- Paul Walker, The Fast and The Furious, 2000. Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg were also considered for Brian O’Connor. Walker went on to the sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious and won a huge cult following with chapters 4, 5, 6. He was 40 and filming #7 when he was killed in an off-duty car crash on November 30, 2013. “Father God I pray that you send clarity over this ’cause I just don’t understand,” said co-star Tyrese Gibson. “My heart hurts it’s broken no one can convince me that this is real… I can’t believe I’m writing this.”
- Ethan Hawke, Training Day, 2000. Director Antoine Fuqua asked him to be the rookie undercover cop, Jack Hoyt. But the rapper had 8 Mile being set up for him. Pity, he would have had scenes with his mentor, Dr Dre, and Snoop. Next thought? Mark Wahlberg. Then Hawke swooped in.
- Ned Beatty, Shooter, 2006. The Rapper said no – so director Antoine Fuqua went for an older villain opposite Mark Wahlberg’s hero… who, at one point, hooked himself to a makeshift plasma IV made out of a plastic bag, a pound of sugar and a bicycle pump… it says here.
- Hayden Christensen, Jumper, 2007. New York director Doug Liman was initially keen on the white rapper for his teleportation hero… until meeting the Canadian Christensen – third actor to play Anakin Skywalker.
- Matt Damon, Elysium, 2012. White rappers want their way… South African director Neill Blomkamp (District 9) first asked his country’s leading rapper, Ninja, to portray his AD 2154 hero. No way he wanted to play an American! OK then, Eminem – yeah, sure, as long as it was shot in his home town of Detroit – bankrupt when the movie opened in August 2013. Damon was hooked in 15 minutes, when Blomkamp “pulled out a homemade graphic novel. It absolutely blew my mind – the world had already been created.”
- Jack Gyllenhaal, Southpaw, 2014. The Sons of Anarchy creator Karl Sutter wrote the boxing drama as a folow-up to the white rapper’s movie debut, 8 Mile, 2001. “Ultimately, Marshall decided he wanted to focus on music, and wasn’t ready to jump back in to doing films. My understanding was that 8 Mile was very difficult for him. [Director] Curtis Hanson was tough on him. It was his first foray into that, and very difficult for him. That was also the beginning of the end of his slide downward… He was newly sober at the time and I respected the decision. I’ve stayed good friends with his team…” Sutter’s director choice, Antoine Fuqua, pushed the script to Harvey Weinstein, who snared Gyllenhaal. “I love Jake,” added Sutter. “Even though he was never a boxer, he’s an athlete, a big guy like 6ft 2ins. I didn’t doubt for a minute that he was a boxer. And strong. That young kid on The Strain, [Miguel Gómez], he’s a boxer in our movie. He said he’d think twice about getting in the ring with Jake.”
- Matt Damon, Elysium, 2011. Johannesburg auteur Neill Blomkamp first offered his sf hero to two rappers. Eminem who quit when the location wasn’t switched from LA to Detroit – and South African’s Ninja, who passed although being such a fan of Blomkamp’s District 9, 2009, that he has a D9 tattoo. Inside a lip! Damon saved the day but the auteur was not well pleased with hs own script.
- Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born, 2017.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Marshall Bruce Mathers IIIUsual occupation: SingerCasting Calls: 7