- Jamie Kennedy, Scream, 1996. Lee, Kennedy and Breckin Myer auditioned for Randy Meeks – and met up in the final call-backs. Then, Kennedy was elected.
- Mark Wahlberg, Boogie Nights, 1997. Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s exploration of the 70s porno biz as a family unit (Burt Reynolds’ film-maker and Julianne Moore’s porno star being “the parents”) needed a stud called Dirk Diggler, loosely based on hungalike John C Holmes. Ben Affleck, Christian Bale, Matt Damon (!), Ethan Hawke, Jason Lee and Joachim Phoenix refused. Idem for, of all people, Vincent Gallo, xseen in a hard-core fellatio scene in his Brown Bunnymovie in 2002. First choice was Leonardo DiCaprio. He loved the script but had a ticket for the Titanicand told PTA: “You should get Mark”… who kept his prosthetic penis. (Gallo plainly didn’t need one.)
- Matt Damon, Dogma, 1999. The buddies of New Jersey’s askew auteur Kevin Smith never let him down. Jason was not free for the fallen angel, Loki. “It’s hard to conceive of a flick without Jason,” said a depressed Smith, after their Mall Rats, Chasing Amy. “Luckily, his schedule freed up and he was able to segue into Azrael. You couldn’t ask for a better villain. Jason became the guy people in rehearsals measured themselves against – such was the passion and intensity of his performance.” Previously, Smith had talked about the demon Azrael with Bill Murray, Adam Sandler and John Travolta. Said Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers: Thou shalt not stop laughing.
- Jason Biggs, Jersey Girl, 2004. b A Tale of Three Jasons… Kevin Smith wrote Arthur for his mate Jason Mewes – but he still had drug issues, though promising to be clean for Clerks II, 2005. Jason Lee offered to fill in but this time, Smith went for American Pie‘s Jason Biggs.
- Kevin Smith, Catch and Released, 2005. Lee passed, preferring to voice Syndrome in The Incredibles. New Jersey auteur Smith became Sam after director Susannah Grant caught one of his Evening With… stage shows.
- Ryan Potter, Big Hero 6, 2014. “We didn’t set out to be superheroes. But sometimes life doesn’t go the way you planned.” What were they thinking? Obviously Jack Black, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Jason Lee, Justin Long, Patton Oswalt were way too old for voicing Hiro Hamada, a robotics prodigy of 14, 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. Portland’s Potter, 19, continued in the Big Hero series and then voiced Keji Kon in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, 2020-2021.
- Andy Bean, It Chapter Two, 2018. Jack Black, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Jason Lee, Justin Long, Patton Oswalt were in the mix for the adult Stan Unis… in the 262nd of Stephen King’s staggering 313 screen credits … and his second biggest hit! The first? It, 2016, of course. (King Kameo: Pawnbroker).
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 7