Spider-Man star Willem Dafoe was fired from famous flop HEAVEN'S GATE - for laughing at an extra's joke.

After playing an uncredited cock fighter in the 1980 Michael Cimino film, the actor upset the director by chuckling during a quiet tense scene and he was asked to leave the set.

He recalls, "I'm still in the movie because I was the cock fighter. That was one of the things I did; I worked for Jeff Bridges' character in the story.

"I was there for three months and I worked a lot. It was the kind of thing where you were hired to play an unscripted character and then they developed these smaller characters. I had scenes and everything and was really enjoying it and then one day we were doing a lighting set-up for a long time; basically eight hours standing in place, and a woman told me a joke in my ear and I laughed at a moment of silence.

"Cimino turned around and said, 'Willem step out,' and that was that. I was the lamb for sacrifice."

Dafoe has since confronted The Deer Hunter director and reminded him of the moment he was fired, but the moviemaker has no recollection of the incident.

Dafoe tells WENN, "He doesn't quite acknowledge it, but that's what happened. It was quite a lesson because that was the first studio movie I had ever been involved in, so it was quite an eye-opener. I thought, 'Wow, what a rough world!'"

But Dafoe dodged a bullet - his name isn't among the credits in a film that has become a punchline in movie industry jokes. The flop closed a studio and largely cost Cimino his reputation.

