The actress revealed on Andy Cohen's 'Watch What Happens Live' that she didn't exit the lead role — the part that landed Melissa McCarthy an Oscar nom — of her own free will.

Julianne Moore made a lot of jaws drop the other day when she revealed on Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live that she didn't exit the lead in Can You Ever Forgive Me? — you know, the part that landed Melissa McCarthy an Oscar nom — of her own free will.

"I didn't leave that movie. Nicole fired me," she said on the March 7 episode, referring to writer-director Nicole Holofcener, who adapted the memoirs of literary forger Lee Israel into a 2018-19 awards contender. Moore was set to play Israel in the film but exited days before cameras started rolling in July 2015. “I think she didn’t like what I was doing. We’d been rehearsing and doing preproduction stuff, and I think her idea of the what the character was was different than where my idea of the character was.”

What were those ideas? Rambling Reporter has learned from sources that while there were several creative choices they didn't see eye to eye on, the biggest was that Moore, 58, wanted to wear a prosthetic nose for the part — Israel, who died at 75 in 2014, had a somewhat bulbous schnoz — while Holofcener, also 58, is said to have felt that a fake nose would be too distracting. Neither Moore nor Holofcener responded to THR's request for comment.

A version of this story first appeared in the March 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.