Since this week is glacial when it comes to steamy gossip (vicarage-wrecking aside), I was surprised that people wanted to talk about all of the Castle drama. I believed that very few people were still watching Castle and that no one would really care. But you guys did care! So I’m rewarding you with another story about this mess. On Monday, ABC suddenly announced that Stana Katic would be leaving the series at the end of this season, Season 8. ABC and Castle producers want to do a Season 9, but just with Nathan Fillion… and that’s about it. Tamala Jones is leaving the series and Jon Huertas and Seamus Dever haven’t renewed their contracts… yet. Huertas even went on Twitter and called out producers for not telling him personally that Katic was leaving. And both Dever and Huertas made statements about how much they love Katic and Jones too. Which just goes to show you… the beef that was happening on the set was just between Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic. Speaking of, both Nathan and Stana tweeted about her exit yesterday.
To the fans: thank you for your support. I love you. 💋✌🏽️
— Stana Katic (@Stana_Katic) April 19, 2016
— Nathan Fillion (@NathanFillion) April 19, 2016
If Nathan’s statement seems somewhat cold and impersonal, that’s because they f—king hate each other. Us Weekly had the details on just how bad it had gotten between them:
Castle on a storm cloud? Following ABC’s stunning announcement on Monday, April 18, that Stana Katic is exiting the popular procedural Castle, a source tells Us Weekly exclusively that the actress and longtime costar Nathan Fillion have been having behind-the-scenes friction… while the two lead characters — who tied the knot during a season 6 episode in 2014 — have a strong bond, the same sadly cannot be said for the stars themselves.
“Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion completely despise each other,” the source tells Us. “They will not speak when they are off set, and this has been going on for seasons now.”
“This season, it got so out of hand they made Stana and Nathan go to couples counseling together,” adds the insider, who says that the actress has been in tears on the set because of the tension.
Katic’s rep tells Us that the actress “had absolutely no issues” with her costar. Fillion’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Unlike the Archie Panjabi-Julianna Margulies situation where I was firmly on one side (Team Panjabi), I don’t know where to come down on this Katic-Fillion beef. My gut instinct is telling me that if Stana is regularly leaving the set in tears, then he’s a bastard. My gut is also telling me that Nathan was confused by the concept of having an actual equal partnership on and off-screen. He always thought the show was just about Richard Castle, and Beckett supported Castle’s stories. But… the writers and producers seemed to want Castle and Beckett to be equals. So there was just a fundamental misjudgment on someone’s part. So, I don’t know… I’m tentatively Team Katic.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Hm. I would have sworn by looking at their photos together that they get along just fine (or did at some point). This almost reeks of a romance gone wrong, doesn’t it?
They are actors selling a show they can pose for photos. No I don’t think it’s a romance issue I think it is a who is the star thing.
Well at one point they got along. They were invited to the Paley Convention a couple of times, The first time, they sat together and were pretty simpatico. The last time they did Paley, they sat on opposite ends of the stage and did not acknowledge each other. I’m pretty sure there are videos floating around because I watched it online a few years ago.
This is just so sad.
That doesn’t mean they used to get along, it just means they don’t give a damn about appearing to get along now. These kinds of events are work for actors. Whenever you see an actor on a red carpet or at a PR event or talk or Con, they are acting. I’ve seen plenty of actor colleagues deliver amazing acting performances at Cons and on red carpets. Their behaviour means basically nothing since it’s all acting/staged.
They might have once gotten along. I’m not saying they didn’t. But a staged event for which they’re both ‘on’ isn’t evidence of anything one way or the other.
I love Nathan Fillion. He was on Talking dead recently and was very cute and funny.
My 13 and 11 year old LOVE Castle. My mom got them into it when they were spending the night at her house once and it’s so cute how they all now share this obsession. I have not wanted to break the news of Stana’s departure to any of the three of them, they will be crushed.
Ok I love Nathan- I have since he was Joey on OLTL, and I never liked her or the Becket character but as much as I want to say he is the great sweet guy he seems to be on TV. I tend to believe he was a dick who wanted to be the ultimate star and have everyone bow down to him. I mean if there wasn’t truth to it and she was the problem why would two actors who don’t have contracts or big names risk their livelihood to tweet their support and come out against the producers? You wouldn’t, Hollywood is difficult especially for a non white male you’d protect your job.
I do have to say that these Hollywood stories always crack me up though. I mean really couples counciling? We all have coworkers we hate we just up on our adult panties go to work and do our job. It’s not hard, why do they find it so hard?
Actually before I started on at my job they made the entire staff take a counseling course on how to deal with difficult, bullying people. This was directed at remedying a problem with an administrative assistant they knew was a horrible bully. So HR had enough complaints to address and they chose to counsel everyone else and not fire her. Ridiculous things happen everywhere.
That is a proactive HR department. I am impressed and honestly a bit shocked. I have never experienced that in my career it’s more of a buck up and deal environment.
