There are many lists out there about how many famous actors turned down famous roles. There’s Michael Madsen turning down PULP FICTION, Will Smith saying no to THE MATRIX, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger having to drop out of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL due to scheduling conflicts. What we don’t hear much about though are actors who almost didn’t a big-ticket role, but instead of going "oh well" fought for the role even if it meant ensuring they would have no social life for years to come.
But that’s just Ezra Miller did, and now he has premium roles in two huge movie franchises: DC and HARRY POTTER. However, he almost didn’t get to be a part of the latter, which being a POTTER fan, would’ve eaten him up inside:
"I thought this was a universe that had been closed to me forever. I thought we’d had everything we’d ever get from that world, I thought it was over. I spent years devastated that I wasn’t in that world, that I wasn’t in those movies. I would say, ‘I can do British, I promise.'"
Then it was announced that a FANTASTIC BEASTS movie was in the works. Though he wasn’t able to get the script he did improvise a little something for David Yates that helped the director decide he was right for the role of Credence:
“I wanted this role with all of me.”
But:
“At that stage I’d already signed up to become The Flash and there were serious scheduling issues. For a while it looked like I wouldn’t be able to do this movie.”
“So I’m thinking about the part, I’m dreaming about it, I want it and I know deep down that I will do anything for it. So I start emailing Warner Bros. and I say, ‘Look at Humphrey Bogart!’ Casablanca was his eleventh film with the studio that decade. We don’t do that anymore, we don’t develop relationships between actors and studios. There’s no loyalty like that anymore. I say in these emails that I want that with you. I want Credence and I want The Flash.”
Miller has a point when it comes to actors being synonymous with studios. Though actors used to sign contracts with studios (like MGM), and their relationships hence were more of a business matter, it still doesn't deflate the fact that actors like Bogart helped define studio movies with their charisma and talent. This was pretty smart of Miller to reference such an example in order to secure the gig. Not only did he associate himself with one of film’s defining personas, but he always proved his commitment to the roles. When in doubt always reference old things. How do you think suspender salesmen were able to trick hipsters into buying their product?
Ezra Miller will join Eddie Redmayne, Colin Farrell, Dan Fogler, Halle Berry and Katherine Waterston in FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM on November 18.