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 Uma Thurman joined the cast of "Savages" last April, at the same time as Blake Lively and John Travolta. She was set to play Lively's onscreen mother in the adaptation of Don Winslow's drug-fueled piece of pulp fiction, a new-age Southern Californian woman known to her daughter as Paqu -- Passive Aggressive Queen of the Universe. 
 
 Unfortunately for Thurman, when "Savages" hits theaters on July 6, her character won't be a part of the fun: She was cut out of the film completely. 
 
 "It was so intense, in fact, that we ended up cutting characters from the book, like the mother," director Oliver Stone told HuffPost Entertainment. "She was a good character -- Uma Thurman played her beautifully -- and the scenes were good, but you don’t have time, you know? We have one goal in the movie, and you go out that gate and it's like a horse race." 
 
 Stone said that Thurman "understood" the decision, and that she wasn't alone. Emile Hirsch had his "Savages" character significantly trimmed back, too. 
 
 This isn't a phenomenon limited to "Savages"; actors have been cut from films for decades. To mix famed quotations, the play's the thing and performers are little more than highly paid cattle. Ahead, 10 notable stars left on the cutting room floor. ||||| Ryan Gosling too fat for film role? Actor sets record straight about part that slipped away 
 
 It's usually actresses who come under fire for piling on pounds. 
 
 Now Ryan Gosling, 30, says he can relate, after losing a role he desperately wanted because he was too fat. 
 
 
 
 The Canadian heartthrob made the shocking claim while promoting his new movie Blue Valentine. 
 
 Back to his old self: A slimmed down Ryan Gosling attends The Governor's Awards with his mother in Hollywood on November 13 
 
 
 
 Three years ago director Peter Jackson signed Gosling to play the lead role in The Lovely Bones, but Jackson changed his mind and gave Gosling the sack, after the actor put on too much weight. 
 
 In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor said: 'I was 150 lbs when he hired me and I showed up on set 210 lbs, ' adding: 'We had a different idea of how the character should look.' 
 
 
 
 Gosling was replaced by Mark Wahlberg, who took over the role of Jack Salmon, a distraught father whose life falls apart after his young daughter is raped and murdered. 
 
 Nice comeback: Ryan has been getting great reviews for his work in Blue Valentine 
 
 
 
 Gosling said he intentionally bulked up, because he envisioned the character as being overweight: 'I really believed he should be 210 lbs.' 
 
 
 
 He says he succeeded in gaining weight by eating ice cream: 'I was melting Haagen Dazs and drinking it when I was thirsty. I really believed in it, I was excited about it and I showed up and they said, "You look terrible." ' 
 
 
 
 At the time, the actor who received an Oscar nomination for his role in the gritty drama Half Nelson, believed he could have easily lost the weight. 
 
 But admits he and Jackson disagreed so much about the direction of the film, that it was better to leave the project. 
 
 
 
 'It was a sign of much deeper things, the way I saw the character vs how Peter saw the character,' he continued. 
 
 
 
 'It was a huge movie and there were so many things to deal with and he couldn't deal with the actors individually.' 
 
 Gosling said it was a bad time in his life: 'I was fat and unemployed.' 
 
 
 
 Now, thankfully, he's neither. 
 
 Then and now: Gosling today compared to how he looked in 2007 at the premiere of Lars and the Real Girl in New York City 
 
 
 
 Lately, he's been getting rave reviews for Blue Valentine, a sexually charged independent drama co-starring Michelle Williams. 
 
 The film, which centres on a contemporary married couple, is said to be so racy that the Motion Picture Association of America slapped it with an NC-17 rating. 
 
 
 
 That means no children under 17 will be admitted to the film and it often adds up to lower box office receipts. 
 
 Still, Gosling has been getting good reviews. 
 
 According to Moving Pictures magazine, he is 'so emotionally vulnerable his heart virtually beats from an open wound in his chest.' 
 
 
 
 Although the magazine offers a word of caution about the bleak film: 'It’s exquisitely painful to watch.' 
 

– Bloated running times, terrible performances, a 60-pound weight gain—there are a host of reasons why even the most well-known actors are sometimes cut from films. The Huffington Post takes a look at 11 notable instances of big names getting axed from big movies: Ryan Gosling, The Lovely Bones: Gosling thought his character should be big, so he gained a lot of weight and showed up to filming weighing 210 pounds. Unfortunately, the filmmakers, who cast him at 150 pounds, disagreed and fired him. James Gandolfini, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: Gandolfini was supposed to be a love interest for Sandra Bullock's character, but test audiences hated his scenes. Mickey Rourke, Billy Bob Thornton, Gary Oldman, Viggo Mortensen, and Martin Sheen, The Thin Red Line: That's a whole lot of star power to get left on the editing room floor, but that's what happened with this Terrence Malick film. At least Rourke ended up in the Blu-ray's deleted scenes. Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler, Anchorman: The rambling Will Ferrell classic simply had too much footage, so Rudolph's and Poehler's scenes were edited out. Don't feel too badly for them, though, as director Adam McKay was able to put them in a second film with the leftovers, Wake Up, Ron Burgundy. Click for the full list, including one film the Huffington Post calls "a hilarious Hollywood mess."