- Billy Crudup, The Hi-Lo Country, 1998. Not often UK director Stephen Frears makes such a mistake. lt left Jim thinking: “I could be one of many casualties in this.”
- James Marsden, X-Men quartet, 1999-2013. “Mutation: it is the key to our evolution.” Producer James Cameron and his then wife, director Kathryn Bigelow, chose Michael Biehn for Scott Summers/Cyclops in the early 90s – and never made the film! James Caviezel won this version before prefering to be Dennis Quaid’s son in Frequency. (Nobody’s perfect). To be free for Cyclops, Marsden shut the door on Soul Survivors and slipped the key to Casey Affleck – after director Bryan Singer looked at pals Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Ethan Hawke, Thomas Jane (who became Marvel’s The Punisher, in 2003, and opposite Rebecca Romijn, X-Men’s Mystique), Edward Norton (already turned down as Logan/Wolverine), DB Sweeney (he cameoed as a Statue of Liberty guard), Luke Wilson… and Edward Burns, except the last thing a young and opinionated director like Singer wanted on his set was another young and opinionated director.
- Ben Affleck, Pearl Harbor, 2001. Maybe he would have survived better – after it – than Ben did.
- Brandon Routh, Superman Returns, 2005.
- David Boreanaz, SEAL Team, TV, 2017-2018. Creative differences entered the plot as Caviezel quit his second CBS series, allowing Boreanaz continued his non-stop 1997-2017 output From Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angelto 12 seasons of Bonesand now SEAL hero Jason Hayes.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 5