TV Stars Who Were Unhappy Filming Their Famous Shows
The following article includes brief references to suicide and sexual abuse.
Most working actors know how difficult it can be to book a gig, let alone a good one. And when it comes to television, finding a solid job can be extra nice because of the potential length of a show's run. Look at "Grey's Anatomy," for example, which is in what feels like its 394th year and has provided Ellen Pompeo (Meredith Grey), Chandra Wilson (Miranda Bailey), and James Pickens Jr. (Richard Webber) with decades of consistent work. Even a handful of years on the air can provide a sense of stability that actors rarely experience, especially when the show is such a big hit that its renewal is never in question.
But for every thespian who is happy to star on a TV show for as long as the powers that be will have them, there is another who feels stifled by the long-term commitment. Sometimes actors are unhappy because of the creative choices that have been made, or the people making those choices; while other times, it's their co-stars or the general vibe of the set that puts them off. Then there is the salary factor, which has been a breaking point for many actors who have left their cushy jobs on hit television shows. And finally, there are instances where an actor's misery is simply due to the repetitiveness of filming dozens (maybe hundreds) of episodes and playing the same character, with limited downtime to try other things.
Here are some TV stars who were unhappy filming their famous shows.
Jason Segel was 'really unhappy' toward the end of HIMYM
There is no arguing it, "How I Met Your Mother" was a huge hit for CBS. Per Collider, it is one of the 15 longest-running American sitcoms of all time — an especially impressive feat since the vast majority of Hollywood's longest-running sitcoms ended their run before "HIMYM" even began. By the time the show rolled around in 2005, the television landscape was already changing and the competition for eyeballs increased significantly every year the series was on the air. All told, "HIMYM" ran for nine seasons and aired 208 episodes, deeply impacting culture in the process. The show's fictional "Bro Code" became an actual book, and catchphrases like "challenge accepted" and "I'll allow it" were widely used by Millennials for a good chunk of time.
While fans could not get enough of the sitcom, not all of its stars had the same enthusiasm for the show. In June 2023, star Jason Segel (aka Marshall Eriksen) admitted during a comedy actors' roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter that he felt dejected during the final seasons of "HIMYM." "There was a period in my life and career around the last couple of years of 'How I Met Your Mother' where things were firing in both movies and TV, and everyone was telling me how well it was going, and I was really unhappy," he said. "And so I then had to grapple with why?" Segel ultimately realized he felt stifled by having to ask permission, and often being denied it, when it came to his creative choices.
T.R. Knight asked to leave Grey's Anatomy after Season 5
"Grey's Anatomy" has been on the air for a very, very long time, and so, it makes sense that a good number of cast members have cycled in and out over the last two decades. But the sheer number of people who have worked at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital (or whatever it was called at the time) is beyond believable at this point. There are a variety of reasons why cast members have left the series, including one very unfortunate incident involving a homophobic slur — which is what got star Isaiah Washington fired back in 2007. In most instances, however, actors have either chosen to leave because of a desire for change or have been forced due to the vague excuse of "creative decisions." We are still smarting over that devastating double-firing of Jessica Capshaw and Sarah Drew in 2018.
A handful of "Grey's Anatomy" departures have been more notable, particularly because they involved original characters and actors who left amidst dramas. Take T.R. Knight, who played Dr. George O'Malley from the show's launch in 2005 through its fifth season. Knight was the actor on the receiving end of Washington's homophobic slur and has claimed that "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes discouraged him from coming out after the incident. Nevertheless, Knight cites his character's lacking storyline as the biggest reason for his departure.
"My five-year experience proved to me that I could not trust any answer that was given [about George]," Knight told Entertainment Weekly in 2009. "And with respect, I'm going to leave it at that."
Katherine Heigl infamously dissed Grey's Anatomy writers
We're not done talking about "Grey's Anatomy" yet — in fact, Katherine Heigl is only number two of three stars from the show on this list. That said, she is the cast member most people immediately think about when they consider "Grey's Anatomy" actors who left the show under unhappy circumstances. Heigl departed the series in 2010, two years after notoriously pulling herself from Emmy consideration, citing poor writing for her character (Dr. Izzie Stevens) as her reasoning.
