Casting What-Ifs
Tom Hanks and Michael Keaton as Phil; Tori Amos as Rita
In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:46Read transcript
- The hosts say Ramis originally wanted Tom Hanks rather than Bill Murray but decided Hanks was too nice; Eddie Murphy is guessed first, and Hanks would have been great.
- Michael Keaton is said to have turned it down as too confusing, regretted it, and ended up in Multiplicity with Ramis and Andy McDowell.
- Eddie Murphy would have wanted the part in the mid-to-late 80s but not by 1993 after Boomerang; a circa-1990 Murphy would have been really good, Keaton also would have been good, but Bill Murray ended up perfect.
- The hosts say Andy McDowell almost did not get the role because it was going to Tori Amos, amid a groundswell, before they played it safe; Sex, Lies, and Videotape is named as her breakthrough.
- Asked who instead, the answer is not Tori Amos but Susan Sarandon. — Sean Fennessey
- The Sarandon case: more mustard on the fastball playing off Bill Murray, the right age, and believable as an ambitious TV producer.
- The Sarandon idea draws pushback that she always feels older and was probably too old in 1993.
- Meg Ryan is floated and described as very sweet and so blonde.
- If Eddie Murphy were the lead, Whitney Houston is floated; the early 90s are called a tough era for actresses, Sandra Bullock too young though great, and Julia too big a star; the role is called a prop.
- After the break, the guest's Eddie Murphy idea is revisited as an awesome 80s Eddie Murphy, with doubt he pulls it off in the 90s.