- Greg Kinnear, We Were Soldiers, 2001. Also seen for Major Bruce ‘“Snake” Crandall… as Lieutenant-Colonel Mel Gibson does Vietnam.
- Billy Bob Thornton, Bad Santa, 2003. Jack Nicholson withdrew for Something’s Gotta Givewith “Special K” (Diane Keaton), Bill Murray left for Lost In Translation, Dennis Leary came and went and Larry David was busy with his TV series,Curb Your Enthusiasm. Billy Bob won – and got drunk for one scene as the titular Willie.
- Hugh Laurie, House MD, TV, 2004-2012. Ignorance is bliss… The pilot’s director Bryan Singer thought Laurie was American and Laurie(testing on a tape made in his Namiba hotel bathroom while rebooting Flight of the Phoenix) figured the anti-social Dr House was a support role.Whatever Leary, David Cross, Patrick Dempsey or Rob Morrow thought didn’t swing the gig! “What usually happens is you do a pilot,” said Laurie, “and of the very few picked up, only about a quarter go to a second year. So I thought: three fun weeks!”
- Mark Wahlberg, The Departed, 2006. Director Martin Scorsese wanted Leary or Ethan Hawkeas NYPD Sergeant Dignam – and then fell for Wahlberg. Leary was stuck in his series, Rescue Me, 2004-201. He praised Wahlberg’s work. So did the Academicians voting him a supporting actor nomination.
- Scott Adsit, Big Hero 6, 2014. “We didn’t set out to be superheroes. But sometimes life doesn’t go the way you planned.” Jason Bateman, Josh Gad, Dennis Leary, John Leguizamo, Danny McBride, Ray Romano and Jason Sudeikis were seen (and heard!) for voicing Baymax in Disney’s first Marvel subject – winning the best animation Oscar. It unfurls in 2023 (we all know that computer battery number, right?) in San Fransokyo (‘Frisco rebuilt by the Japanese after an earthquake) and deals with a super-troupe behind the titular collective name… that nobody ever uses. “I wanted a robot that we had never seen before,” ordered co-director Don Hall “Something wholly original.” He sure got it. Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers said the film “would be a ton less fun without this irresistible blob of roly-poly, robot charisma.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 5