Rob Reiner‘s Misery is a great movie with a number of fantastic behind-the-scenes tales – including the fact that a significant collection of big actors were offered and turned down the role of Paul Sheldon before James Caan said “yes” (the list including Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, William Hurt, Harrison Ford, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, and Richard Dreyfus). But here’s a new bit of trivia: did you know that Billy Bob Thornton was originally cast to play a part in the acclaimed Stephen King adaptation? He didn’t land the role of Paul or even Sherriff Buster, who is played by Richard Farnsworth; instead, the story is much stranger than that.
The newest edition on Variety‘s “Actors On Actors” series features a sit down between Billy Bob Thornton and Kathy Bates, and one of the most fascinating parts of the conversation sees the former reveal to the latter that he was almost one of her co-stars in Misery (a film that won Bates the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1991). He explained that he didn’t just audition for a role but instead won it in the room, saying,
There was a time I went in and read for Rob Reiner for Misery… I swear to God. Originally, Richard Farnsworth, who played the sheriff, had a deputy. I saw Rob Reiner for it. And Rob said right in the room, he goes,’You’re the guy. We can send everybody else home.’
Those of you who have seen Misery are probably saying to yourselves right now, “Wait a second… Sheriff Buster doesn’t have a deputy in the movie.” Well, I can assure you that your memory is not failing you. The Richard Farnsworth character (who, it should be noted, is not featured in the Stephen King novel) has a terrific scene partner in Frances Sternhagen’s Virginia, his wife, but he seems to operate alone in Colorado’s Silver County.
According to Billy Bob Thornton, there was a version of the script by William Goldman that featured Sheriff Buster having a deputy, and Thornton landed that part. There are two big twists, however: 1) it was decided that the character would be cut from the movie prior to the start of production, and 2) Rob Reiner was willing to shoot the scenes with Thornton despite the fact that he knew they weren’t going to make it into the final cut of Misery. The actor said that he got a very polite call from Reiner just before he was planning to head to set:
I got a call from Rob – I have to say, not many directors would do this; he was so nice about it. He called me and he said, ‘Listen, I’ve been looking at the script and planning out what I’m going to do with this movie.’ He said, ‘You can come up here and shoot this for the money or the insurance or whatever you need, but I’m just telling you, it’s not going to be in the movie.’ And then he said, ‘I don’t want you to come up here expecting that this is going to be in the movie. I didn’t want you to be disappointed.’ He said, ‘But I’ll leave it up to you.’
Billy Bob Thornton’s response was that he would have felt “weird” about doing that, and making a bunch of “stuff” that was “worthless in the end.” Thus, he didn’t go to set. This certainly feels like a sweet case of an actor-turned-director reaching out a hand to a fellow professional – perhaps understanding from personal experience the burn of landing a job and then having it taken away. It was a very generous offer.
But I have so many questions. Understanding that Misery wasn’t exactly a huge blockbuster, how much would have the meant-to-be-cut scenes with Billy Bob Thornton have cost the production had they been shot? What was the character’s personality, and how did it fit into the dynamic between Buster and Virginia? Is there even the slightest percentage chance that he would have been the victim in the scene where Annie Wilkes rolls over a guy with a lawnmower?
Sadly, it doesn’t seem from the edited interview that Kathy Bates followed up – so perhaps there will be a follow-up interview with Rob Reiner where he clarifies his side of the story.
As is, Misery is a perfect movie, and part of that stems from how lean it is as a horror/thriller. If you’re now in the mood to watch, the bad news is that it’s not currently available in any libraries of the major streaming services, but the film is widely available for digital rental/purchase, and Kino Lorber released a terrific 4K UHD edition a few years ago that is a must for anyone building a Stephen King library.