- John Lurie, The Last Temptation of Christ, 1988. How director Martin Scorsese first envisaged the apostle James
- James Le Gros, Drugstore Cowboy, 1989, “[Director] Gus Van Sant photographed everyone – so I did finish up in his book of photos.”
- Jason Alexander, Seinfeld, TV, 1990.
- Harvey Keitel, Reservoir Dogs, 1991.
- Tim Roth, Reservoir Dogs, 1991.
- Chris Penn, Reservoir Dogs, 1991.
- Tom Waits, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1992. Francis Coppola’s first choice for RM Renfield simply turned down the great man! Fran ey then thought about UK singer Ian Dury before reverting to his favourite singer, Old Gravel Voice, from One From The Heart, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, between 1981-1984.
- Christian Slater, True Romance, 1993. Before greenlighting Reservoir Dogs, Harvey and Bob, the Miramax Weinsteins, secured True Romance. “Only we didn’t have enough money to make it.” So they exec produced it for Warners, that cast Christian Slater as the geeky hero, Harvey told Tony Scott that Buscemi was a better choice.“Patty Arquette is the angel, right, the girl he’d never get. Slater looks like he goes out with a girl like that every Tuesday… Next day, Warner calls: You’re fired!” From then on everything Miramax did, the Weinsteins ruled.
- Chris Penn, True Romance, 1993. He was also being considered for the detective Nicky Dime….
- Bronson Pinchot, True Romance, 1993. …and the hapless, hopeless Hollywood PA Elliott Blitzer. When Quentin loves ya, Quentin loves ya!
- Robert Downey Jr, Natural Born Killers, 1993. Quentin Tartantino wrote the script and wanted to direct it. Instead, he made his auteur ebut with the blistering Reservoir Dogs, the success of which led to great interest in this older QT scenario, taken up – and badly altered – by Oliver Stone. “My script was pure,” said Tarantino, “I wished he’d left it alone.” Hehated it! So much so that, according to her book, Killer Instinct, the NBK co-producer, Jane Hamser, revealed that QT told two of his Dogs, Mr Pink and Mr Orange (Buscemi and Tim Roth), not to play tabloid jouro Wayne Gale or he’d never use them again. Buscemi managed one more Tarantino movie to Roth’s total of five, during 1991-2018. (Oliver Stone had actually thought it was a goody for… Arnold Schwarzenegger!).
- Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction, 1993.
- Tim Roth, Four Rooms, 1995. Ted, the Chateau Marmont bellboy linking the four shorts by Tarantino & Pals was conceived for Mr. Pink and over-mugged by Mr Orange.
- Quentin Tarantino, Desperado, 1995. When QT showed interest in playing The Pick-up Guy, Robert Rodriguez wrote another part for Buscemi named… Buscemi.
- Jon Gries, Get Shorty, 1995. Change of Ronnie Wingate in the good take on Elmore Leonard’s cracking novel. Would have been better still if Jon’s father, Tom Gries (Will Penny,100 Rifles), had directed, Alas, he died in 1977.
- Denis Leary, Two If By Sea, 1996. Australian director Bill Bennet was tightly controlled by his backers and could not hire who he wanted. Buscemi directed himself that year in Trees Lounge.
- George Clooney, From Dusk Till Dawn, 1996. All of Tarantino’a crew were booked elsewhere. As well as Seth Gecko, Buscemi and Tim Roth were too busy for …
- John Hawkes, From Dusk Till Dawn, 1996. …too busy for the liquor store clerk Pete Bottoms.
- William Sanderson, Critics and Other Freaks, TV, 1996. The show’s creator, Lawrence Riggins, wanted Buscmi as Chef Bernie – director Ernie Mirich turned them, down. After his excellent movie career, Buscemi became a top TV star in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, 2010-
- Eric Roberts, Doctor Who (The Movie), TV, 1996.
