- John Cusack, Say Anything…, 1988. Robert Downey Jr refused to be the quirky Lloyd Dobler. Richard Dreyfuss wrote to debuting auteur Cameron Crowe after reading his script: “Great script, want to play Lloyd.” Instead, Crowe auditioned Kirk Cameron, Loren Dean (switched to Joe), Christian Slater – and two future directors Peter Berg and Todd Field – before settling (rightly) on Cusack. Chicago critic Roger Ebert helped save the film from flopping by hailing it as one of the best of 1989. “A film that is really about something, that cares deeply about the issues it contains [honesty, etc] – and yet it also works wonderfully as a funny, warmhearted romantic comedy.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 1