Casting What-Ifs
Ridley Scott was set to make it in 1986 with Matthew Broderick as Johnny Utah and Charlie Sheen as Bodhi; after four years in turnaround the producers wanted Charlie Sheen or Johnny Depp in the Keanu role; Catherine Bigelow insisted on Keanu Reeves; Keanu over Depp
In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:10:32Read transcript
- In 1986 Ridley Scott was supposed to make Point Break with Matthew Broderick in the Keanu Reeves role and Charlie Sheen as Bodhi, which the hosts call a very bad look.
- Broderick as Johnny Utah does not work: picture him in the beach football scene, or playing basketball in The Cable Guy; Ferris Bueller cannot be a former football superstar, so the whole script would have to change.
- Ridley Scott moved on and the film sat in turnaround for four years; when it was made in 1991 the producers wanted Charlie Sheen or Johnny Depp in the Keanu role, but Catherine Bigelow (as transcribed) said Keanu Reeves was her guy because she saw him as an action star.
- Asked Johnny Depp or Keanu Reeves for the lead, the answer is Keanu: the role needs the doofus surfer voice and airheadedness played completely seriously without blending the two, which only Keanu can do, whereas Depp would have done it well and accidentally turned into a surfer for real.
- Another agrees with everything said: Depp would have taken it a little too seriously, while Keanu had the unintentional comedy part of it; Depp as a football quarterback might have been its own unintentional comedy.
- Nobody can picture Depp running, much less chasing Swayze sixty yards down the longest football field of all time, shedding nine blockers; the joke is that a quarterback who can tackle like that must have thrown a lot of picks, capped with 'Ohio State, baby.'
- Early on, while setting up who Keanu was in 1991, a host mentions reading that Matthew Roderick (as transcribed) was considered for the Keanu role and is told this steps on the half-assed internet research corner.