- 3 days ago
Saruman was cut from The Return of the King, and Christopher Lee was buzzed!
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00:00Look, it doesn't matter how brilliant a film is, how meticulously planned it is, how down to the
00:06wire everything gets. The fact of filmmaking is that things are going to change. These 10 actors
00:12turned up, did their work, got everything done for the director and then on opening night sat there
00:17and were conspicuously absent from the released product. I'm Sean Ferry for What Culture and here
00:22are 10 actors who were completely cut out of huge movies. Number 10, Tim Blake Nelson, Dune Part 2.
00:30With his return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe after almost 20 years away, Tim Blake Nelson is
00:36set to return as the leader in Captain America Brave New World. This marks his first return to
00:42the MCU since his appearance in 2008's The Incredible Hulk, which is one of the most dangling plot lines
00:48in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date. As big as 2025 will be for the actor, 2024 could have been
00:55even bigger. He filmed scenes for Dune Part 2, which is currently dominating the box office,
01:02but alas, every one of his scenes were cut due to runtime. With any movie's source material,
01:08there's going to be adaptations and removals. Despite having a large role in the first film
01:13and the character appearing in subsequent novels, Stephen McKinley Henderson's Thorfer Howitt, which I
01:19have almost definitely mispronounced, was never even written into the sequel for Dune 2. Tim Blake Nelson
01:25had a slightly different experience. He showed up and filmed scenes for the movie, but they were all
01:30removed in the final edit, with the actor saying that he himself was heartbroken when he found this
01:36out. Though, as of recording, it's unclear what the role was or how big a part he was going to play in
01:41the film, Dune Part 2 looks set to be easily one of the biggest films of the year, so that surely must
01:48have been one of the biggest gut punches in the poor man's career. Any involvement he could have had in
01:52the film was sure to have meant a lot. Hopefully, his scenes will be restored when it comes to the DVD
01:58release when it comes out. Number 9. Christopher Lee, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King.
02:03Christopher Lee's Saruman played a huge role, particularly in The Two Towers, but in both previous
02:10Lord of the Rings releases before The Return of the King. He is, after all, responsible for the 10,000 strong
02:16Uruk-hai army that besieges Helm's Deep toward the close of The Two Towers. I say the close of The Two Towers,
02:21it's a good half the film. Let us not forget as well that it was he who essentially drove the Fellowship
02:26into the mines of Moria by calling a storm to try and bring down Caradhras on top of all of their heads.
02:32So, with such a large role in both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, one would assume
02:38he would get quite the, if you like, resolution going into The Return of the King. Well, if you
02:43were sitting in the theatre in 2003, you were in for a bit of a surprise. In the theatrical version
02:48of The Return of the King, this is leading on from the defeat of Isengard by the Ents at the close
02:53of The Two Towers. Saruman, defeated in terms of strength, is locked up in his tower and that's it.
