The big picture
- Steve McQueen refused
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
due to an emotional scene, which led Spielberg to pursue other A-listers. - Richard Dreyfuss lobbied to be cast in the film, and bad mouthed his colleagues at Spielberg for weeks.
- Roy Neary's portrayal of Dreyfuss in the film grounded its fantastical premise and strengthened its bond with Spielberg.
Casting is one of the most crucial (and fickle) aspects of making a movie. Hiring the right performer for the right role can often elevate a film to the perfect pitch, while an error in that judgment can upset a production or necessitate the unenviable task of firing someone mid-shoot. As one of cinema's greatest filmmakers, who has worked with some of its greatest actors and actresses, Steven Spielberg He certainly knows all too well. i would do it Raiders of the Lost Ark be what you are Tom Selleck had been cast as Indiana Jones instead of Harrison Ford? i would do it Liam Neeson they have won an Oscar for the best actor to play Abraham Lincoln years before Daniel Day-Lewis did he get the role and win his third Oscar?
Fortunately for Spielberg, whose legendary reputation makes actors eager to work with him, his access to Hollywood's A-list has remained unimpeded for decades. After becoming a household name with jaws in 1975, he immediately set to work on his ambitious sci-fi follow-up, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. while Richard Dreyfuss He would eventually land the lead role of Roy Neary, Spielberg, using his new influence in the industry, pursued some of the industry's biggest and most in-demand stars. Among those who were taken into account wereSteve McQueen, but the iconic actor eventually turned down the film for an unusual reason.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Publication date
- November 18, 1977
- director
- Steven Spielberg
- Execution time
- 135
Why did Steve McQueen turn down Spielberg's film?
With a slew of acclaimed hits under his belt in the mid-70s, incl The great escape, Bullitt, Butterflyi The imposing hell, Steve McQueen was one of the biggest and busiest stars of his or any generation. Dubbed the “King of Cool,” his on-screen persona was matched by his tough-guy reputation in real life, which was immediately apparent to Steven Spielberg when he met with McQueen. at the actor's beach house to talk about a new project. According to Spielberg, McQueen opened a beer for himself and slid one in front of the absent young filmmaker as the conversation turned to Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Initially, the meeting presumably went exactly as Spielberg had hoped. “We sat there and he told me how much he liked the script,” Spielberg said, “and then he told me it wasn't going to be Roy Neary.” When pressed on the subject, McQueen revealed that a moment towards the end of the script, in which Neary cries, was the sticking point for the actor.. “He said, 'I'm not doing that,'” recalls Spielberg, who quickly offered to remove the emotional moment from his script. McQueen, however, insisted that Neary's cry stood because, ironically, it moved him when he read it. Although Spielberg failed to land the legendary actor he chose for his film, he remained undaunted and pursued other Hollywood actors. Meanwhile, Richard Dreyfuss had plans of his own to win the lead role Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Richard Dreyfuss lobbied for the role of Roy Neary
After Steve McQueen slipped through his fingers, Steven Spielberg continued to swing for the fences with his casting aspirations, much to the chagrin of Richard Dreyfuss, who was intimately familiar with the filmmaker's plans for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. “Steven told me towards the end of filming of jaws what his next film would be about,” Dreyfuss told Vanity Fair. “I knew if I didn't get the part, I'd be sad.” Desperate to be cast, he should shamelessly promote himself as Spielberg. considered by some of the biggest names in Tinsel Town, including Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholsoni Gene Hackman.
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Outraged, persistent, and determined to convince Spielberg that he was the right actor to play Roy Neary, Dreyfuss pulled no punches in slandering his colleagues in the race.. “I would go by Steven's office every day and talk bad about every actor in Hollywood,” she admitted. “I said, 'Pacino has no sense of humor. De Niro is crazy.'” For Spielberg, efforts to woo numerous A-list actors were either met with outright dismissal or reluctance to take the role after discussions. “It was a pretty far-fetched idea for a movie in those days,” he told TCM. But facing one rejection after another would prove to be a blessing in disguise when Spielberg finally gave in to Dreyfuss's advances and cast the actor for what would be the pair's second consecutive collaboration.
Richard Dreyfuss brought an innocent childlike quality to Roy Neary
It's no easy task to imagine anyone other than Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neary in Spielberg's classic, and his naive, three-dimensional performance grounds and centers the film's fantastical premise and larger-than-life spectacle . As a man who abandons his family in pursuit of an obsession he can neither understand nor articulate, Neary regresses to a childlike state of innocence, wonder, and wonders about his place in the cosmos.. For his part, Spielberg, whose script for Close Encounters of the Third Kind inspired by his fascination with outer space and the possible existence of alien life forms, he established a strong kinship with Dreyfuss as a friend and collaborator, which paved the way for the actor to act as a vessel on the screen that would channel the filmmaker's curiosity, desires and emotions. .
“Richard and I identify with each other,” Spielberg said. “It turned out that when Richard made the film, I really recognized a kind of kindred spirit.” The duo would work together again more than a decade later Alwaysa bittersweet fantasy love story based on the 1943 film A boy named Joe. Unlike that of jaws i Alwayshowever, their collaboration in Close Encounters of the Third Kind it was deeply rooted in a mutual exploration of material that had personal resonance. With hindsight as clear as day, Steve McQueen's rejection of the role, albeit for a surely futile reason, paved the way for one of Dreyfuss' best performances in one of the most beloved sci-fi films of the cinema
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is available to rent on Amazon in the US
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