in blackface, the film’s portrayal of mental retardation). Placing Reeves as Tropic Thunder’s lead would have been a bold choice, especially considering the project’s already-high risk factor (i.e. One thing’s for sure: Ben Stiller’s version of Rick Peck would have been more over-the-top than Matthew McConaughey’s – and funnier too. Playing a supporting role would have allowed Stiller to devote more time to his directing and producing duties, but burying the popular actor in a small part could have hurt the film’s chances of success. It would have been fun seeing Reeves send up his image, but, in the end, Ben Stiller was the right man for the job.īen Stiller played a sleazy Hollywood agent on The Ben Stiller Show, so he would have felt right at home as Rick Peck.
#War movie stiller series#
Both actor’s fame has mainly come from action films ( Speed and The Matrix series for Reeves), and back in 2007 when Tropic Thunder was filming, they each needed a hit after a series of underperforming films. Reeves playing Speedman would have added an extra layer of reality to Tropic Thunder, especially considering Reeves and the fictional Speedman’s careers were in similar places at the time. Reeves wouldn’t have been able to take the character to the strange depths that Stiller does, but he would have one advantage over Stiller in this part: his status as an action star.
Speedman is a fool, sure, but he’s a different than the carefree pseudo-stoner Reeves is adept at playing. While Reeves was amusing as a spaced-out slacker in these early parts, that’s not exactly what the role of Tugg Speedman calls for. Intentionally comedic performances are rare for Keanu Reeves these days, but some of the actors first roles are in comedies like Parenthood and the Bill & Ted films. With Reeves as the movie’s lead, Stiller envisioned himself as two-faced agent Rick Peck, a role that went to Matthew McConaughey in the actual movie. Stiller originally planned on casting Keanu Reeves as action star Tugg Speedman, a role he eventually ended up playing. Keanu Reeves as Tugg Speedman with Ben Stiller as Rick Peck
While Tropic Thunder is expertly cast and doesn’t have any weak links, some of the original ideas are pretty intriguing. Ben Stiller assembled an impressive ensemble cast that also included Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey, and cameos from a dozens of other big names. He began writing the script with Justin Theroux (and later Etan Coen), and they developed the project off and on for nearly ten years before production finally began. After There’s Something About Mary made him a bonafide movie star a decade later, Stiller had the power to get the film made. Lost Roles is a weekly series that examines the missed opportunities - the roles that could have been - and explores how some casting choices that almost happened could have changed the film industry and the comedy world, at large.īen Stiller had been kicking around the idea for Tropic Thunder since filming a small part in the 1987 Steven Spielberg World War II epic Empire of the Sun, so it’s no wonder a whole bevy of possible actors went through his head before the eventual cast was set. Thus, casting directors and filmmakers consider a variety of possibilities before production begins. Placing the right actors in the right roles can determine whether or not an entire film rings true. It seemed slightly ironic that these actors were talking about this incredible experience that in no way comes close to a real war.Casting is one of the most important processes in moviemaking. “In ’87, around the time they were casting Platoon, I went in to meet Oliver Stone, and a lot of my friends were making war movies and going off to these fake boot camps. Those iconic war movies like Apocalypse Now or Deer Hunter, Platoon, even Born on the Fourth of July and Hamburger Hill, were very affecting at different times in my life, ” Stiller said. In the interview, which appeared in the Times on August 10, Stiller had this to say about where the idea for the film–which spoofs the making of a Vietnam War movie–came from:
filming Tropic Thunderīen Stiller, who co-wrote, directed, and stars in Tropic Thunder, the hilarious send up of self-important, self-aggrandizing, and self-deceiving Hollywood types, and one of his co-writers, Justin Theroux, sat down and talked to The New York Times’ Dave Itzkoff about how the movie came to be.