T.J. Miller trashed much of Hollywood. How often does this happen?

By Sonia Rao / The Washington Post

Leave it to T.J. Miller to turn the celebrity exit interview on its head. The actor, known for his eccentricity, got candid with the Hollywood Reporter about being written out of HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” a move that surprised many when it was announced in May. Miller’s character, Erlich Bachman, was a fan favorite and made his last appearance in Sunday’s Season 4 finale.

“I’m not an actor; I’m a comedian,” Miller said. “I don’t know how the f- I hoodwinked Hollywood into giving me a career in this.”

Miller’s exit, which he likened to “a breakup with HBO,” came when producers offered him a decreased role in the fifth season due to his “heavy-duty” schedule, and he opted to leave instead.

In the interview, posted Sunday, he dished on “frustrating” executive producer/co-showrunner Alec Berg (“I didn’t talk to Alec because I don’t like Alec”) and co-star Thomas Middleditch (“we have a contrarian relationship, like a big brother-little brother relationship”) as well as the potential absurdity of prioritizing projects like “The Emoji Movie.”

A few gems from Miller’s interview include:

– “But for me, television, unlike women and wine, does not get better with age. So I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting to leave at the height of the success of the show?’”

– “I’m not Thomas Middleditch. I’m me, the guy that thinks all of this is sort of ridiculous. It was a joke. Leaving was a joke that I thought would be a good joke because the show would grow and change.”

– “Instead of dying, like everybody in my family would love, I go and make The Emoji Movie. It’s worse for American culture.”

– “I don’t know how smart [Alec] is. He went to Harvard, and we all know those kids are f-ing idiots. That Crimson trash. Those comedy writers in Hollywood are f-ing Harvard graduates and that’s why they’re smug as a bug.”

Miller is not the only celebrity to trash their own project. Here’s a look back at others who have done the same:

– Katherine Heigl famously criticized “Knocked Up,” now her top-grossing movie, in a 2008 interview with Vanity Fair for its “sexist portrayal of women.”

“It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys,” Heigl said. “It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, on some days. I’m playing such a bitch; why is she being such a killjoy?”

Heigl met with more drama later that year when she withdrew her name from consideration for an Emmy Award due to the writing on the smash hit “Grey’s Anatomy.”

“I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention,” Heigl said in a statement. “In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials.”

Though Heigl regretted her “Grey’s Anatomy” comments afterward – she told Vanity Fair in 2016 that she apologized to showrunner Shonda Rhimes after the statement circulated – rumors circled of tension between the two. Heigl’s fan-favorite character, Izzie Stevens, was written out of the show in 2010.

– David Cross, known for his unapologetic humor, went much further with his disdain for “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked” in a 2012 appearance on “Conan.” He claimed that he was essentially forced at “legal gunpoint” to spend a week on a cruise ship dressed in a pelican costume, and called a producer “the personification of what people think about when they think negatively about Jews.” (Cross, who identifies as an atheist, was raised Jewish.)

“In all honesty, it was the most miserable experience I’ve ever had in my professional life,” Cross said.

– Christopher Plummer waited decades to knock the beloved “Sound of Music,” which he described to The Hollywood Reporter in 2011 as “awkward and sentimental and gooey” while saying it was the toughest role he’d ever played.

“You had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some miniscule bit of humor into it,” he said. Plummer has referred to the film as “The Sound of Mucus.”

– Shia LaBeouf’s disdain for working on the “Transformers” franchise, shared with co-star Megan Fox, is well known, but the actor extended his criticism to “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” The 2010 movie, directed by Oliver Stone, was a sequel to the 1987 film “Wall Street,” and LaBeouf claimed to Details magazine, according to HuffPost ,that it missed the mark.

“He’s trying to play nice,” LaBeouf said of Stone. “But for a movie like ‘Wall Street’ that had so much bite the first time around to come out without fangs and preach a message of hope wasn’t what people were looking for.”

– Halle Berry chose an apt location to criticize “Catwoman”: the 2005 Golden Raspberry Awards, often referred to as the Razzies. Berry, who won an Academy Award for “Monster’s Ball” three years earlier, was awarded Worst Actress. (The movie also won Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay.)

“I have so many people to thank, because you don’t win a Razzie without a lot of help from others,” she said. Those people notably included Warner Bros., which she thanked for “putting me in a godawful piece of s- movie.”