Stephen Baldwin says he was fired mid-shooting

Stephen Baldwin says he was let go from the Jennifer Aniston rom-com “The Object of My Affection” after a producer told him he “can’t be funnier than Jennifer,” leaving him “castrated comedically” by the second day of shooting.

When Stephen Baldwin walked into his trailer during the second day of shooting on “The Object of My Affection,” he expected normal notes and the usual push-and-pull of making a movie. What he didn’t expect was a producer telling him, in plain terms, that there was a problem.

Baldwin. who says he was originally cast as Jennifer Aniston’s boyfriend Vince McBride in the 20th Century Studios rom-com before being replaced by John Pankow. recalled the moment during a recent episode of his “One Bad Movie” podcast with guest T.J. Miller. He described going in to play what he called “the sidekick. kind of almost boyfriend of Jennifer Aniston. ” coming up in Hollywood years before the fame that came with projects like “Usual Suspects.”.

“I was doing a movie with Jenny Aniston back in the day … It was when I was really young. coming up. I had been doing a few things. Before ‘Usual Suspects’ and all that bulls–t,” Baldwin told Miller. “‘The Object of My Affection.’ I went in and I auditioned to play like the sidekick. kind of almost boyfriend of Jennifer Aniston.”.

In his telling, he arrived ready to be himself—confident, comfortable, and buoyed by what he saw around him. “So, I get there and I’m me and Jennifer’s cute and whatever and I got a girl and I’m good. So, I’m just there to be me,” he said.

Then came the directive, delivered after lunch. Baldwin said the producer approached his trailer with a message that felt impossible to follow. “But after like. I think it was the second day of shooting. after lunch. this producer comes to my trailer and goes. ‘There’s a problem.’ I go. ‘What’s up?’ He goes. ‘You can’t be funnier than Jennifer.’”.

Baldwin recalled being thrown off by the phrasing—because in his mind, it was comedy. “‘Is this a joke?’” Baldwin said he asked. “It’s comedy movie. Like, I don’t know. Am I about to get punk’d? Like, what do you even mean by that?”

Miller pushed back in defense of Aniston’s comedic ability. pointing to their shared work on the 2016 film “Office Christmas Party.” Baldwin didn’t dispute that. He said he wasn’t trying to “shred anybody. ” explaining that he told the story to capture a certain kind of Hollywood problem—one he says he’d faced before.

“This is just to simply say Hollywood’s Hollywood,” Baldwin continued. “This happened to me on [‘Casualties of War’]. I got fired … Same thing. I’ve created a character and they went, ‘It’s not working. Here’s your money. Go home.’”

The difference, Baldwin said, was how the feedback was delivered in this case. He described how being told to “just say the words” left him confused and shaken. “While Baldwin noted this was a ‘similar’ experience. ” he recalled. “he noted that being told ‘there’s a problem’ and to ‘just say the words’ threw him for a loop.”.

In the moment, he compared it to being physically overruled. “And I’m now like, you’ve just mauled my face like a f–king wolverine,” he said. “And I’m going, ‘You’re asking me to like, just numb myself.’”

Baldwin said that after lunch—when he was effectively told to mute his own comedic instincts—he went back to the set trying not to be himself. “So I go back to the set after lunch, right?. Castrated comedically, right?” he said. “I was wondering was it really about my good looks?. Was I fat?. Well, you know, I was freaking out. So, I get back in there and I try not to be me.”.

But he still didn’t understand what the producer actually wanted from him, and the situation moved quickly toward an exit. “Yet, as Baldwin remembered it, he struggled to understand the feedback and was ultimately let go,” he told Miller.

“They let me go. They told me I could go home,” Baldwin said. “And that was all cool, but that’s just awkward.”

The story also came with a blunt reminder of how casting can shift behind the scenes: Baldwin says he was replaced by John Pankow after he was originally cast as Vince McBride in the film.

A representative for Aniston did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Still. Baldwin’s account—told years later. on a podcast built around bad-movie stories—lands with the kind of specificity that doesn’t feel like gossip. It’s a scene he remembers down to the timing: after lunch. on the second day. when the feedback wasn’t just criticism. It was an instruction he says he couldn’t figure out how to follow.

Stephen Baldwin Jennifer Aniston The Object of My Affection One Bad Movie podcast T.J. Miller John Pankow Vince McBride 20th Century Studios