Kevin Kline – Crawley's Casting Calls

Mandy Patinkin, Yentl, 1962. Who was going to be Avigdor, therabbinical student lover of Barbra Streisand as the cross-dressing Yeshiav Boy in Isaac Bashevis Singer’s tale?Trouble was,La Barb was also the director, producer, and “co-writer”…Obvious, therefore,who was going tohave all the closer-ups!So Kline, Michael Douglas, Richard Gere and Christopher Walken just fled.
Richard Dreyfuss, Jaws, 1975. Not quite a universal choice. Universal wanted Kevin. StevenSpielberg did not. The way Kevin remembers it, he said that he knew someone who was an oceanographer and thought he could play one and Spielberg said he didn’t want someone who knows someone who is an oceanographer, he wanted someone who was an oceanographer. Then again, Kline hadn’t made a film – or his name – as yet.
Kurt Russell, The Thing, 1981. “The ultimate in alien terror.” Bah! Not even close. Which explains why Jeff Bridges, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Nick Nolte passed on John Carpenter’s unwanted re-hash of the (so-so) 1950 original produced (some say, directed) by Howard Hawks. Fred Ward fought for the lead. Suits suggested Kline, though doubting his start power. Carpenter did meet him but played safe with Russell – third of his five Carpenter movies. Could have been worse, Universal had wanted Tobe Hooper to direct.
William Hurt, Body Heat, 1981. Nearly his debut. Never mind, Larry Kasdan remembered him for…
Jeff Goldblum, The Big Chill, 1983. Kline chased the spaced-out journalist, but Larry Kasdan wanted him at the epicentre of the circle of friends
Tom Hanks, Splash, 1983. Hanks always claimed he was director Ron Howard’s 11th choice for Allen Bauer in his breakthrough (mermaid) movie. Sorry, Tom – 15th! And here they be: Kline, Jeff Bridges, Chevy Chase, Richard Gere, Steve Guttenberg (Howard chose him for Cocoon a year later), John Heard, Michael Keaton (he also refused Alan’s brother, Freddie), Robert Klein, Dudley Moore, David Morse, Bill Murray (PJ Soles was to be his mermaid), Burt Reynolds, John Travolta (his agent turned him off it!), Robin Williams. . “Ronnie made me a movie star,” said Hanks.” That’s what he did.” He also booked Guttenberg for his next gig, Cocoon.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Terminator, 1983 .In all, 52 actresses were considered, seen, or tested for the robot assassin’s target, Sarah Connor -but a mere eight guys for the killer from the future, itself. Kline, Michael Douglas, Mel Gibson, Jürgen Prochnow, Randy Quaid, Tom Selleck… It was when Orion boss Mike Medavoy decided on OJ Simpson as the Terminator and Arnie as Reese, that CameronrealisedSchwarzi was the perfect, coolest Terminator in town.
Jeff Daniels, The Purple Rose of Cairo, 1984. Woody Allen mused about the actor already becoming known as… D Kline,when he had to let Michael Keaton go from the double role of screen hero Tom Baxter and the actor who plays him. “Too contemporary,” said Woody. Officially. More like Keaton couldn’t conjure up the sheer innocence of Tom when thrust intothe real world knowing nothing about anything, Particularly, women… such ashis greatest fan, Mia Farrow.
Peter Coyote, Heartbreakers, 1984. “I saw almost all leading men of stature, 25 of them, in New York and LA with the exception of Gere, Travolta and Bill Hurt,” reported auteur Bobby Roth.
David Bowie, Labyrinth, 1985. The #1 problem was who should portray the Goblin King Jareth – an actor or a rock star? Michael Gothard, Kevin Kline or Simon MacCorkindale versus Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger or Prince. Jim Henson (making, alas, his final film) voted Sting. But his kids said Bowie, Bowie, Bowie, Bowie, Bowie. (Five kids; one, Briab, was voicing Hoggle). would be better. So did Bowie – wanting a kids’ yarn, loving the script, funnier than he’d expected. Well, the humour of Terry Jones of the Monty Pythons was on certain pages. The kids are now running the Henson combine.
Mel Gibson, Lethal Weapon, 1986. In all, 39 possibilities for the off-kilter, ’Nam vet cop Martin Riggs – not as mentally-deranged as in early drafts (he used a rocket launcher on one guy!) Some ideas were inevitable: Alec Baldwin, Michael Biehn (shooting Aliens), Jeff Bridges, Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Al Pacino, Sean Penn, William Petersen, Dennis Quaid, Christopher Reeve, Kurt Russell, Charlie Sheen, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, Bruce Willis. Some were inspired: Bryan Brown, Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum (he inherited Gibson’s role in The Fly), William Hurt (too dark for Warner Bros), Michael Keaton, Michael Madsen, Liam Neeson, Eric Roberts. Some were insipid: Jim Belushi, Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Costner, Kevin Kline, Stephen Lang, Michael Nouri (he joined another cop duo in The Hidden), Patrick Swayze. Plus TV cops Don Johnson, Tom Selleck… three foreign LA cops: Austrian Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dutch Rutger Hauer and French Christophe(r) Lambert. And the inevitable (Aussie) outsider Richard Norton.
Michael Douglas, Fatal Attraction, 1987.
Michael Keaton, Batman, 1988.
Clint Eastwood, Black Hunter, White Heart, 1990. Before Clint got his eager actor-director hands on it.
Robin Williams, Hook, 1990.The Soapdish comedy (so called) was in trouble. And so was Kline when an ordered major revamping meant he wasn’t free to be Steven Spielberg’s updated Peter Pan.
James Caan, Misery, 1990. “The idea of playing a victim didn’t appeal to a lot of people,” said director Rob Reiner explaining such refusniks as Kline, Warren Beatty, Jeff Daniels, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, John Heard, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Klein, Ed O’Neill, Al Pacino, Robert Redford, John Ritter, Denzel Washington. How come Caan agreed? “I think he wanted the work.”
