Stephen Baldwin Claims He Was Fired From 1998 Rom-Com for Being ‘Funnier’ Than Jennifer Aniston

On a recent episode of his podcast One Bad Movie, Stephen Baldwin revealed he was originally cast in the 1998 romantic comedy-drama The Object of My Affection.

Baldwin said he was set to play Vince, the boyfriend of Nina Borowski, the character portrayed by Friends star Jennifer Aniston in the Nicholas Hytner-directed film.

Paul Rudd ultimately took on the role of George, Nina’s gay roommate and love interest.

Baldwin was let go from the production two days into filming after a producer told him he could not be “funnier” than Aniston.

Despite attempting to dial back his comedic instincts, he was ultimately released from the project. John Pankow, known for the sitcom Mad About You, was then cast in the role.

“Brandy, could you look up the Jennifer Aniston movie with Paul Rudd from like the '90s. That's the one I got fired from,” Baldwin claimed, prompting a surprised reaction from TJ Miller, who was the guest on the episode.

“I was doing a movie with Jenny Aniston back in the day. I got, but it was when I was really young, coming up about I got this. I'd been doing a few things before Usual Suspects.”

“I went in, and I auditioned to play like the sidekick kind of almost boyfriend friend of Jennifer Aniston. And I've never told this story. And I, Jennifer's cute and whatever, and I got a girl, and I'm good.”

“So, I'm just here to be me,” Baldwin continued his story.

“But after, 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.’ ... Am I about to get punked?" I like, what is going like what do you even mean by that?”” Baldwin recalled.

Baldwin said he was not sharing the story to criticize anyone involved. "This is just to simply say Hollywood's Hollywood," he said.

Neither Aniston nor her representatives have publicly responded to his claims.

In The Object of My Affection, Nina, a New York City social worker, discovers she is pregnant with her boyfriend. Rather than building a traditional family with him, she decides she would rather raise her child with George.

Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston later reunited in the 2012 comedy Wanderlust. The two also shared the screen on Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004, with Rudd joining the sitcom in Season 9 as Mike Hannigan, Phoebe Buffay's love interest.

Baldwin further revealed that this wasn’t a one-time occurrence for him.

“I got fired from Casualties of War, Sean Penn, Brian De Palma, Michael J. Fox. Same thing. I've created the character, and they went, ‘It's not working.’ I'm like, ‘What do you?’ They're like, ‘Here's your money, go home.’”

“This one was similar. But they didn't say it's not working first. They just went, ‘There's a problem.’ Can you just say the words? Can you just try not to be? Use your instinct for your responses that you've come up with?" And now you've like just mauled my face like a (expletive) Wolverine, and I'm going, ‘You're asking me to like just numb myself?’

“And that's cool. So, I said, not being very good at politics, I said, ‘Cool. All right. Yeah, peace. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. I'll see you there.’"