- John Diehl, Jurassic Park III, 2000. Buscemi, Tony Shaloub and Stellan Skarsgård were on Steven Spielberg’s menu for… a meal. The role is Cooper, the mercenary eaten alive by Spinosaurus as his plane is trying to take off. The character could be, says IMDb, a nod and a wink (or belch) to another Cooper munched upon by a Tyrannosaurus at the start of the 1998 Dino Crisis video game.
- Tim Roth, Planet of the Apes, 200l. “In his office, Tim Burton is restless, lots of energy, he could hardly sit down – he was more relaxed during Big Fish, doing what he wanted, making a movie.”
- Eric Bana, Hulk, 2002. Taiwanese director Ang Lee first played the Hulk, himself, using the performance-capture process. During the mid-1990s, Depp was first choice for the green guy. Next candidates included Steve Buscemi, Tom Cruise, David Duchovny and even Jeff Goldblum at age 50… . But due to Chopper, the Australian Bana became Bruce Banner. So did Norton in the 2007 version. A genuine Hulk fan, he hated this script and fled, coming back to re-write most of the 2007 script – probably why he was replaced by Mark Ruffalo for Disney’s first summit meeting of the Marvel superheroes, The Avengers, 2011. And six more chapters. At least.
- Nick Stahl Sin City, 2005. “I only had a small role at the time and I believe it was Steve Buscemi who was going to play the Yellow Bastard,” Stahl told Freddy Beans at Ain’t It Cool News. ”He fell out, due to some conflict. Robert called me and asked if I could do that role as well. He wanted me to call him back on his answering machine to see if I could sound like him. I did that. And nothing…. Couple of days later, Robert came home and he’d forgotten he asked for that… He played my message and it scared the shit out of him. Then he remembered it was me and he was like Oh my god.” That’s the story of how I got cast in that.” (Third on the list was Leonardo DiCaprio).
- John Turturro, Transformers, 2006. Michael Bay, who never wanted to direct “a stupid toy movie” until producer Steven Spielberg reeled him in, wanted Buscemi for Agent Simmons. Turturro said he based his Simmons on Bay – “nothing like me,” grumbled Bay. Buscemi was in Bay’s Armageddon,1998, The Island, 2005, and voiced Daytrader inTransformers: The Last Knight, 2016.
- Bruce McGill, Rizzoli & Isles, TV, 2010-2016. Tom Atkins, Powers Boothe, Miguel Ferrer, Robert Patrick, Eric Roberts, Fisher Stevens and three Reservoir Dogs – Messers Pink, Blonde and Orange aka Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth – were in the frame for Detective Rizzoli’s former partner, Vince Korsak in this latest take on Cagney & Lacey. Oh, and in his sixth move, Paxton The Dog played the pooch called… Jo Friday!
- Jason Sudeikis, We’re The Millers, 2012. Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Steve Buscemi all lost out on of having Jennifer Aniston’s stripper posing as the wife of a fake family, looking so innocent, while smuggling “enough weed to kill Willie Nelson” into the US. This is one of the five films Aniston made with Sudeikis, which almost makes up for two with Adam Sandler.
- Michael Douglas, Ant-Man, 2014. The micro-superhero had been rolling around Hollywood ever since New World’s 1988 plan was tossed out because Disney was into Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. Well, now Disney was Marvel and, started prepping in 2006 with the great (Ant Man fan) Edgar Wright writer-directing. By 2013, the script was done, effects tests shot and Douglas (or his Oscar) was chosen over Buscemi, Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan, Gary Oldman, for Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man, mentoring Paul Rudd as his successor. Then, Marvel maven Kevin Feige shook Film City by replacing Wright (for being Edgar Wright!) with the obedient Peyton Reed.
- James Ransone, It Chapter Two, 2018. Steve Buscemi, Bill Hader, John Leguizamo up for the adult Eddie Kaspbrak – in the 262nd of Stephen King’s staggering 313 screen credits … and his second biggest hit! The first? It, 2016, of course. (King Kameo: The pawnbroker).
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 29