That was my thought as well. The message of support from two supporting actors says a lot. Its not surprising that fans claim that Fillion is a darling. I’m quite sure that if the original Star Trek was in production today and a co-star accused William Shatner of the things we now know he did, people here would run to his defence with “He seems in interviews” or “he is nice to fans”. Havent we established that a lot of these people put up facades. I mean theres even a TV trope about it; the smiling star who snarls at his assistant as soon as the cameras are gone.
Anyway, like Kaiser, I am tentatively Team Katic.
I disagree that it’s just “he seems nice in interviews”. Pretty much the whole Joss Whedon crowd (which Fillion is a part of) have stellar reputations when it comes to being pretty awesome (it’s not a coincidence that despite her success on Buffy, SMG is one of the few not to work with Whedon a second time). The guy has had a great reputation for a long, long time.
And Huertas and Dever are fighting for their own jobs, too. With Katic and Jones leaving, it’s pretty obvious that they’re moving the show away from the police precinct… which means that the two gents are out too (unless there’s some miraculous turn of events that has them move to the PI agency, which would be absurd to have the only two that go with Castle be the dudes). This isn’t just about a co-worker being written out, it’s that they may be as well.
William Shatner had a “great reputation” for a long time too. It took decades for his fans to accept that the industry is fantastic at covering for the crowd pleaser. Moreso if Nathan is great at turning on the charm. If he is pulling a Shatner (using his clout to insist she gets less camera time, poorer lighting or weaker lines) and she is disposable, they would probably cover for him to keep the show going. But then who knows? Those supporting actors are tipping me onto her side frankly.
I really think Nathan’s frat boy antics probably drove Stana crazy which is why they don’t get along. He gives out a frat bro vibe.
I’m so sad about this. Jon Huertas laid out the points superbly. So ABC, why didn’t you notify the cast first?
Your “frat boy antics” reference reminded me of Cheers and Shelly Long. By all accounts, Shelly Long was a pill on the set of Cheers, but her costars weren’t much better. Some were pretty unprofessional, showing up late or drunk, or just being really immature in general. So it’s not that one person was terrible and everyone else was great. They were all kind of equally awful, just in different ways. So I wonder if that’s what’s going on here.
All I can say is they are very good actors: they have an amazing chemistry on screen, the show is not that much, but these two are too good together.
Working in an awful job place can be tough for everyone.
Nathan’s note basically: i hate stana but i’m tweeting about her so people will leave me alone
Sometimes personalities clash. It doesn’t have to be someone’s fault. Like Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy. Both have been delightful to work with according to other co-stars. Together? Oil and water. Add 8 years to the pot, and it boiled over. Not all that surprising.
I agree. It seems like they just don’t get along but that doesn’t mean he’s bad or she is. Sometimes people just rub each other the wrong way.
Charlize and Tom hardly seem like best example here given the fact that Tom has been known to actually hit his co-workers because he disagreed with them. Plus he has publicly acknowledged that he is temperamental.
Yup. I’m on Team Sometimes-People–Just-Don’t-Get-Along.
Me too. Team Sometimes-People-Just-Don’t-Get-Along is my choice too. But you are obviously the captain since you were the first person on the team 🙂
I could’ve sworn there were multiple blind items about what a diva and rude person Stana was…and that’s why Nathan hates her.
Jezebel had an article on this and some of the comments from people who seemed in the know confirmed that. Plus she was distant with fans at a recent Paley fest.
Nathan does have a very good reputation in the business, he’s supposedly polite and friendly both on set and off.
That may be true and she may be a giant diva. But I tend to take anything written online with a pinch of salt. Especially when it comes to people online anonymously claiming to work on a popular TV show. There are just too many overinvested or delusional fans and too many attention-seekers out there.
I worked on a soap where one major storyline centered around a love triangle, and some fans couldn’t accept that the actresses playing love rivals were actually friends in real life. There were two rival groups of fans who were in a kind of bitter shipping feud, mostly harmless, but there were a few who insisted on attacking and muckraking the actress who they saw as the rival for ‘their’ actress and a few pretended to work on the show and to ‘know’ that whichever actress played the character they disliked was a diva who everyone hated too.
A few of those crazy Cumberbatch ‘skeptics’ have pretended to work on productions with him, one pretended she worked at the Barbican during Hamlet but had obviously never even been there.
I don’t agree that the producers wanted the show to be equal parts Castle and Beckett. It’s called Castle and its clearly been Castle with big support from Beckett — I’ll admit I haven’t watched the last couple seasons, though.
I’ve seen enough interviews and gag reels and such if Nathan Fillion to believe that while he can probably be grating, I don’t think he’s a diva. I think the show has dragged on too long and I can see losing tolerance for the schedule and demands. I also believe the rumors Nathan and Stana were together early on… their chemistry was ridiculous years ago.
I love this show. The characters are what make it, not the storyline. This season has dragged on with some convoluted mystery plot I don’t understand which somehow ties in to former seasons.