02:58In the theatrical version, they just say, eh, leave him there, he's fine. In the extended edition,
03:03audiences are given a resolution to the character as the scene in which Saruman and Grima Wormtongue
03:09treat with the survivors of Helm's Deep is restored for the film. However, Christopher Lee was a well-known
03:16Tolkien enthusiast fan, read the book every year for decades, in fact, met J.R. Tolkien himself. Didn't take
03:24it well when he heard the scene was going to be cut, so much to the point where he actually boycotted
03:29the premiere. Now, himself and Peter Jackson did make up in the years afterwards. I assume the
03:34scenes restored on the extended edition probably helped, but also Saruman would go on to appear
03:40in the Hobbit trilogy as well. Number eight, Amy Poehler, Anchorman, The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
03:46Though Anchorman 2 was overall a bit of a letdown in terms of sequels when compared to the first film,
03:52there is a scene which is a pure highlight of the film, and it's the slew of cameo appearances in the
03:59massive news brawl in the park. Among the likes of Liam Neeson, John C. Reilly, Will Smith, Harrison
04:05Ford, and more, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler appeared in this massive scene. However, Amy Poehler had also
04:12filmed scenes for the first film that made it to the cutting room floor. It wasn't just Poehler's
04:17scenes that were cut, but an entire subplot in which Veronica Corningstone was kidnapped by
04:22the Alarm Clock gang, only to then be saved by Will Ferrell and the rest of his team. This was
04:27going to be the original ending before they switched to the one in the zoo. As part of a
04:32plotline that only made it to Wake Up Ron Burgundy, a straight-to-DVD collection of deleted scenes and
04:38plots, the gang attempted to rob Amy Poehler's bank teller. Apparently, even at the time, Poehler knew
04:44that the scene wouldn't make it to the film, so it was even more fun when she was able to come back
04:49in the second film and become a part of the entire franchise on screen. Number seven, Harrison Ford,
04:56E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Steven Spielberg is one of the most prolific and respected directors
05:01of all time, with just so many amazing films in his repertoire. What's even more impressive is when
05:08one considers that two of his best films, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,
05:14both came out within a year of each other. Of course, Spielberg had worked with Harrison Ford on
05:18Raiders of the Lost Ark. This was at the height of his Han Solo fame, with the Star Wars, well,
05:24at that stage, duology? Having come out, and look, everyone was Han Solo mad. But what people might
05:30not know is that he also worked with Harrison Ford on E.T. In the scene that ended up on the
05:34Cutter Room 4, Harrison Ford came in to play the principal of Elliot's school. Though he kept his back
05:40to the camera the entire time, never showed his face. There's literally no mistaking Harrison Ford's
05:45voice. Behind him, E.T. made Elliot's chair levitate in the air and drop back down quick enough that
05:52the archaeologist slash principal was none the wiser. Though the scene wouldn't have really added
05:57anything to the story, it would have made for a fun Easter egg, and certainly would have served as
06:02young star Henry Thomas's favourite day on set. But to be fair, how often at that age do you get to
06:08work with someone as successful as Harrison Ford? Number 6, Jack Whitehall, Frozen. Jack Whitehall has
06:15gone from starring in such comedies as Bad Education and Fresh Meat, to starring alongside Dwayne Johnson
06:21and Emily Blunt in Disney's Jungle Cruise, to also appearing in Clifford the Big Red Dog. On top of
06:26this, he almost appeared in one of Disney's biggest films of all time, in which he was going to play a
06:32troll Loki, where he would have exactly one line of dialogue when Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf would all
06:38arrive to speak to the trolls. Speaking on the Graham Norton show, he revealed that he discovered
06:43his one line of dialogue had been reduced to a non-speaking role in an animated film. Imagine being
06:50such a big fan of Disney and getting to be in one of the biggest films of their entire catalogue,
06:55only to then realise, actually no you didn't. One of the worst things is that it's not just the
06:59gargantuan success that Frozen would go on to have without him, it's the fact that he found out when
07:04he was sitting in the cinema watching it. Number 5, Tobey Maguire, Life of Pi. In very basic general
07:11terms, you could say that the bigger the star's power, the more opportunities and the more variety
07:18of roles there will be to offer to them. Obviously that's not a hard and fast rule, but I think there's
07:23enough examples of that in Hollywood. One actor who actually suffered from their status was Tobey
07:30Maguire. While he was still riding on the high of his appearance in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy,
07:35something that still sees him receive a lot of love today, director Ang Lee decided he was too famous
07:42to appear in the film Life of Pi. The role was a relatively small one and Lee reckoned it was in fact
