- Andrew Schofield, Sid and Nancy, 1986. No thank you, said Roth, when offered the role of the Sex Pistols singer, Johnny Rotten. “The history was too recent.” The real Rotten (aka John Lydon) said the film was too fantasy. “The Peter Pan version.” Director Alex Cox said he made it because he was worried that if anyone else did, it , Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen would be treated as “real exemplars of Punk like I am; rather than sold-out traitors to it.”
- Michael Madsen, Reservoir Dogs, 1991.
- Ralph Fiennes, Schindler’s List,1993.
Steven Spielberg considered Roth for Schutzstaffel Unterstumfuhrer Amon Goeth, the evil SS officer running the Płaszów concentration camp. Spielberg spent ten years growing up before makingthe Holocaust film. Indeed, he kept offering the directing job to others: Sidney Lumet (he’d dealt with the Holocaust in The Pawnbroker in 1963), Roman Polansk (“too soon”; he made his WWII film, The Pianist, in 200l), Sydney Pollack, Martin Scorsese (“a Jew should make it”). Finally, Spielberg felt mature enough at 47 to handle such a personal story. Seeing any salary as “blood money,” he made it for free. Result: his first Oscar on March 21, 1994. - John Travolta, Pulp Fiction, 1993.
- Robert Downey Jr, Natural Born Killers, 1993. Quentin Tartantino wrote the script and wanted to direct it. Instead, he made his auteurdebut 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. Tarantiono hated it ! So much so that, according to her book, Killer Instinct, about co-producing NBK, 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!).
- Tom Sizemore, Natural Born Killers, 1993. Although unconfirmed by the above Jane Hamsher book, Roth also passed on Jack Scagnetti, a pyschopathic cop obsessed with serial killers and hunting the NBKcouple on a kiling spree – Woody Harrleson and Juliette Lewis.
- Hugh Grant, Four Weddings And A Funeral, 1994. Roth would have been responsible for the funeral… “They sent me the script. I don’t know if that was the director’s intention, obviously not! [Laugh] It was not something that appealed to me. Phoebe Cates was going to do it and wanted me to do it with her. I like Phoebe. She’s a great comedienne. But it all turned around.” Alan Rickman was later on the list for Charles.
- George Clooney, From Dusk Till Daw, 1996. Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, John Travolta and Tim – all the Tarantino fans were booked…
- John Hawkes, From Dusk Till Dawn, 1996. …as well as Seth Gecko, Roth (and Steve Buscemi) were too busy for the liquor store clerk Pete Bottoms.
- Jeremy Davies, The Million Dollar Hotel, 1999. The first choice of German director Wim Wenders for Tom Tom only had time to accept the shorter role of Izzy.
- Ewan McGregor, Stars Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace,1997.
- Mark Wahlberg, The Yards, 2000. Obviously interested in the second script of his Little Odessa maker, James Gray.
- Anthony Hopkins, Hannibal, 2000. After Jodie Foster and Jonathan Demme quit (after 15 re-writes), Hopkins was reluctant to re-play his Oscar-winning Lecter, Roth was announced as successor. Hopkins rushed back to Hannibal the cannibal… and indeed, for a third time in Red Dragon, 2002.
- Robert Caryle, The 51st State, 2001. Financing his writing by working in a liquor store, Stel Pavlou sent his first script to Roth – who loved it but was booked. He passed it to his Pulp Fiction bro’ Samuel L Jackson – who produced it – and co-starred with Carlyle .
- Alan Rickman, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 2001. Passed on Professor Severus Snape and the whole Harry Potter franchise to work with Tim Burton on a new (but not improved) Planet of the Apes. Bum move.
- Martin Freeman, The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to The Galaxy, 2004.
- Vinnie Jones, The Condemned, 2006. The first choice gave McStarley away to the surprise second choice – an ex-Welsh international footballer opposite a WWE wrestler. Neither one could act their way out of a paper bag, much less this ridiculous “script.”
- Michael Fassbender, Inglourious Basterds, 2008. After Simon Pegg and before Fassbender, Tim Roth had talks about being Lieutenant Archie Hicox in Quentin Tarantino’s Wild Bunch take on The Dirty Dozen. Six year later, Roth (a QT staple since Reservoir Dogs), was Oswaldo Mobray in Tarantino’s real Western, The Hateful Eight. And QT revealed that Mobray was an alias for English Pete Hicox… Archie Hicox’s great-great grandfather!
- 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 sixtrh move, Paxton The Dog played the pooch called… Jo Friday!
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 19