Se7en‘s ensemble would have been led by other A-list Hollywood actors. Director David Fincher said the dark script repelled most candidates including Denzel Washington, who was an early frontrunner.
Director David Fincher said A-list Hollywood actors were tapped to lead the film’s ensemble; most thought the script was deplorable. “Almost everybody that I sent it to originally also passed,” he told The Independent. “I sent it to Ned Beatty (Deliverance, Network) to play John Doe, and he wouldn’t even consider it. Almost everyone thought that the film was far too ghoulish to deal with.” Val Kilmer was also a candidate but declined, and R. Lee Ermey, who played Full Metal Jacket‘s iconic villain, was passed over. Denzel Washington was also heavily courted to play David Mills but repeatedly rejected the offer.
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“Denzel’s manager ended up being a producer on Se7en – but I think it was kind of a bait and switch,” Fincher said. “It was like, ‘if I produce the film, you can get Denzel’. I was told that Denzel had read the script, didn’t like it, and that the script was then rewritten, like, 10 or 11 times to suit him. It was rewritten ad nauseam, ad infinitum, in an attempt to get Denzel to say yes. But by the time I got involved, Denzel had long passed.” That shed some light on the film’s troubled development; screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker reportedly revised the original script 13 times to meet studio requirements.
‘It Was Just Too Much When I Read It’
Washington elaborated on his decision in 2014, asserting that Brad Pitt was perfect for the part. He felt a pang of regret after he saw the film, however. “I was like, man, [the script is] just too much,” he said (per /Film). “Then I saw it and I was like, ‘Oh God.’ Evidently it wasn’t for me, it was for Brad all the time. It was just too much when I read it, it was just different when I saw it.” Washington showed what his David Mills would have been in his subsequent films, particularly The Manchurian Candidate, The Bone Collector, and Fallen. Training Day and American Gangster also offered a glimpse of how he would’ve snapped in Se7en‘s climactic ending.
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Se7en was David Fincher’s sophomore film. He only helmed the project because the script kept Walker’s original ending. Coming off of Alien 3’s disastrous production, Fincher didn’t want to direct another movie. Enticed by Se7en‘s script, Fincher insisted the studio keep the original draft, despite the push for a more uplifting, mainstream ending. One version spared Tracy Mills (Gwyneth Paltrow); William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) was the one who shot John Doe after he killed David Mills. The DVD release featured one of the seven alternate endings written for the film.
Se7en is streaming on Max.
Source: The Independent
Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.
- Director
-
David Fincher
- Release Date
-
September 22, 1995
- Cast
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Brad Pitt
, Gwyneth Paltrow
, John C. McGinley
, Morgan Freeman
, Kevin Spacey
