about.
Ask Jeff Goldblum. The tall guy was initally set to appear in "Jurassic Park III" as recurring character Dr Ian Malcolm, but injured his leg a few days into filming. He elected to drop out of the movie, saying that his character "wasn't that important to the script". Sometimes it's good to know your place in the Hollywood food chain. Take note, Marcus Chong.
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