Michael J Fox, The Hard Way, 1991. Director John Badham thought of Kline and Gene Hackman. Kevin had the Oscar, but Fox had the box-office clout and had always wanted to be a cop. Better yet, an actor wanting to play a cop.
Armand Assante, The Mambo Kings, 1991. An odd choice, with Jeremy Irons, for Cuban musical brothers.
Robin Williams, Hook, 1991. Oh, now he wanted him… Steven Spielberg was never happy with the outcome and losing Kline (stranded in Soapdish re-shoots) is among the reasons.
Bruce Willis, Death Becomes Her, 1992. Goldie Hawn never hid the fact that she preferred Kevin as her bumbling fiance.. This upset the then Mrs Willis, Demi Moore: “Bruce deserves more respect. “Why?” Hawn was reported snapping. ”Neither of you is in my league!”
Robert Downey Jr. Chaplin, 1992. Peter Sellers’ dream role for decades… The studio wanted to play safe: Billy Crystal or Robin Williams. UK director Richard Attenborough had even more bizzare ideas for his biopic: Jeff Bridges, Jim Carrey, John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Kevin Kline (he became Douglas Fairbanks Jr). Plus Nick Nolte as the older Charlie. And one Brit only, the West End stage star Anthony Sher. Oh, and inexplicably, Nicolas Cage!!??? The first time she saw Downey dressed up on-set, Geraldine Chaplin (playing her paternal grandmother Hannah Chaplin) was so choked up she could scarcely breathe.
Roberto Benigni, Son of the Pink Panther, 1992. Oh, what a woeful mess as director Blake Edwards tried yet again to keep his Panther annuity alive. Given the choice of Kline, Rowan Atkinson, Tim Curry, and Gérard Depardieu, Edwards chose the Italian Benigni – far less subtle than Peter Sellers – but a good excuse to resurrect Claudia Cardinale from the first film, The Pink Panther, 1962,as his mother, Maria Grambelli, following an affair with Clouseau. Except, of course, CC was an Indian princess in the first film and Maria was Elke Sommer in the second, A Shot in the Dark, 1963. So much funnier than this… shot in the head.
Robin Williams, Jumanji, 1995. Two kids find a jungle board game with magic powers unleashing grotesque animalia and some poor sap trapped inside the game since playing it as a tot. Williams lapped it up after Kline, Dan Aykroyd, Sean Connery, Richard Dreyfuss, Rupert Everett, Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton, Bill Paxton, Kurt Russell, Arnold Schwarzenegger fled. Jumanji, incidentally, is Zulu for “many effects.” And how.
Greg Kinnear, As Good As It Gets, 1997. Kline, Ralph Fiennes plus Holly Hunter were set as Mike Newell’s Old Friends. Except no one wanted to pay them. Director James Brooks rescued the project – and himself.
Tim Allen, Galaxy Quest, 1999. “Very funny,” said William Shatner. Patrick Stewart was more on the ball : “Brilliant. Brilliant.” Probably the finest Hollywood send-up of a TV show had the cast of a copy-Star Trek being mistaken for real spacemen by Thermian aliens wanting their help! Harold Ramis wanted Baldwin as Jason. Harold Ramis wanted Baldwin as Jason – or Kevin Kline, Steve Martin – and quit when Tim Allen was chosen. Ramis later agreed Allen was great. ”He had that Shatner-esque swagger down pat,” said George Takei. “And I roared when the shirt came off and Sigourney Weaver rolls her eyes and says: There goes that shirt again…. How often did we hear that on the set? [Laugh].” (Allen thought he was channelling Yul Brynner’s king from The Ten Commandments, 1954).
Richard Gere, Chicago, 2002.
Steve Martin, The Pink Panther, 2005. And he was back in the running for the Inspector Clouseau reboot – which totally buried the franchise. A far better idea than Martin. As proved by Kline stealing the show as the flic’s long suffering patron, Dreyfus.
Jean Reno, Flushed Away, 2006. The French star beat Johnny Depp, Kline and Stellan Skarsgard to voicing Le Frog.Kline and Reno had co-starred in French Kiss, 1995.
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 2006. During 25 years in Development Hell, the titular casting also included Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas,Harrison Ford, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, William Hurt, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino. Tim Curry was the sole Brit considered and the most absurd notions were… Warren Beatty. Harrison Ford and Robert Redford!
John Malkovich, The Great Buck Howard, 2007. The fading illusionist Colin Hanks went to work for was first due to be Kline.The father disapproving of the job was Colin’s father – Tom Hanks.
Paul Rudd, Dinner For Schmucks, 2009. Among the 2006 choices for the pathetic loser in the Hollywoodised (ie highly flawed) re-make of the French Diner de cons, 1998. Jacques Villeret was the original Paris con.
Tim Robbins, Green Lantern, 2010. 007 director Martin Campbell spent five months looking for and two months testing possible seven (!) potential Hal Jordans – the DC Comic hero with the super-powered ring. Finding Senator Hammond was easier: Kline v Robbins.
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables, 2011. Oh, Hollywood… Since the musical’s 1985 London opening, suggestions for Jean Valjean went from the logical – Kline,Robert De Niro, Richard Dreyfuss, Gene Hackman, William Hurt – to the preposterous: Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks, Robert Redford, Christopher Walken. Plus close pals, rarely rivals, Beatty and Jack Nicholson. However, Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino were far too short for the hefty hero who, in a signature scene, has to carry Cosette’s lover, away from the battle of the barricades. Put it another way, Hollywood’s last Valjean had been Liam Neeson – 6ft. 4in.

Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 33