For this edition of Trivia Ten, I'll have a look at some of the trivia regarding Bruce Willis and his most popular movies. There's plenty of trivia to find about Willis, some of it outrageous, some pretty cool, some pretty boring (but as you can guess those didn't make the list). Seems like he has gotten a few lucky breaks in his career, as some of his biggest roles were first offered to other actors. To find out which movies, and which actors, just click on through!
Blind Date
Originally, Madonna and her then husband Sean Penn were approached for the leads in this movie. The producers on Blind Date insisted however that Bruce Willis, then hot thanks to the success of Moonlighting, would take the lead. Madonna heard this and promptly backed out of the project.
Die Hard
Amazingly, Bruce wasn't the first actor considered for the role of John McClane, it was actually offered to four other actors! The other actors were (in order) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds and... Richard Gere?
Pulp Fiction
Bruce Willis had originally wanted to play John Travolta's role of Vincent Vega in this movie, and was dissapointed when the part passed him by. Quentin Tarantino remembered this, and when Matt Dillon passed up for the role of Butch (who was supposed to be an up and coming boxer), he rewrote the part so that it would fit Willis perfectly.
Twelve Monkeys
Right before shooting on this classic movie started, director Terry Gilliam had a chat with Bruce, giving him a list of 'Willis acting cliches' that he wasn't allowed to use in Twelve Monkeys. This list included Willis' trademark "steely blue eyes look".
Armageddon
You might remember that in this movie, Bruce Willis has an emotional scene near the end, where he says goodbye to his daughter Grace (Liv Tyler). To get the tearducts working, Bruce had a picture of his real life daughters in front of him while shooting the scene.
Unbreakable
In Die Hard With a Vengeance, one of the inspectors from the movie has this to say about Willis' character John McClane: "By next month he is going to be a security guard." It took a little bit longer, but in Unbreakable, a security guard is indeed the occupation of Willis' character.
Bandits
One of the little girls in the movie is played by Willis' daughter Scout. She is the girl who belches during the big dinner scene. Like a proud dad, Willis told everybody afterwards that the scene was not enhanced in any way, but that this was really all his daughter's own work!
Tears of the Sun
The original script for this movie was actually considered as Die Hard 4. Eventually both the title for the movie and the idea behind it went their seperate ways. Bruce was so intent on making this movie that he, reportedly, told the studio behind the Die Hard movies that he would make a Die Hard 4, if they would let him make this movie with the Tears of the Sun name intact.
The Whole Ten Yards
I'm not sure if Die Hard Bruce Willis fans want to know this one: when filming a scene where Matthew Perry's character from the movie wakes up next to Bruce Willis in bed, Perry found Willis to actually be completely naked under the sheets. Perry never asked Willis why he wasn't wearing any clothes, he was too afraid!
16 Blocks
Instead of Mos Def, Bruce Willis originally wanted Ludacriss to play the role opposite him. A good thing then that he didn't get his way. No offense to Ludacris of course, I'm just a big fan of Mos Def.
Comments