Stana Katic is one hell of an actress. I have no idea what she is like as a person but if she is not on the show I doubt I will watch.
Nathan Fillion seems like a friendly guy but he seems exhausting to be around. The show may be called Castle but honestly his character by himself is not compelling and really annoying. Beckett makes him less annoying. If she is leaving, they might as well cancel the show. It’s been on the air a solid 8 years which is a good run. People need to know when to pull the plug–far too many shows go on for longer than they should.
So much yes to people dragging out shows. I get that it’s tempting when it is popular and you’re making money but at a certain point don’t you pause and realize you are no longer telling a story and you’re creatively tapped for these characters and plots? I’ve seen too many originally wonderful shows go on too many seasons like The Office and HIMYM. I almost wish there was a cap on how many seasons a show could run.
The Office dragging out was painful. I still enjoyed the show and characters, but it should have ended when Steve Carell left.
I definitely respect shows that know when to end. Having a finish line in sight allows them to properly craft the story arc so that it has a well thought out ending, and not seasons of filler. Breaking Bad, Justified, Mad Men, etc.
Yes pull the plug indeed. I think 8 years has been good. ABC made back its money in syndication.
They are really treading Grey’s territory. I haven’t watched Grey’s since they killed off Dr. Shepherd.
“the actress has been in tears on the set because of the tension.” — I can not be sympathetic to a woman who regularly cries at work. Shit like that makes us all look weak.
Katic held out signing up for season 8 till she got a significant pay raise. Which was actually pretty clever, but sadly have the show runners time to write her out completely.
BTW — any other Castle fans want to discuss how much surgery she’s had in the past decade? Granted her surgeon is top drawer.
I know she had a nose job years ago – I saw her on another show and barely recognized her. I think it was well done and a good choice for her.
But other than that, I haven’t noticed much, though I haven’t watched the later seasons of the show.
what show? i gotta to see about this
Della, as someone who has almost no control over when tears flow, may I just say they are not always a sign of weakness. On the few occasions I’ve cried at work it has little to do with feeling weak or helpless, but is closer to being an overwhelming urge to do bodily harm to a fellow coworker that has pissed me off. But since physical violence is generally frowned upon in the workplace, and would more than likely lead to prison time (which would be a bummer for me), that impulse manifests itself as tears.
Same here Dara. Glad to know I’m not the only one. I’m crying cause I’m so pissed I wanna smack somebody, but I can’t. Hate that people take it as a sign of weakness. Wish I could control it better
Della i guess you must be one of the lucky ones who can control when they cry and dont cry when they get seriously angry and p!ssed off. I have cried twice at work when i was enraged and it was caused by a stockbroker i work for being in a bad mood and spending an afternoon screaming at me and telling me how useless i was because I couldn’t access a system to get a report for him and had to ask another department to do it. oh and he knew i was LEGALLY NOT ALLOWED to access the system but chose to take his bad out on me all of Friday afternoon plus emails over the weekend and Monday morning
I’ve seen every episode of Castle – loved the show in the first few seasons but it’s taken a huge nosedive recently. This LokSat public separation storyline has been completely stupid. I like both actors but I get the sense that Nathan Fillion doesn’t like sharing the spotlight. Stana Katic is stunning and intriguing and probably took some attention away from him. Nathan seems like a really likeable guy who’s polite on and off set but I’ve seen some diva like behavior from him in interviews. He seems like he would be exhausting to be around. Really sad that things had to end this way. I can’t imagine the show without her! It’ll be the Richard Castle Investigations show where he solves mysteries with Alexis (whatever happened to college?!) and his mother and Hayley featuring drop ins by his cop buddies Ryan and Espo. Ugh.
Yup LokSat killed any love I have for the season. This current season has been boring. Now that I know Beckett isn’t returning, I lost any interest altogether. I’m not watching the episode where they LokSat kills her off. Sorry wrong move. This show should be canceled.
I have never read about Fillion having problems on his ensemble shows (Firefly), but it IS Castle and he IS an actor. They tend to naturally love being the center of attention. And I agree with Della367: regularly crying at work = not cool. If she had been smart, she would have taken all the momentum and pushed for her own spin-off.
Why does it have to be “Team” someone? Sometimes people just don’t get along.
Though I disagree that they had equal billing. Not only is the show called Castle, but Fillion has always been the draw. It’s always been his show. Though I do think that Beckett is an important part and it’ll ruin the show to get rid of her.
A show he cant keep because every episode centered in him had low ratings..
I watched the first season and thought it was cute. I LOVE NATHAN FILLION and assumed this would be a show about a writer who would maybe every season be involved in a different situation (certainly seemed to be set up that way); season 1: works with police, season 2: works at NASA with NDT, season 3: war corespondent, etc etc.
When I realized this was the set format, I lost interest super fast.
“Writer works with police” premise doesn’t stand up to many many seasons.