1.
Director John Carpenter was unsure about casting Kurt Russell as R.J. MacReady in The Thing and only decided on him the day they flew out to film the movie. There’s actually a scene where MacReady flies a helicopter that’s not even Russell — it’s a pilot in the character’s costume because they didn’t have Russell on hand yet.
2.
Dianna Agron was cast the day before the pilot for Glee began shooting. Producers were actually about to cut her character as they hadn’t found someone for the role — and her casting ended up vastly changing how they envisioned the character. Series creator Ryan Murphy said Agron “ruined the part” for him because she “humanized” Quinn. “She can cry at the drop of a hat. So now her character has a conscience, a soul, and great vulnerability.”
3.
Viggo Mortensen was cast after production began for Lord of the Rings. He replaced Stuart Townsend, who was deemed too young for the role and fired the day before filming began. “I felt unprepared,” Mortensen revealed. “The other actors had been there for weeks and months, in some cases, preparing for the arduous task of shooting the whole trilogy. I also felt awkward because I’d never been in a position of replacing another actor.”
4.
Stuart Townsend was also replaced in Thor just days before the start of filming. Josh Dallas was cast in the role instead after “creative differences” (though there were rumors Townsend had been late for a screen test and was fired), and he only had a few days before he had to film.
5.
Stanley Tucci similarly replaced another actor days before production began. After Ryan Gosling was cast in The Lovely Bones, he started drinking melted ice cream and gained 60 pounds because he “really believed he should be 210 pounds.” However, he didn’t communicate this with director Peter Jackson, who “had a different idea of how the character should look.” When Gosling showed up on set to film, Jackson fired him. Tucci was cast in the role instead.
6.
Speaking of Tucci, he accepted his role in The Devil Wears Prada only 72 hours before the start of shooting. “I was cast at the 11th hour,” Tucci told Entertainment Weekly. “But it was just such a beautiful piece of writing, and there’s no way that you could ever say no to such a thing. … It touched you emotionally. It’s the perfect Hollywood movie.”
7.
Over 40 women auditioned to play Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Louise Fletcher eventually nabbed the part — days before filming began. “It’s a miracle I survived the first day. I was so scared. It was only later that I realized that everybody was scared,” she said. Fletcher earned an Oscar for her portrayal.
8.
Michael Garza was cast as Ramón Morales in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark only “a couple of days before filming” because writer/producer Guillermo del Toro and director Andre Ovredal couldn’t find someone they wanted for the role. “It was a last-minute audition, and I got it. It was crazy, a whirlwind of emotions,” Garza revealed.
9.
A week before Prison Break began shooting, it didn’t have either of its leads. Wentworth Miller was cast only a week before shooting.
11.
Similarly, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, who played two of the leading roles in Jaws, were cast only nine days before shooting began.
12.
Michael J. Fox was cast in Back to the Future five weeks after it started filming. Eric Stoltz had initially been cast in the role and even filmed for multiple weeks before director Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale decided he didn’t have the right comedic tone for Marty. They decided to replace him with Fox, their first choice for the role. However, they couldn’t do this right away (Fox was still busy shooting Family Ties) and continued to film with Stoltz for days knowing they wouldn’t use the footage.
13.
Sam Waterston was cast in Godless at the last minute because the actor who was supposed to play Marshal John Cook got sick. He only had four days to prepare for the role.
14.
Chris Sheffield was cast in The Maze Runner so late that the director Wes Ball and the producers for the film were already in Louisiana preparing the production. A few days later, Sheffield was heading to Louisiana, too, to shoot.
15.
David Hayman was cast days before Bull started shooting because the original actor had dropped out. “I had no time to think about it,” Hayman revealed. “I love Paul Andrew Williams’s work. His movies and work are challenging. I love the cast. So it was a no-brainer for me to do it.”
16.
Patrick Renna was the last actor cast in The Sandlot after another actor dropped out only two days before production started on location. Director David Mickey Evans called meeting Renna a “godsend” as he was perfect for the role.
17.
Michael Biehn was cast in Aliens weeks into filming, as James Remar had recently been fired after getting arrested for drug possession. According to Biehn, Aliens producer Gale Anne Hurd called him on a Friday and asked if he had a current passport — which, luckily, he did. By Monday, he was on set.
18.
Ed Harris was cast to play Christof in The Truman Show when principal photography was almost done, and shot for only 10 days. He replaced Dennis Hopper, who left the cast due to “creative differences.”
19.
In a pretty unprecedented move, Christopher Plummer was cast in All the Money in the World AFTER the film had been entirely shot. Replacing Kevin Spacey in the wake of his sexual assault allegations, Plummer reshot all of Spacey’s scenes in just nine days. He was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the film.
20.
Similarly, Tobey Maguire had already filmed all of his scenes for Life of Pi when the director decided to replace him because he was too famous, making his presence distracting. Rafe Spall was quickly cast in Maguire’s role, putting him in the rare position of being cast AFTER a movie was technically “complete,” though, of course, he had to reshoot all of Maguire’s scenes.
21.
Ben Whishaw was cast as the voice of the titular teddy bear in Paddington after the film was shot. Colin Firth had initially taken on the role but came to a mutual agreement with producers that his voice sounded too mature. “That was a bit scary because it was late in the process. We’d shot the film, but it was the right call,” recalled producer David Heyman. Firth’s exit was in June, and the film was set to come out in November. Luckily, since Whishaw was just providing a voice, they could still finish the movie for its November release.
22.
The same happened with Scarlett Johansson in Her. Samantha Morton had originally been cast and worked on set throughout filming. While editing during post-production, director Spike Jonze “realized that what the character/movie needed was different from what Samantha and I had created together.” They recast Johansson in the role in the 11th hour, re-recording the character’s dialogue.
23.
And finally, Hugh Jackman wasn’t cast in one of his most iconic roles until after production began. Dougray Scott was originally meant to play Wolverine in the first X-Men film, but issues relating to Scott’s role in Mission Impossible II forced him to drop out just as they were about to start shooting. Jackman — who had first auditioned for the role nine months earlier — took on the role at the 11th hour and was unprepared. In fact, Jackman said that they had to push back the first scene he was meant to shoot, which was a shirtless scene, because he needed time to bulk up.
What do you think? Were these actors the right choice? How did they do considering they had no prep time? Let us know in the comments!