- Kevin Costner, Bull Durham, 1987. Ron Shelton had one helluva job trying to win backing for his directing debut. “Baseball? Get outa here. Ball movies don’t sell.” But his producer Thom Mount was part-owner of the real Durham Bulls squad and recognised what Roger Ebert would call “a sports movie that knows what it is talking about. – because it knows so much about baseball and so little about love.”. For the team’s new, naive young (super) pitcher, Nuke LaLoosh (oh yeah!), Shelton juggled the suits’ choice of Anthony Michael Hall with his favourites: Robins, Davjd Duchovny and Charlie Sheen. Robbins won the role – and the gal,. Susan Sarandon. They lived together for 21 years. (Sheen won three other ball movies: Eight Men Out, Major League I and II).
- James Spader, sex, lies and videotape, 1989. Auditioned for unknown director Steven Soderbergh as Graham – Spader’s most perfect screen role.
- Colin Firth, Valmont, 1988. Around the time he was stuck in such bits as as Tess’ Birthday Party Friend and Club Goer With Glasses, DD was in the titular mix for Milos Forman’s version of the French classic, Les Liaisons Dangereuses… which Stephen Frears was also shooting in various French chateaux in that summer of’ ‘88 (I know because I was working on his set for weeks). Frears’ Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons was the rather better John Malkovich, even though Frears complained he walked like a cowboy, not an aristocrat. Duchovny was quite the 20th Century Valmont in his 2007-2014 series, Californication.
- Steven Weber, Wings, TV, 1990-1997. Hank Azaria, Fisher Stevens and future hot TV stars George Clooney (ER, 1994-2009), David Duchovny (The X-Files,1993-2018) and Gregg Germann (Ally McBeal, 1997-2002) auditioned for Brian Michael Hackett, one of two brothers running a private airline out of Nantucket, surrounded by much wackiness – so-called. (The series creator, David Angell, and his wife were killed on 9/11 when their plane, American Airlines flight #11, was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center).
- Woody Harrelson, White Men Can’t Jump, 1992. The Twin Peaks find – not yet the TV superstar! – was among the first group of actors to be tested at the baskets. The following year Duchovny was extremely hesitant about making the role that made his fame: Fox Mulder in The X Files, 1993-2000. “This is this is about extraterrestrials. How long can it go? It’s a good pilot but you’re either going to see the aliens or [not].” His agents talked him around. “You talk about actors being dumb…well, that was me.
- George Clooney, Batman & Robin, 1996.
- Wayne Knight, My Favourite Martian, 1998. Duchonvy and Marlon Wayans were in director Donald Petrie’s mixer for the voice of Zoot – the, er, talking space suit of the visiting Martian (you had to be there). (Or better still, not). The winner was Seinfeld’s postman Newman!!
- Keanu Reeves, The Matrix, 1998. By a sheer fluke, when casting their icons-to-be, the neo-noir Neo and Trinity, the Wachowski siblings (then brothers Larry and Andy, now sisters Lana and Lilly), saw the couple who became TV icons of the 90s as Mulder and Scully in The X-Files – Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. (Also seen: Nicolas Cage, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Val Kilmer, Ewan McGregor, Lou Diamond Phillips, Brad Pitt – and the surprisingly honest Will Smith . “I would have messed it up!”
- Matthew Modine, Any Given Sunday, 1999. And so another sports flick offer bit the dust, this one from director Oliver Stone.
- Mark Hamill, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, 2001. X-Files got in the way of an “hysterical:” cameo as Cock-Knocker in the comedy by his New Jersey auteur pal, Kevin Smith.
- Eric Bana, Hulk, 2003. From Fox Mulder to Bruce Banner? I don’t think so. Director Ang Lee first played the Hulk, himself, using the performance-capture process. During the mid-1990s, Johnny Depp was first choice for the green guy. Next candidates included Steve Buscemi, Tom Cruise, David Duchovny and even Jeff Goldblum at age 50… But due to Chopper, the Australian Bana became Bruce Banner. So did Norton in the 2007 version. A genuine Hulk fan, he hated this script and fled, coming back to re-write most of the 2007 script – probably why he was replaced by Mark Ruffalo for Disney’s first summit meeting of the Marvel superheroes, The Avengers, 2011. And six more chapters. At least.
- Alfred Molina, Spider-Man 2, 2003.
- Greg Kinnear, Little Miss Sunshine, 2005. Bill Murray and Robin Williams were first/second choices for Richard Hoover, trying to teach nine-step programmes when he’s barely at three. And father of little Miss Abigail Breslin, teaching her co-dysfunctionals about life. National Lampoon’s Family Vacation with soul, said Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers. Duchovny, Alec Baldwin, Thomas Hayden Church, Ray Romano nearly Hoovered. Michael Ardnt quit his job as Matthew Broderick’s assistant to pen the script – and won the for best original screenplay. His next credits included such pears as Toy Story 3, Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens!
- Bruce Banner, The Incredible Hulk, 2007. When Eric Bana passed on turning green anew (after the 2002 flop), Mr X Files was contacted for Chapter Two of Phase One in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or what producer Gale Anne Hurd called a requel – a rebootish sequel.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 14