Casting Change Quotes

Right before 'Brian's Song' there was a period when I was very despondent, broke, depressed; my first marriage was on the rocks. The role of Gale Sayers had been cast with Lou Gossett, and then he hurt himself playing basketball. I was called in to read for the role. I was their last choice, and I knew it.

The more visibility, the more opportunities for Asian-American actors to play great roles. It goes to the studios opening up roles they might not have considered Asian actors for. The talent is there. I don't think there needs to be one superstar, but having more roles open up, that's the way changes happen.

There's another girl who was going to play Hilary Faye and luckily she wound up not doing it.

So, they had this 40-odd year friendship with each other and with Mr Harwood. So, when I came on it Albert, Tom and Maggie were in the cast. But then Albert wasn't up for it, so he had to withdraw.

First black Bond - that's my aim! That's the one!

I just couldn't go back to Suddenly Susan after David Strickland's suicide. I didn't see how we could make the show light and funny any more.

I really don't know what happened in reference to 'The Butler.' Mr. Daniels and I had a conversation. I had the script, the email that goes along with it in reference to the character, read the script, loved it. Then I never heard from Mr. Daniels again, and the next I saw was that Oprah Winfrey is now playing the part.

I play the leading lady in Arjun Rampal's latest production, 'Daddy'. It's a very bold, performance-oriented role, and the team had originally cast someone else. However, when Arjun saw my performance in 'Kaaka Muttai,' he roped me in.

I was the lead in 'Interview With The Vampire', until Tom Cruise decided he was interested. I was in 'The Wings Of The Dove' with Uma Thurman, until that got cancelled. I was in 'Shakespeare In Love' with Julia Roberts, until that fell apart.

'Liv and Maddie' didn't start out as a twin show. I actually played a different character in the beginning, and it was neither of the twins.

It is very difficult for an actor to replace another actor who has already created an image.

I remember reading scripts when I started in the business, and [Latino roles] were either nonexistent or written as the maid or a drug dealer. We're no longer just that. I'll play any part that challenges me. What's important is that all races have choices.

In the original script, my character was a basketball player rather than a boxer. I didn't think I could pull that off. I'm a little short to be a basketball player!

I do all kinds of roles - nerd, psycho, nerd, psycho, nerd, psycho - and occasionally someone kind of normal. It's weird, when I lived in Austin I was always cast as pretty normal people. But when I moved to Los Angeles I was immediately branded a psycho.

I stepped in for Nicole Kidman in 'Dogville' when she left that film.

The only reason I'm associated with 'the Boosh' is because Richard Ayoade, who was meant to be doing Bainbridge, couldn't do it because of something with Channel 4, so I ended up doing it.

I was initially cast as Corporal Hicks, and I was fired after a couple weeks of filming because I got busted for possession of drugs, and Michael Biehn replaced me.

Brian and I got cast out of that show into Trapper John, M. D.

Yes, we were looking for a Faith spin-off, but then Faith backed down. Eliza got a really wonderful offer over on Fox in a show, and, for reasons I didn't talk to her about, she decided to go there, and everyone respects that.