Love him or hate him, there's no denying Quentin Tarantino is one of the most influential directors
of all time — so it goes without saying that many actors would love to be in one of
his movies.
These, however, are the stars who passed up that golden opportunity.
Michael Madsen and Tarantino first met when the actor auditioned for the role of Mr. Pink
in Reservoir Dogs.
According to Madsen, after doing his best to land the gig, Tarantino responded:
"You're not Mr. Pink.
You're Mr. Blonde — and if you're not Mr. Blonde, then you're not in the movie."
Madsen made the wise decision and forever scarred moviegoers with his straight razor
and can of gasoline.
And he evidently impressed Tarantino, since the auteur wanted Madsen to play Pulp Fiction's
dancing hitman Vincent Vega.
“You know what they call a Quarter Pounder in Paris?"
"What do they call it?"
"They call it 'a royale with cheese.'"
Unfortunately for Madsen, he'd already signed on to play Virgil Earp in Wyatt Earp, a western
starring Kevin Costner as the titular lawman.
According to The Daily Beast, it took a long time for Tarantino to forgive Madsen for turning
down Vincent Vega.
Madsen probably regretted his choice as well, since Pulp Fiction is widely hailed as one
of the greatest movies all time.
Of course, it was probably for the best.
After all, in hindsight, it's hard to imagine anyone other than John Travolta playing the
smarmy hitman — plus, if we'd seen Michael Madsen dancing again, we probably would've
suffered from some pretty traumatizing flashbacks.
Warren Beatty is one of the most iconic members of the Tinseltown elite, and as one of the
biggest actors of the '60s and '70s, he's appeared in some truly memorable films.
For example, there's Bonnie and Clyde, Reds, and McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
But for all the great movies he's worked on, Beatty has turned down a shocking number of
classics.
As you might've guessed, Beatty also said no to Quentin Tarantino.
So what role did Tarantino offer Beatty?
Well, the director wanted him to play the titular antagonist in Kill Bill.
In fact, he'd written the part with Beatty in mind.
Only instead of creating the character as a kung fu killer, he'd written a villain who
was a bit more suave and sophisticated whom, according to Tarantino, was, quote, "much
more of a James Bond type of character."
Tragically for Tarantino, Beatty wasn't interested in shooting scenes in China, preferring to
stay in the United States with his kids.
However, Beatty does take credit for the casting of David Carradine, claiming he suggested
Tarantino pick the martial arts actor.
If so, it was a genius recommendation, and Tarantino rewrote the script so the character
would be a better fit.
"You're not a bad person.
You're a terrific person.
You're my favorite person.”
People often forget that Sylvester Stallone is a great actor.
While the Razzies are happy to hurl "awards" his way, Stallone has more than proved his
acting chops in movies like Rocky, First Blood, Cop Land, and Creed.
Has he made missteps along the way?
More than a few.
But he's also the guy who reminded Roger Ebert of a "young Marlon Brando."
In other words, the man has genuine talent and a spotty track record… which is the
perfect type of actor to star in a Tarantino movie.
But life is cruel, and we've never gotten the Stallone-Tarantino pairing we deserve.
Of course, we shouldn't blame the director for this travesty.
In an interview with the Canadian magazine MacLeans’, Stallone revealed he was offered
not one but two roles in separate Tarantino films.
According to Sly, the director first asked if he wanted to play the part of Louis, the
quiet-yet-psychopathic thug in Jackie Brown.
Stallone turned him down for undisclosed reasons, and the part of Gara ended up in Robert De
Niro's more-than-capable hands.
Undaunted, Tarantino later offered Stallone the Death Proof part of stuntman Mike McKay,
a serial killer who dispatches of young women with a specialized stunt car.
When Stallone learned about those gory details, he told Tarantino he wasn't interested.
He explained to MacLean's:
"I have two daughters, and this fellow, his hobby is putting teenagers in his car and
smashing them into a wall.
That's not going to work."