"I thought I was doing the right thing. And I wanted to be clear that I wasn't snubbing the Emmys," Heigl explained on "The Howard Stern Show" in 2016 (via Entertainment Weekly). "I could have more gracefully said that without going into a private work matter. It was between me and the writers. I ambushed them and it wasn't very nice or fair." Heigl has had trouble shedding her ungrateful image over the years, and Shonda Rhimes hasn't exactly helped. For example, in 2014 profile, Rimes explained her "no a**holes policy" on "Scandal" to The Hollywood Reporter by stating, "There are no Heigls in this situation."
For her part, Heigl seems to have gained perspective in the years since her "Grey's Anatomy" departure at the end of Season 6. "It took me until probably my mid- to late-30s to really get back to tuning out all of the noise and going, 'But who are you? Are you this bad person? Are you ungrateful? Are you unprofessional? Are you difficult?' Because I was confused!" she told former co-star Ellen Pompeo in a 2023 talk for Variety.
Mandy Patinkin felt Criminal Minds was a career misstep
Mandy Patinkin has been appearing on our screens for nearly half a century, and he has a slew of awards nominations to show for it, including seven Primetime Emmys ones (he won once) and three Golden Globes nods. He also has a Tony Award, with two other nominations, and a long theatre resume. When it comes to the screen, though, Patinkin has received much more notice for his television roles than the work he has done on the big screen, despite having appeared in everything from "Yentl" to "Dick Tracy." His work on "Homeland" is his most acclaimed, but Patinkin has also held main roles on "Chicago Hope," "Dead Like Me," "The Good Fight," and "Criminal Minds." It is the latter that he considers the biggest career misstep he has ever made.
Patinkin played FBI profiler Jason Gideon on the first two seasons of "Criminal Minds," beginning in 2005. He was so unhappy on the program that he quit very suddenly right before the start of Season 3, and he has since expressed major regret for signing onto the show at all. "The biggest public mistake I ever made was that I chose to do 'Criminal Minds' in the first place," Patinkin said in a 2012 New York Magazine interview. "I thought it was something very different. I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week, year after year. It was very destructive to my soul and my personality."
Angus T. Jones asked fans to stop watching Two and a Half Men
While a fair number of stars soured on their television shows before calling it quits, "Two and a Half Men" actor Angus T. Jones is the only one we know of who actively asked fans not to watch his show — while still appearing on it! Jones was one of the show's original cast members and appeared on the series from its 2003 inception until the end of its 10th season in 2013. He played Jake Harper, son of Alan (Jon Cryer) and nephew of Charlie (Charlie Sheen), and functioned as the "half" in the title. By the time he left the show, Jones had not only outgrown his status as "half" a man, but he had also decided that "Two and a Half Men" went against his belief system.
"I'm on 'Two and a Half Men,' and I don't want to be on it. Please stop watching it; please stop filling your head with filth," Jones said in a testimony video posted to TheForerunner777 YouTube channel. He later published a statement backtracking on his comments, but the damage had been done, and he left the show at the end of the season.
Now, we're not saying that it's wrong to take issue with "Two and a Half Men" — in fact, many critics felt it was misogynistic — but bashing the show's moral fabric while cashing a reported $350,000 check per episode? Some might say that's like biting the hand that feeds you (in caviar). Luckily, showrunner Chuck Lorre later told Variety the two had made amends.
Penn Badgley did not feel proud of Gossip Girl
Younger actors are not always in the position to turn down roles, especially when they are offered a series regular part on a network series. So, we can't fault Penn Badgley for taking on the part of Dan Humphrey on "Gossip Girl," even if he appeared to dislike the show from the outset. Badgley began talking smack about "Gossip Girl" very soon after the show wrapped in 2012, after a six-season run. For instance, while promoting his follow-up project "Greetings from Tim Buckley," the actor told Salon how nice it was to be proud of a project. "I can walk a little taller feeling that I don't have to be constantly apologizing for the work that I've done in the past," he said.
Badgley has been even more explicit about his distaste for accepting this gig in other interviews, once telling Vulture that he initially turned it down partly due to concerns over being typecast — before those around him convinced him to sign on. In 2023, he told Variety he didn't want to be in television at all back then, admitting, "I was biding time a lot with Dan — I was not invested." He also wasn't a huge fan of his character, as he stated to Vulture: "He's a tool on a show with soap-operatic arcs and he needs to be a judgmental douche bag sometimes. I get that. ... But it sucks when people call me 'Dan' and think that I'm him."
