- Skeet Ulrich, Touch, 1997. Writer-director Paul Schrader scrapped Tony Richardson’s plan (his daughter Nathasha Richardson, opposite Phillips) on inheriting the Elmore Leonard faith-healer thriller.
- Keanu Reeves, The Matrix, 1998. Phillips’ agent rejected the film as… an instant flop! The score’s composer Don Davis said Johnny Depp was first choice of the Wachowski siblings (then brothers Larry and Andy, now sisters Lana and Lilly). Warners voted: Brad Pitt or Val Kilmer. They passed. OK, said Warners: Depp or Keanu Reeves. (As if that was a choice). Also seen for the neo-noir Neo: Nicolas Cage (family commitments), Leonardo DiCaprio (“too many special effects”), David Duchovny (preferred TV’s X-Files), and the surprisingly honest Will Smith – “I would have messed it up!”
- Robert Patrick, The X-Files, 2000-2002. LDP, Adam Baldwin, Dean Cain (the 1993 TV Superman) and Bruce Campbell auditioned for John Doggett – Dana Scully’s new FBI partner when Fox Mulder went missing. (A money row, what else). Patrick said the Special Agent could well be his most favourite character – but he could not play him in then the tenth season due to his new Scorpion gig, 2014-2018. He once declared: “I’vedone 55 movies and, in all seriousness, there’s maybe five that are good and the rest are crap.” Not X- Files of the Terminator franchise, which led to him being cast as the fathers of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley in their biopix.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 3