Instead, the part went to Kurt Russell, who — after coming off movies like Miracle,
Sky High, and Dreamer — was probably overjoyed to wreak a little mayhem.
‘"This car is 100% death proof.
Only, to get the benefit of it, honey, you really need to be sitting in my seat."
Imagine, if you will, a world where Leonardo DiCaprio played Col. Hans Landa.
You can't, can you?
It's practically impossible to see anyone other than Christoph Waltz portraying the
bingo-loving monster.
But according to MTV, Tarantino originally considered giving DiCaprio the part before
choosing to go with someone who could speak German.
Tarantino also thought about giving the role of Bridget von Hammersmark to Nastassja Kinski,
and he considered both Simon Pegg and Tim Roth as possibilities for the part of Lt.
Archie Hicox.
However, for one reason or another, those actors all fell by the wayside, and the roles
went to Diane Kruger and Michael Fassbender, respectively.
But here's the weirdest casting tidbit of all.
Once upon a time, Tarantino wanted Adam Sandler for the role of Sgt.
Donny Donowitz.
At first glance, the idea seems ridiculous, but despite movies like Jack and Jill, Sandler
really is a skilled actor who can do good work if he puts his mind to it.
And if you've seen Punch-Drunk Love, you know he can certainly smash a restroom.
Hoping Sandler would trade his tire iron for a baseball bat, Tarantino made the character
a Bostonian because, as he explained to Howard Stern, Sandler does a great Boston accent.
But alas, Sandler dashed Tarantino's dreams when he signed on to do Funny People.
Instead, the part went to Eli Roth, who did a bang up job.
If Adam Sandler can't beat up Bob Barker, then he probably isn't ready for the Third
Reich just yet.
"I think you've had enough."
"No, now you've had enough."
You've probably heard that Will Smith opted to stay on the sidelines when the Wachowskis
offered him the part of Neo in the Matrix movies.
But you might not have known that, when Tarantino came calling, he couldn't convince the actor
to say yes, either.
Tarantino wanted Smith to play the part of Django in his spaghetti western Django Unchained.
According to a 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Smith, quote, "wanted to make that
movie so badly," but he turned it down because, in his opinion:
"it had to be a love story, not a vengeance story.
… Violence begets violence.
I just couldn't connect to violence being the answer.
Love had to be the answer."
That certainly sounds nice, and perhaps Tarantino's penchant for bloodshed really did affect Smith's
decision.
But if you go back to 2013, you'll see Smith gave a very different excuse for why he passed
on Django Unchained.
According to an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he turned the role down because it
wasn't big enough.
He felt Christoph Waltz's Dr. King Schultz was actually the main character, especially
since it's Schultz who shoots the film's big bad guy.
This didn't sit well with Smith, who tried to convince Tarantino to change things up.
As Smith put it, quote, "I was like, 'No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy.'"
Sounds a little different than "Violence begets violence," eh?
“I like the way you die, boy."
Will Smith wasn't the only major star to turn down Django Unchained.
It seems like every actor in Hollywood was offered a part, only to pass at the last second.
For example, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was originally going to play "a small supporting role" but
left to work on his directorial debut, Don Jon.
Similarly, RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan was meant to play a small part but had to leave to edit
his martial arts movie, The Man with the Iron Fists.
According to IndieWire, so many actors were forced to jump ship because filming on Django
Unchained went massively over schedule.
In fact, the movie took so long to make that Tarantino was forced to scrap an entire character.
Originally, the film was supposed to feature a young man named Scotty Harmony, a gambler
who takes possession of Broomhilda, Django's wife, only to lose her to the villainous Calvin
Candie in a card game.
The role was originally meant to be played by Jonah Hill, but just like RZA and Gordon-Levitt,
he was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts — only to return in a minor role
for one of the funniest scenes in Tarantino's whole filmography.
"Anybody bring any extra bags?"
"No, nobody brought an extra bag."
"I'm just asking."
