Having watched Lincoln yesterday, I have rounded off most of the great movies of 2012, having watched Django Unchained a couple of weeks back. Two movies that were such a joy to watch, directed by two of the greatest movie makers of this time. Written with such passion that made for a compelling story-telling having a similar broad theme about slavery in USA in the 19th century. And then there is the stellar cast in each of these movies, giving some of their greatest acting performances, which eventually makes you want to watch these two-and-a-half hour long movies over and over again. Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained and Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln stand out so prominently despite the presence of great actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field around them. They take their acting skills to another level and in this process elevate the whole standard of these movies.
And to believe that these acting roles may not have fallen to these great actors after all. For Christoph Waltz would never have risen to his Hollywood prominence if the role of Colonol Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds had never been given to him. It almost wasn't for Tarantino intended Leonardo DiCaprio to play that role, till he eventually changed his mind. For Lincoln, Spielberg always wanted Daniel Day-Lewis to play this role after Liam Neeson dropped out. Daniel-Day Lewis actually refused! Probably overwhelmed by the greatness of the character, he wrote a letter to Spielberg citing his refusal, which was later on revealed by Spielberg. Scroll down to the end in case you want to read it, the wonderfully eloquent English that it carries. And how we cannot imagine these roles to be played by anyone else now!
It is probably destiny, as if things were just meant to fall in place. As if these roles had the names of those actors written all over it. Try as you may, forces of nature would ensure that it is them who would eventually be the ones enacting it. Arnold Schwarzenegger was signed on to play Kyle Reese in The Terminator and not the titular character, until James Cameron changed his mind. Harrison Ford was nowhere close to playing the iconic Hans Solo in Star Wars movies but George Lucas found something in his auditions that made him offer a contract and the rest they say is history. Harrison Ford was again almost not going to become yet another iconic figure, Indiana Jones, and as luck would have it, Tom Selleck who had been offered the role was not allowed to leave by makers of the movie he was currently working on. Guess what, Will Smith was to be our Neo of The Matrix but he turned down the role. Heck, your loss, for the world got Keanu Reeves. And three actors including John Travolta turned down this role before Tom Hanks went ahead and won an Oscar for it... the lead role in Forrest Gump. How things would have been different you wonder! But some things are just meant to be the way they turn out to be...
Here is the letter that Daniel Day-Lewis wrote informing Spielberg that he would not be able to go ahead with the role of Abraham Lincoln, a role thanks to Spielberg's persistence and whosoever got Daniel to change his mind, which would likely win him another Oscar.
Dear Steven,
It was a real pleasure just to sit and talk with you. I listened very carefully to what you had to say about this compelling history, and I’ve since read the script and found it in all the detail in which it describes these monumental events and in the compassionate portraits of all the principal characters, both powerful and moving. I can’t account for how at any given moment I feel the need to explore life as opposed to another, but I do know that I can only do this work if I feel almost as if there is no choice; that a subject coincides inexplicably with a very personal need and a very specific moment in time. In this case, as fascinated as I was by Abe, it was the fascination of a grateful spectator who longed to see a story told, rather than that of a participant. That’s how I feel now in spite of myself, and though I can’t be sure that this won’t change, I couldn’t dream of encouraging you to keep it open on a mere possibility. I do hope this makes sense Steven, I’m glad you’re making the film, I wish you the strength for it, and I send both my very best wishes and my sincere gratitude to you for having considered me.
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