Steven Seagal

  1. Danny Glover, Predator 2, 1990.  Fox wanted Seagal, but producer Joel Silver was keeping his Lethal Weaponstar happy with a solo lead. Director Stephen Hopkins didn’t want Seagal either – particularly after he wanted  the character to be  a martial arts-loving CIA shrink!

  2. Sylvester Stallone, Demolition Man, 1993.    Bad news when Sylvester Stallone was picking Seagal’s leavings. Seagal was due to hunt down Jean-Claude Van Damme…

  3. Wesley Snipes, Demolition Man, 1993. … but neither wanted to sully their schlock careers by beingthe villain. (Didn’t bother Snipes)!
  4. Wesley Snipes, Drop Zone, 1994.    Rejected $15m to play US Marshal Pete Nessip, until getting more for a sequel about hisequally forgettable Navy SEAL hero, Casey Rayback, in Under Siege 2:Dark Territory. Then, someone realised Nessip was an anagram of… Snipes.  Who got $7m.
  5. Sylvester Stallone, The Specialist, 1993.  The Hughes Brothers refused to direct Segal.  OK, he’d act and direct, hje said. For $9m. (A smidgen high as he could do neither). Stallone was given 15 minutes before it went to Warren Beatty. Stallone  signed and was soon insisting many James Woods scenes  be cut  (or re-shot) as he was stealing the movie. Sly  first did that with Rutger Hauer during Nighthawks a dozen years before.
  6. Gary Busey, The Glimmer  Man, 1996.   “Steven Seagal asked me to be in it. I said No and he was really angry. He can drop dead as far as I’m concerned.  I didn’t even read the script. I saw his name and threw it in the trash.” Brian Cox co-starred and  summed up Seagal in his 2021 memoirs, Putting the Rabbit into the Hat: : “As ludicrous in real life as he appears onscreen. He radiates a studied serenity, as though he’s on a higher plane to the rest of us, and while he’s certainly on a different plane, no doubt about that, it’s probably not a higher one.” 
  7. Chris Farley, Beverly Hills Ninja, 1997.       Seagal  – even Macauley Culkin – were among the stars interested during the ten years   this comedy script hung around Hollywood shelves.
  8. Jean-Claude Van Damme, The Order, Aruba-US, 2001.      JCVD took over when Segal changed his mind about joining one of Charlton Heston’s final films. Charlie Hero’s  first going straight to video. 
  9. Hiroyuki Sanada, Rush Hour 3, 2006.    By now, both Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme were fighting to be the villain!   Neither one could match the Japanesed star.
  10. Glen Powell, The Expendables 3, 2013.    Seagel passed on the combat veteran and hacker, Thorn, in Sylvester Stallone’s testosterone take on Dad’s Army.   But then he was more expandable than expendable. And should have been called Seagull as he shat over everything/

 

 

 

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  9