Bruce Willis Almost Lost Out On The Lead In “12 Monkeys” Over His “Rectal” Mouth
Inverse has an oral history of the 1996 movie 12 Monkeys and it turned into an anal history thanks to director, Terry Gilliam. Terry revealed that he almost didn’t cast Bruce Willis in the movie because Bruce’s mouth looks too much like an asshole. Well, Bruce Willis does have a reputation for spewing shit.
12 Monkeys is a time-traveling apocalypse flick where Bruce Willis’ character tries to stop a virus from wiping out humanity by going back in time. Revenge‘s Madeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt also star in the movie. But thanks to the 25th anniversary oral history given by Terry, screenwriters David and Janet Peoples, producer Charles Roven, and casting director Margery Simkin, we now know that Bruce almost didn’t even make the cut. Terry said that other stars were up for the role as well. It could’ve been Tom Cruise or even Nicolas Cage. via IndieWire:
“The pressure was to get a movie star in. That was at a time when I was still a hot director, so people wanted to come near me and touch me. So they were coming up with all these names. And I just kept saying no. Tom Cruise, Nic Cage, they were all being thrown at me.”
Apparently, Terry absolutely refused to cast Tom Cruise (he must’ve known about the stress zits) but Bruce was also a hard sell. But not because of his acting skills or anything about his personality, but because his mouth looked like an anus. Terry used the term “rectal.”
“I had never been a great fan of Bruce’s before, but I liked talking to him, and I thought, “OK, this guy’s smart; he’s funny.” I explained to him my concerns about him as an actor. I hated the Trumpian mouth he does in films. Rectal. It’s like I’m looking at somebody’s asshole.”
Die Hard 5: Let’s Get Rectal!
Bruce obviously got the role, but Brad also wanted the lead part. Brad ended up playing a fast-talking mental patient instead, which got him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor so… ass-mouth can take that lead role!
“Brad [Pitt] came to London, and we had dinner because he was keen to get on board to play the part that I had already given to Bruce. I was actually scared shitless that Brad might not be able to do the character because up to then we’d never seen him as a motormouth.”
You want to see Brad talk fast? Ask him all the things wrong with Angelina Jolie, he’ll have plenty to say.
If you ask January Jones about this, she’ll say, “Well, at least Bruce’s asshole mouth matches his asshole personality.”
Pic: YouTube