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Great casting mysteries
Bruce Willis was made for Die Hard, right? And Harrison Ford was perfect as Indiana Jones? But those actors weren’t the film-makers’ first choice
Amid all the legendary mishaps that occurred during the filming of Apocalypse Now, the firing of lead actor Harvey Keitel seems to be a minor one. The shoot was supposed to take six weeks but ended up lasting 16 months because of numerous complications, including a typhoon that wrecked much of the set and Keitel’s replacement Martin Sheen suffering a heart attack midway through production.
These are well-documented problems, but what is less well known is that Keitel was not the first or even second choice to play Willard. Coppola offered the part first to Steve McQueen, who did not want to leave the country at that time, then to Al Pacino. Pacino could not stand 17 weeks of filming in the jungle, as he had been extremely ill in the Dominican Republic while filming Godfather II, so Coppola offered Willard’s role to James Caan and then to Jack Nicholson, who both declined. He finally gave it to Harvey Keitel, only to fire him six weeks into production. Sheen eventually picked up the baton.
Lord of the Rings
Aragorn, played by Viggo Mortensen, is the backbone of Peter Jackson’s Rings trilogy, but it could have been so different. Irish actor Stuart Townsend, who has “starred” in a number of stinkers, was originally cast as ranger Aragorn and even spent a couple of months in pre-production in New Zealand, but was fired before filming started. Jackson claims Townsend was too young. At the time Townsend told the Irish Times: “I’m glad because it left me free to do another big studio movie, Queen of the Damned, which was wonderful to do.”
Back to the Future
Eric Stoltz, the ginger-haired Pulp Fiction and Butterfly Effect actor, was originally cast as Marty McFly. He even filmed two weeks’ worth of footage before he was replaced by Michael J Fox. According to producer Bob Gale, “Eric Stoltz was just the wrong guy for that part.” It is said that Gale and director Zemeckis fired him because he didn’t act enough like a teenager. However, Stoltz can still be seen when the Libyans shoot at Marty and he dives into the DeLorean — the person actually leaping into the car is Stoltz.
Star Wars
There are so many rumours about who was originally offered which role in Star Wars that fact has merged with fiction. The claim that Sissy Spacek was due to play Princess Leia is false, while the most humorous myth is that Burt Reynolds was offered the part of Hans Solo (sans toupee?), which is also incorrect. It was Christopher Walken who was in the running to play the sarcastic Millennium Falcon pilot, with the role eventually going to Harrison Ford.
Shrek
Mike Myers was not the first choice to voice the character of Shrek. Oversized Chris Farley got the part, but he died while the voicing of the movie was still in progress.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
As well as having some fantastic successes, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have dropped the ball a number of times during their distinguished movie careers. If it hadn’t been for the simple matter of an existing contract, Lucas and Spielberg may well have committed the daddy of all errors by casting Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. But Selleck was committed to filming Magnum P.I. and Hans Solo got the role. Viewers were thus spared the sight of Indiana Jones being upstaged by his own moustache.
Speed
Halle Berry turned down the role of Annie and Stephen Baldwin turned down the role of Jack in 1994’s Speed. The blockbuster shot Sandra Bullock into the big-time and also revived Keanu Reeves’s box-office appeal. Berry, now an Oscar-winner and Bond femme fatale, can probably look back without regret. Not so Baldwin, who once appeared in classics such as The Usual Suspects, but who is now reduced to straight-to-video corkers like Firefight and Shelter Island.
The Terminator
Lance Henriksen, the android who gets disembowelled in Aliens, was originally cast as the Terminator, with Arnie as the hero. Arnold read the script, and asked to play the Terminator instead. Henriksen was recast as the cop Vukovich.
Die Hard
Hero cop John McClane, played so perfectly by Bruce Willis, was nearly portrayed by Richard Gere. While Gere is undoubtedly a babe-magnet, at the time he was a couple of hits shy of credibility and it is difficult to imagine him in a dirty white vest, screaming “Yippie kay-ay” and blowing away bad guys. Willis was the right man.
Beverly Hills Cop
Wayward cop Axel Foley was originally going to be played by Sylvester Stallone or Mickey Rourke. Thankfully, Rourke passed and Stallone jumped ship — taking some of his script ideas with him, which he later used in the disappointing Cobra. Eddie Murphy stepped into the breach and the world was saved the sight of Stallone trying to deliver rapid-fire dialogue through his lop-sided mouth. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service
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