The renowned director, Quentin Tarantino, has some of Hollywood’s best movies to his name. One such film is Inglourious Basterds starring Christopher Waltz and Brad Pitt, which was released in 2009. The movie went on to receive immense praise and even won a handful of awards, including an Oscar, a BAFTA, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and more.
To the never-ending list of actors who almost got the role, Quentin Tarantino has made a new addition. Apparently, if all went according to his plan, the cast of Inglourious Basterds would have ended up looking a bit different. Recently, the director revealed that a certain role in his movie was actually written with actor Adam Sandler in mind.
Adam Sandler was Almost in a Quentin Tarantino Film
Recently Bill Maher had two guests over for his Club Random podcast – Quentin Tarantino and Judd Apatow. Tarantino talked about the time when he did the movie, Little Nicky, along with Adam Sandler, He stated that it was through Sandler that he met Apatow. Tarantino admitted to wanting to cast Sandler in Inglourious Basterds when Apatow stated he “wasn’t aware” that Tarantino wanted to use Sandler in his own film.
“I feel bad because when I did ‘Funny People’ with Sandler, I wasn’t aware that that was the exact time you were trying to use him for ‘Inglorious Basterds.’”
The Pulp Fiction director then stated that Funny People was the obvious choice for the actor to star in, before adding that the role of Bear Jew was specifically written for Sandler. However, when the movie came to fruition, it was actually Eli Roth who ended up playing Sergeant Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz. His interest in hiring Sandler for the role came from the time when they did Little Nicky together and the former was excited he got to beat up Nazis with a bat.
“But yeah, the Bear Jew was going to…I wrote the Bear Jew for Adam Sandler. When I was doing ‘Little Nicky,’ he’s telling me like, “Oh man, I get to f**king beat up Nazis with a bat? F**king script! F**king awesome! I can’t f**king wait! I can’t f**king wait!” He was like telling every Jewish guy, “I’m going to f**king play this guy who beats up Nazis with a f**king bat.’”
However, his dream of hiring Sandler, a Jewish actor, for his movie couldn’t become a reality because he was busy filming Funny People with Apatow as both films were being shot at similar times. Tarantino continued that the problem he faced was that “all the good Jews” were in Funny People and he had no one for his movie which was a conundrum for him as according to him he was the one “doing the Jewish male fantasy.”
“Here’s the problem. [Judd] wrapped up all the good Jews [for ‘Funny People’].” “That was the problem. Seth Rogen and all the good Jews were doing ‘Funny People.’ I’m killing Hitler with baseball bats and there’s no good Jews available! David Krumholtz, nobody! All the good Jews were all wrapped up! I’m doing the Jewish male fantasy!”
We wonder how Sandler being in Inglourious Basterds would have affected the movie in the long run and if Roth was, after all, the best choice for the role.
Inglourious Basterds’ Actress Reveals a Truth
It looks like Roth wasn’t the only actor in the film who wasn’t Tarantino’s first choice. Actress Diane Kruger who played the role of Bridget Von Hammersmark revealed at the beginning of the year that the director wasn’t too keen on taking her audition because he didn’t like a movie she was previously in. On the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, Kruger stated that Tarantino only auditioned for her because there wasn’t anyone left to audition for the role.
“He didn’t want to audition me because he saw a movie that I was in he didn’t like. So he didn’t believe in me from the get-go. Literally, the only reason he auditioned me is because there was no one left to audition.”
Kruger also added that she had to pay for her own ticket to fly from New York to Germany because Tarantino wouldn’t. The actress had put her foot down and was determined to prove her worth. We all know how that turned out!
Tarantino sure seems to know exactly what he wants for his films! Although, what happened in the end, seemed to have all worked out for the better as proved by the number of nominations the movie received!
The Club Random podcast is available to stream on Apple Podcasts and the episode with Tarantino and Apatow will be released on December 18.
Source: Variety
