sometimes an actor becomes so
intrinsically associated with a movie
character that it's very difficult to
imagine anyone else occupying that
screen space in the case of these
castings the actors were so right for
their roles that it seems completely
wrong that they weren't the first ones
of film makers had in mind
here are some actors who almost didn't
get there very memorable paths Gene
Wilder
while it's best remembered for his
iconic performance as Willy Wonka Gene
Wilder also collaborated with director
Mel Brooks on a series of classic
comedies such as the producers younger
Frankenstein and the most famously
Blazing Saddles this 1974 satire was a
savage takedown of both the western
genre and race relations at America and
it featured Wilder as the Waco kid
a drunken gunfighter who decides to help
sheriff bar to face down racist town
folk and an evil gang of cowboys bikers
and Nazi soldiers but while Wilder now
seems like such an obvious guy to play
the part
Brooks originally wanted an older actor
someone who could look like an
over-the-hill alcoholic he considered
going after Dan Dailey an actor best
known for starring into old-timey
musicals and thought about casting
talk-show host Johnny Carson
Brooks even asked John Wayne to read the
script and of all the jook thought it
was hysterical he said he couldn't play
in a movie that had such low-down dirty
talk even though he did promise to be
the first one in line to see it our that
he'll eventually Brooks hired gig young
but he had to drop out ironically
because of his problems with alcohol
desperate Brooks finally decided to cast
wilder who'd been asking to play the
part for a while
and the rest a cinematic history Edie
Harris in 1998 Jim Carrey gave one of
his best performances to date in The
Truman Show but he wasn't the only one
bringing his a-game to Peter Weir's
brilliant take on TV celebrity and
religion
ed Harris also created a memorable role
in Christoph the all-powerful director
who sits in his moon base and controls
every detail of Truman's life but while
Harris was perfect in the role he
actually didn't get the part until two
months after shooting started and that's
because Christoph was actually meant to
be played by a different Hollywood
legend best known for his performances
and movies like Easy Rider Apocalypse
Now blue
and Hoosiers Dennis Hopper was a man
originally cast as Kristoff but he
didn't last very long
speaking with writer Alex Godfrey Papa
said he was on the set for like two days
and got fired Scott Rudin the producer
had made an agreement with the director
Peter Weir
that if he didn't like what I did after
the first day's dailies then he would
fire me and they fired me although it
was an insult to hopper it also puts at
Harrison a tough spot as he started
shooting just days after signing on to
the project
Harris later revealed I didn't have much
time to prepare but it worked out
alright in fact it was almost a blessing
in disguise because I was forced to
trust my instincts good afternoon good
evening and good night
Clint Eastwood directed by Sergio Leone
a fistful of dollars as the movie that
kick-started Clint Eastwood's Korea as
whispering and no-nonsense
squinty-eyed action hero that we've all
come to know but back in the early 60s
Eastwood was just a lowly TV actor and
nowhere close to the top of the list
when it came to Casting choices in fact
Leone offered the role of the mum with
no name to pretty much every actor in
Hollywood before giving the job to
Eastwood
he went after guys you've probably never
heard of like Rory cow horn Henry silver
and Eric Fleming he also tried to lure
in bigger names like Henry Fonda Charles
Bronson and James Coburn but they always
shut down his proposal mainly over money
Leone could only pay fifteen thousand
dollars which wasn't much for an
established star fortunately the Italian
directors for an episode of the TV show
rawhide which featured a young Eastwood
as rowdy Yates a naive immature cowboy
who's a whole lot friendlier than the
man with no name despite the differences
Leone thought Eastwood was quote good at
getting on a horse soon enough Eastwood
was one of the biggest movie stars in
history
all thanks to a corny TV show and a
bunch of overpaid actors Casey Affleck
in the critically acclaimed film
Manchester by the sea Casey Affleck
plays Leigh Chandler a man struggling
with grief and guilt in the aftermath of
a terrible tragedy and he totally owns
the parts in fact he won an Academy
Award for his work at the role in 2017
but it was actually longtime Affleck
family friend Matt Damon who was
initially supposed to star in the role
the film's Plus was originally dreamed
up by Damon and John Krasinski of The
Office and they asked filmmaker Kenneth
Leung again to write the script
Damon intended to direct and star but it
took loan again three years to write the
first draft when he was done
Damon didn't have the time to direct he
still wanted to play the main character
but when other projects got in the way
he passed the role of Lee to Affleck he
passes on all the good one Damon told
The Hollywood Reporter this is one of
the best roles I've ever seen for a
leading actor I didn't want to hand it
off to somebody unless that was somebody
I grew up with and two it made me happy
I gave it up all that work and all he
got was one lousy shout-out Thank You
Oscar to Matt Damon for creating this
opportunity Jodie Foster and Kristen
Stewart some wisdom between Fight Club
and Zodiac panic room is a film that's
often forgotten when discussing David
Fincher films and really that's too bad
as a 2002 film is a solid thriller
featuring strong performances from its
two female leads Jodie Foster and
Kristen Stewart the two play a mom and
daughter taking shelter inside well a