07:49too small for someone as famous as Tobey Maguire because the actor's fame might actually pull focus
07:56from the character and from the scene. The problem is that by the time Ang Lee came to this decision,
08:02Tobey Maguire had already been cast and filmed his scenes. He was then replaced by the, at the time,
08:08much less recognisable Rafe Spall. Number 4, Matt Damon, Ocean's 8. In almost every spin-off,
08:16reboot or sequel, there will usually be ties back to the original, whether this be lines of dialogue
08:22saying, oh do you remember that time when? Or visual cues or, as often happens, cameos. Ocean's 8 is no
08:29different. The female-led spin-off to Ocean's 11 featured two cameos already. Elliot Gould returned
08:35as Reuben Tishkoff and Kin Xiaobo returned as Yen. There was almost more. Matt Damon actually filmed scenes
08:42for this sequel spin-off but was cut from the final film along with Carl Reiner's Saul Bloom. Damon
08:48played Linus Caldwell back in Ocean's 11 and appeared in Ocean's 12 and 13 as well but it
08:53seems that there was just no room for him in this film. Director Gary Ross insists that this was done
08:59purely for story purposes but it is hard to ignore that there was a petition around at the time to have
09:06the actor removed from the film in light of comments he made about Harvey Weinstein and the Me Too
09:12movement in 2017. Number 3, Paul Rudd, Bridesmaids. There aren't many actors in the business who seem
09:18to be as universally loved as Paul Rudd. For over 20 years he's been in the biz making us just just fall
09:24in love with him over and over again and on top of that he just seems to be a nice guy. It's hard to
09:29imagine any comedy not being made better by the appearance of Paul Rudd but Bridesmaids went in an
09:34opposite direction. There was a scene in which Paul Rudd brought Kristen Wiig's character out on the
09:39worst date imaginable to an ice rink where he insulted all of the children there until eventually
09:44being knocked out by one of their parents. It might seem bonkers to cut someone like Paul Rudd
09:48from your film but there's actually sound reasoning behind it according to director Paul Fyke. He said
09:53that the scene only served to reinforce how terrible Annie's love life was but that the plot with John
09:59Ham's character did that already so this was just more rather than better. With the scenes cut the
10:07film came down to a more manageable two hours and though it must have hurt so much the fact is the
10:13film is probably better without the scene anyway. Number 2, Tim Roth, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
10:20Directors like Christopher Nolan frequently work with their favourite actors again and again and
10:25in his case Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy would be two outstanding examples but Quentin Tarantino
10:30likes to do the exact same thing. Alongside the likes of Samuel L Jackson and Michael Madsen one
10:35such Tarantino favourite is Tim Roth. The actor played a key role of Pumpkin in Pulp Fiction, the
10:40deceptive Mr Orange in Reservoir Dogs and Oswaldo Mowbray in The Hateful Eight. He also appears in
10:46the credits of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood despite not appearing in the film itself. In order to bring the
10:53film down from a ridiculous five hour runtime to a slightly less ridiculous three hour runtime, Tim
11:01Roth's character and entire arc were scrapped. The English actor reportedly filmed a bunch of scenes
11:06as Jay Sebring's butler but what the nature of these scenes were now is not known. Roth was apparently
11:13shown the version of the film that still included his character and his name still turns up in the
11:19credits. That is a testament to, despite being cut from the film, how much Tarantino really does
11:24obviously respect this man. Number one, Ana de Armas, Yesterday. Test audiences can be an absolutely
11:32vital tool for filmmakers that they can watch a version of the film, provide their feedback and
11:38filmmakers can then go and make changes based on. In a version of Yesterday that was shown to test
11:43audiences, Jack's eyes wandered away from Ellie at one point as he started to fall in lust with Ana
11:49de Armas' character but it weakened the overall romantic subplot. The decision was made to cut
11:55Ana from the film altogether which actually broke director Danny Boyle's heart as he described her
12:00as radiant in the role. However, without this plot's inclusion, they were able to focus more on
12:06Jack and Ellie's love story. What's slightly odd here is that while Ana was cut from the film, she wasn't
12:11cut from the trailers. So you might understandably have seen the trailer and gone to the cinema
12:16thinking you're going to watch Ana de Armas in a film. When she didn't show up, two cinema goers,
12:21they took that personally. Some actors can draw audiences based on their name alone and even
12:26though Ana de Armas had yet to star in the arguably career-making role of Knives Out, two cinema goers
12:34went to the cinema purely because they wanted to see Ana de Armas. When she then didn't turn up in the film,
12:40they attempted to sue based on false advertising. The case was thrown out.
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