Unsurprisingly, he's voiced similar concerns during his time on "You," given that Badgley's character, Joe, is a murderous stalker.
Shailene Woodley soured on this TV show's messaging
Shailene Woodley had her breakthrough role in "The Descendants" in 2011, a film for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination and won an Independent Spirit Award, and she became a massive star after headlining "Divergent" and its sequels. But true fans know that the actor had already been working for years before becoming a household name, with her most notable role previously being that of Amy Juergens on "The Secret Life of the American Teenager." Woodley began playing the pregnant teenager in 2008, and her character was at the center of the ABC Family show. The series aired for five seasons, but it has since become known that Woodley had wanted to leave well before the show ended its run.
Woodley's unhappiness stemmed largely from her disagreement with the show's message, which she says changed from the episodes she read before committing to her contract. "There were a lot of things that were written into the scripts that not just me, but a lot of the cast, disagreed with," Woodley told Bustle in 2020. "There were belief systems that were pushed that were different than my own. Yet legally I was stuck there. To this day it's one of the hardest things I've ever had to do."
This is a similar sentiment that Woodley expressed in August 2013, only a few months after the show wrapped. "Towards the end, morally, the things that we were preaching on that show weren't really aligned with my own integrity," she told Flaunt.
Johnny Depp tried to get fired from 21 Jump Street
Johnny Depp has played so many iconic characters over the span of his illustrious — albeit controversial, in more recent years — film career that it's easy to forget that television was the catalyst for his breakout as a major star. After appearing in films like "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Platoon," it was Fox's crime procedural "21 Jump Street" that catapulted Depp to his initial stardom. The actor appeared on the show as Officer Tom Hanson from its start in 1987 until the end of Season 4, shortly after the release of his film "Cry-Baby" and shortly preceding the release of his other 1990 film "Edward Scissorhands," which earned him a Golden Globe nomination and solidified him as a movie star to watch.
But back to those "21 Jump Street" years, which Depp does not speak fondly about in interviews. The actor was so unhappy working on the show that he actively tried to get fired by doing things like trashing his trailer. His displeasure was driven by a desire to avoid the trappings of fame and by the way the show had become targeted to the masses. "In the first two seasons, I think there was a lot of good stuff going on," Depp told "The Insider" at the time. "There were good, important messages. But I think that towards the third season, it started to get a little show-boaty, you know what I mean? It just ... started to become false. It started to become this action-packed ... can of soup, you know? You just market it and send it out."
Constance Wu's controversial tweets about her show's renewal
In May 2019, Constance Wu found herself embroiled in scandal when she negatively reacted to the renewal of her sitcom "Fresh Off the Boat" on Twitter. Amongst other things, the actor wrote, "So upset right now that I'm literally crying. Ugh. F**k," which caused many to label her as ungrateful and selfish. After all hell broke loose on social media, Wu backtracked and explained her response was actually a reference to having to give up another project, not a commentary on how she felt about "FOTB." Wu remained on the show through the end of its six-season run in 2020, but years later revealed on "Red Table Talk" that the backlash she faced led her to attempt suicide.
Wu started on "FOTB" in 2015, playing the Huang family's strict matriarch, Jessica. Midway through the show's run, she appeared in the massive hit film "Crazy Rich Asians," which many saw as the reason why she may have been over her restrictive television contract. In late 2022, Wu divulged that it was actually on-set sexual harassment that made her so unhappy to see "FOTB" get renewed. On an episode of "Late Night with Seth Meyers," she explained that the harassment occurred during the show's earliest years, but that she still had to work with the harasser, an unnamed producer, for the rest of the show's run.
"The thing I learned is that bad feelings and abuse don't just go away because you will it to," Wu said. "... People didn't understand the context of those tweets."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
Chevy Chase's many clashes on the set of Community
Celebrities sometimes have clashes at work that result in fractured relationships, but these stories are mostly one-offs. For a smaller number of famous actors, an accumulation of accounts of poor on-set behavior and attitude problems leads to their labelling as a bad seed. Chevy Chase is one such person who has, after decades in the business, racked up several complaints about his demeanor — everything from alleged racism and sexism to just generally being a jerk. These reports span all the way back to Chase's "Saturday Night Live" days, so his apparent behavior was well-documented by the time he started working on "Community" in 2009.