panic room after a trio of thieves break
into their home but while both actresses
do a great job neither were the original
picks for this gritty suspense film
Fincher has revealed that the first
actress chosen for the part of the
daughter Sarah was quote very feminine
and girlish and all those things and
just irritated him beyond belief
Fincher hasn't mentioned the actress by
name but hayden Panettiere was
reportedly booked to play Sarah but
dropped out shortly before filming
started Fincher then went with Stewart
after seeing both an audition tape and
the commercial featuring the young girl
saying he liked her Tom boyish
androgynous quality as for the role of
Meg the mom the part originally went to
Nicole Kidman and she was actually
working on the movie for about two weeks
before injuring her knee evidently the
pain was so bad that she was forced to
pull out of panic room fortunately for
Fincher Jodie Foster saved the day
taking the lead role in getting
production moving again interestingly
casting foster changed the director's
entire vision for the film talking to
the Guardian Fincher explains that
Kidman was all about glamour and
physicality like Grace Kelly in a
Hitchcock film while with Foster
it's more about what happens in her eyes
it's more political Vin Diesel the Fast
and the Furious franchise is full of
memorable characters that Dominic
Toretto is the centerpiece of the series
this street-racing criminal who puts
family above all else
appeared in every entry in the series
except one and he's basically the
chassis of the whole fast and furious
universe nowadays it's virtually
impossible to think of anyone else
besides Vin Diesel playing the part of
dumb because he is the face of the
franchise but as you've probably guessed
by now diesel wasn't number one on the
list of actors to try out for Toretto
producer Neill hate Moretz has since
revealed that while actor Paul Walker
was Brian from the get-go studio
executives were keen to cast Timothy
Olyphant as dumb however for unknown
reasons he passed on the part seeing
Oliphant as Dharma would have been
interesting but picking diesel was
obviously the right choice the first
Fast and Furious earned 207 million
dollars on a 38 million dollar budget
and the series has become one of the top
10 highest grossing franchises of all
time largely thanks to diesel star power
the street always won so yeah it looks
like the studio executives at Universal
eventually chose the right man for the
job Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling sure
la-la-land that didn't actually win the
Oscar for Best Picture but it did win
the hearts of audiences around the world
largely thanks for the winning duo of
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling but if
things have played out a little bit
differently an entirely different Emma
would have been dancing across the
silver screen the same goes for Gosling
who got the call to play jazz pianist
Sebastian when writer director Damien
Chazelle decided to change his original
acting lineup originally lala land would
have starred Emma Watson and miles
teller back in early 2015
Damien Chazelle said the only thing he
knew for sure about lala land was that
it would be a musical and that teller
would play the male lead the two had
previously worked together on his
critically acclaimed film whiplash so
the reunion made sense but a whole lot
can happen when you're working on a
movie especially one you started writing
back in 2010 along the way la-la-land
began to evolve and shizzle eventually
decided that teller wasn't right for the
part at all unfortunately the young
actor didn't take the news very well
texting the director what the bro Emma
Watson reportedly handled things a lot
better and she was okay with passing on
the part of Mia after all she was
already committed to Disney's
live-action reboot of Beauty and the
Beast and she explained to Entertainment
Weekly I knew I had horse training my
never had dancing I knew I had three
months of singing ahead of me and I knew
I had to be in London too
do that so scheduling conflict why's
that just didn't work out
of course Watson's Beauty and the Beast
went on to break the billion-dollar
barrier becoming one of the
highest-grossing films ever made and
stone would win an Oscar for a la la
land performance as Mia so yeah it looks
like things worked out pretty well for
both of the Emma's as for teller well
he's probably still nursing a case of
whiplash over the directors distant
dismissal James McAvoy
when M night Shyamalan splits hit
theaters in 2017 audiences were
terrified by James McAvoy's performance
as Kevin and Patricia and Hedwig and
Dennis playing a man with 23
personalities and the 24th on the way
McAvoy stole the show every time he
morphed into a new persona but as it
turns out Joaquin Phoenix would work
with the director on signs was actually
Shyamalan first choice to play Kevin and
each of his individual identities
however a Phoenix ended up being tied to
another movie and had to drop out making
things even more complicated
Shyamalan the second choice McAvoy was
also committed to another film
fortunately for everyone involved with
split the Scottish actors scheduled soon
cleared up and he was able to sign on
but stepping into the film so suddenly
posed a bit of a challenge for McAvoy
since he had to play nine different
characters as a result of the casting
confusion he only had about a quarter of
the time that he usually took to prepare
for just one character let alone nine
still McAvoy was able to pull the roles
off perfectly scaring audiences and
critics alike thanks for watching click
the loop icon to subscribe to our
youtube channel plus check out all this
cool stuff we know your love to
[Music]