- Will Smith, Six Degrees of Separation, 1993. The outsider in the 50th Cannes Festival “family portrait” (he snuck in with wife Angela Bassett) won ecstastic reviews in the Lincoln Center stage production but was too old for the movie about a college-age hustler passing himself off as Sidney Poitier’s son. Australian director Fred Schepisi settled on the TV star Smith, 25, who signed before refusing one key scene contrary to Denzel Washinghton’s advice: “Don’t be kissing no man.”
- Samuel L Jackson, Sydney, 1996. Part of director Paul Thomas Anderson’s s test scenes for (then) Hard Eight, shot the Sundance Institute Filmmaker Lab in 1993. Most of these scenes are in the DVD release.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 2