Exclusive: In a new interview, John Cleese reveals that he turned down Anthony Hopkins' role in The Remains Of The Day too...
A week or so back, we had the pleasure of sitting down for a long chat with John Cleese, as part of the promotion for his new book, So Anyway (which is out now in hardback and digital download, from Random House). And towards the end of our conversation, we talked about the film Clockwise, which he argues in the book was the one time he was sent a "truly wonderful script" for a lead role.
However, he then told us something we didn't know. "I did twice get offered very, very good parts by [director] Mike Nichols," he said.
"On one occasion it was to do the Robin Williams role in The Birdcage. And I just couldn't do it. They had dates for their movie, and I was already committed." The Birdcage, with Robin Williams at its heart, would go on to be a sizeable hit. As with most Robin Williams projects, it's hard to imagine anyone else in the lead role now.
The other Nichols role he turned down went on to win Anthony Hopkins an Oscar.
In Cleese's words, "the other time was The Remains Of The Day when they wanted me to play the butler. And I thought the novel was so brilliant. Kazio Ishiguro's understanding of English repression was the best thing I'd ever read about it, and I loved it."
Cleese continued, adding that "Then Harold Pinter [who wrote the original screenplay, but took his name off the project following a rewrite] came along and took all the jokes out. I though it only existed with the humour. Otherwise it was relentlessly down. So I passed on it, and of course Anthony Hopkins gave a wonderful performance, as you'd expect, and people quite liked the movie. But I was never crazy about the script."
The full interview, so you can read the whole conversation in context, can be found here.
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