Ultimately, Tarantino decided to go with Sacha Baron Cohen as Harmony, which obviously meant
the character needed a bit of a rewrite.
Originally, Harmony was supposed to be, quote, "sexually inexperienced" and naive, and Baron
Cohen doesn't exactly fit that bill.
But scheduling conflicts struck yet again when the actor had to leave to promote his
upcoming film, The Dictator.
Forced with setback after setback, Tarantino cut Harmony out of the film completely…
and unfortunately, that wasn't the only character who didn't make the final draft.
In the original screenplay for Django Unchained, Ace Woody worked directly under Calvin Candie
as the guy who taught slaves how to fight to the death.
If Woody had made it to the silver screen, there's no doubt we would've witnessed some
brutal acts of violence, as the screenplay has him torture Django.
But just like Scotty Harmony, the part of Ace Woody wasn't meant to be — all because
Tarantino couldn't keep an actor around long enough to play the part.
At first, Woody was supposed to be played by Kevin Costner.
While he's been in a handful of westerns — Dances with Wolves, Silverado, Open Range — it's
not all that often Costner plays a villain.
Too bad he never got a chance to go toe-to-toe with Jamie Foxx because scheduling got in
the way again, possibly due to projects like Hatfields & McCoys.
As a result, the part of Woody was given to Kurt Russell, but the star evidently got sick
of how long it was taking for Tarantino to get anything done.
Allegedly, Russell left the project in frustration.
Once again, Tarantino was forced to erase one of his characters, but since he had a
lot of good dialogue lying around, he decided to give those extra lines to Billy Crash,
the villain played by Walton Goggins.
And while Costner and Russell would've been great as Ace Woody, we really can't complain.
The more Goggins, the better.
While Viggo Mortensen has committed his fair share of onscreen bloodshed, be it against
orcs in Lord of the Rings or mobsters in Eastern Promises, somehow the actor and Tarantino
have never gotten together — though it's not for lack of trying.
In an interview with Grantland, Mortensen revealed he actually auditioned for two parts
in Reservoir Dogs, and while he doesn't remember which roles he tried out for, he did try to
play one as Hispanic.
Tarantino decided to pass on the actor, but a few years later, the situation was reversed.
This time, the director was interested in having Mortensen play, quote, "a ruthless
gang leader" in The Hateful Eight.
As there's only one gang leader in the film, it's safe to assume Tarantino wanted Mortensen
to play the ruthless Jody Domergue.
Unfortunately, Mortensen had to skip on the French lessons as he was busy promoting two
smaller films he'd recently made: Jauja and Far from Men.
Mortensen told Grantland:
"I knew as a producer and an actor that I needed to do that for those movies to have
a chance to be seen.
[Tarantino] wanted to start shooting at the end of the year and do rehearsal before that,
and I just couldn't do that schedule-wise."
The role eventually went to Channing Tatum, and the actor pulled it off with psychotic
charm to spare.
“If you… was a cat, what just happened here would count as one of your nine lives."
When writing the screenplay for The Hateful Eight, Tarantino had an actor in mind for
every single character except two.
He wasn't sure who would play Bob, though the role went to Demian Bichir — and he
didn't know who was going to play the female lead, Daisy Domergue.
While pondering his predicament, Tarantino considered Jennifer Lawrence for the part,
and he even met with the actress to discuss the possibility of her squaring off against
Samuel L. Jackson.
However, as Tarantino explained, Lawrence was working on Joy and promoting The Hunger
Games: Mockingjay — Part 2.
In other words, she was swamped and couldn't spare any time.
While he was probably disappointed at first, Tarantino eventually decided Lawrence probably
wasn't right for the part.
He told Entertainment Weekly:
"I'm glad I didn't cast somebody that young.
I think I absolutely positively made the right choice, as far as the ages of the characters."
Instead, the director went with an older actress, 53-year-old Jennifer Jason Leigh, who earned
an Oscar nod for her sinister performance as the calculating outlaw.
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