But a leopard doesn't change its spots, and Chase ran into further clashes while playing Pierce Hawthorne during the first four seasons of the NBC cult favorite. Creator Dan Harmon even went on record about Chase allegedly walking off set in a huff prior to his controversial exit. Meanwhile, Chase didn't exactly speak nicely about "Community" even while he was on it. "The hours are hideous, and it's still a sitcom on television, which is probably the lowest form of television," he told HuffPost UK. "... I think the reason I have stuck around is because I love these kids, the cast — they are very good. It's not like I am working with the great innovators of all time."
Of his reputation for being difficult, Chase later infamously told "CBS This Morning" with a laugh, "I don't give a crap! I am who I am. And I like ... who I am. I don't care."
Evangeline Lilly felt out of her depth when on Lost
When it hit the airwaves in 2004, ABC's drama "Lost" became an instant hit with both critics and audiences. By the time of its polarizing 2010 series finale, it was already considered one of television's greats (for example, it made Time's 2007 list of the 100 best TV shows of all time). Unsurprisingly, "Lost's" leading actors became huge stars in the wake of the show's success. "Party of Five" alum Matthew Fox and "Lord of the Rings" star Dominic Monaghan were the only ones with true pre-existing fame, so many of the show's other stars received their first real dose of the spotlight. For Evangeline Lilly, who played Kate Austen, the attention was undesirable.
On "The Lost Boys" podcast, Lilly said that she didn't even want to be an actor at the time she was cast, let alone a famous one. And although she felt like destiny pushed her toward the job, she started to strongly dislike her character and to question her place on set. In a separate interview for the podcast "Happy Sad Confused," Lilly documented the unhappiness she felt due to feeling out of her element. "I do feel like Season 3 was a turning point, where I went from 'Panic, figure it out, just shoot from the hip, feel it, go with my gut,' to 'I hate this, I don't want to do this, get me out of here,' to 'Oh, I guess if I'm here, and I'm stuck, and I'm going to stay, I should figure it out,'" she said.
Josh Charles got 'burnt out' filming The Good Wife
Actor Josh Charles made his screen debut in the 1988 film "Hairspray," after which he continued to work steadily for decades. He appeared in movies like "Dead Poets Society" and "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead," but Charles' career hit new heights once he became a series regular on the television series "Sports Night." Cut to 2009, when Charles once again experienced widespread acclaim after taking on the role of Will Gardner on the CBS drama "The Good Wife." Charles was a series regular for the first five seasons of the show, during which time he earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe nod. Despite earning raves for his work, Charles left the show by choice, two seasons prior to its end.
According to a panel the cast did with Charlie Rose, captured by Entertainment Weekly, Charles asked to leave the show when his contract expired at the end of Season 4. Though Charles retained a fondness for "The Good Wife" and its team, the schedule of a network television show started to cause unhappiness. "Look, it's a very long season doing a network television show, and somewhere in year 4, I kinda felt burnt out," he said on the panel. "I just felt a little fried and that I was ready for something different for me."
At the end of Season 4, co-star Julianna Margulies convinced Charles to film 15 more episodes so his character could have a proper send-off, for which fans were very grateful.
Patrick Dempsey is yet another Grey's star who wanted out
We've focused on "Grey's Anatomy" so much on this list already that we figured we'd close it all off with another actor from the juggernaut hit. Patrick Dempsey's Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd was such a pivotal part of the series' success that many fans were just about ready to revolt when the character was killed off at the end of the 11th season in 2015. While "Grey's" has kept chugging in the years since, proving that it's bigger than any one character or actor, people are still talking about how Mer-Der were supposed to be end game. In 2016, Dempsey told People his departure was one he made with the show's creator Shonda Rhimes, but rumors have swirled for years about Dempsey's final months on set.
According to Lynette Rice's book "How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy" (via The Hollywood Reporter), Dempsey was allegedly so unhappy toward the end of his run on the show that he became a nightmare to work with. "He sort of was terrorizing the set," claimed executive producer James D. Parriott. "I think he was just done with the show. He didn't like the inconvenience of coming in every day and working. He and Shonda were at each other's throats."
Though plenty of unkind things are claimed about Dempsey in the book, the actor's own excerpts don't mention his reported bad behavior, only that he'd been unhappy about the lack of control in his work schedule for a while before leaving the hit series and giant paycheck behind.