Jon Hamm as Derek Huff & 9 Other Actors Almost Cast In Famous Comedy Roles

Casting for any role in Hollywood is tricky, but it’s especially difficult when casting for a comedic role. Whoever is cast will need to bring something to a character that’s in line with what the director/writers intended, or something unexpected that wasn’t considered before. Both options have let a lot of actors to embody some beloved characters, and those characters wouldn’t be the same if another actor were cast.

And yet, some actors have come close to playing roles destined for others – whether the original actors couldn’t commit or didn’t match up to what the character called for (among other things), there’s been some close calls that could have changed these films entirely. This list will look at some familiar actors who almost found themselves in some pretty notable comedies, and how they could have either been interesting to see as these characters or just wouldn’t work.

10 Jon Hamm: Derek Huff In Step Brothers (2008)

Adam Scott burst onto the scene as the obnoxious Derek in Step Brothers, managing to hold his own against Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. But as revealed by comedian Thomas Lennon (best known for his role as Lt. Jim Dangle on Reno 911) on a 2012 episode of the Earwolf podcast Making It, there were three finalists for the role of Derek: himself, Adam Scott, and Scott’s friend Jon Hamm, just prior to landing his breakout role on Mad Men.

Hamm’s no slouch when it comes to comedic roles nowadays. As seen in Bridesmaids, he can be lovably detestable, and his good looks would have made him more of a “perfect son” compared to Will Ferrell’s Brennan. But Scott managed to hit all the right notes here regardless, and Hamm scoring the part over him might have prevented Scott from being cast in some of his later roles.

9 James Gandolfini: Wille T. Soke in Bad Santa (2003)

The Coen brothers executive produced Terry Zwigoff’s Bad Santa, and the two of them had certain actors in mind for key roles. James Gandolfini was their choice to play degenerate criminal Willie T. Soke (having worked with him on The Man Who Wasn’t There), and the role was written specifically for The Sopranos actor.

Gandolfini never wound up doing the film, however, and Billy Bob Thornton was later cast instead. Gandolfini often played sarcastic and somewhat grouchy characters that aren’t too different from Willie, though Thornton’s performance would have been hard to top.

8 Jim Carrey: Buddy The Elf In Elf (2003)

It’s impossible to imagine anyone but Will Ferrell playing Buddy in the Christmas comedy classic Elf, but original writer David Berenbaum had Jim Carrey in mind for the role when the project first made the rounds in 1993.

Carrey was attached to star, but when the film was stuck in development for almost 10 years, he dropped out and was replaced by Ferrell. Carrey, of course, is great at giving hilariously over-the-top and poignant performances, but Ferrell really sells the kid-in-a-man’s body energy that’s essential to Buddy as a character.

7 Chris Farley: Ernie “Chip” Douglas/”The Cable Guy” In The Cable Guy (1996)

Speaking of Carrey, Chris Farley was attached to star in an earlier version of The Cable Guy. The original script was written with Farley in mind and was far from the dark comedy it would later become. The Cable Guy character in this version was a lovable loser-type who tried inserting himself into a cable subscriber’s life, but not in a dangerous or harmful way. Before Farley could accept the role, he was forced to sign on for Black Sheep as part of a two-picture deal with Universal, who rushed the script for that film, so Farley couldn’t do Cable Guy. 

Even though Cable Guy wasn’t successful when it came out, it gained a nice cult following since then, and Carrey gives a really unhinged and disturbing performance. Farley never got to stretch his acting muscles before his untimely passing, but seeing him play the darker version of the character (had Carrey never signed on) would have been fun and could have led to different kinds of roles for him going forward. He could have played off the audience’s expectations of seeing him play yet another lovable oaf, only to have them shocked at him actually playing a psychopath.

6 Rick Moranis: Ace Ventura In Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

Another iconic Carrey role is Ace Ventura. Carrey’s fingerprints are all over this role: he helped rewrite parts of the script and was allowed to ad-lib con set.

And yet he wasn’t the first choice for Ace, as the role was originally offered to Rick Moranis, who passed on it. Moranis certainly would have had a different take on the character than Carrey’s. Plus, this film was Carrey’s big break into movie stardom, and he might have had trouble making a name for himself without this film to fall back on.

5 John Belushi: Peter Venkman In Ghostbusters (1984)

Dan Aykroyd conceived of Ghostbusters as a much more fantastical film involving time travel and more supernatural enemies. Aykroyd wrote the role of Peter Venkman for his friend John Belushi, though Belushi’s death prevented this version from happening. After Aykroyd re-conceived the film with Harold Ramis, Bill Murray was cast in the role, becoming synonymous with the character and helping the film become a pop-culture juggernaut.

Belushi playing Peter Venkman is intriguing – his version was probably more of a rowdy slob compared to Murray’s sarcastic wiseass, which could have worked, but it’s hard to imagine the finished film working any better than it already did.

4 Jake Gyllenhaal: Alan Garner In The Hangover (2009)

The Hangover director Todd Phillips revealed in the franchise’s oral history article for The Hollywood Reporter that when he and the writers were coming up with Alan’s character, they thought of him as a younger character that tagged along with the main groomsmen.

Jake Gyllenhaal was considered for this version of Alan before it was decided that the character would be funnier if he was older, and a then-unknown  Zach Galifianakis was cast. Gyllenhaal’s shown he can do comedy well, but he doesn’t feel right for Alan, even for the original version. Galifianakis, of course, embodied Alan perfectly and became a comedy icon, thanks to the film.

3 Nicolas Cage: Harry Dunne In Dumb and Dumber (1994)

Jim Carrey wanted his friend Nicolas Cage to star with him in Dumb and Dumber, as Lloyd Christmas’s only slightly more intelligent pal Harry Dunne. Cage was already committed to starring in Leaving Las Vegas and passed.

Things worked out overall, though: Jeff Daniels matched Carrey perfectly as Harry and Cage ended up winning an Oscar for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas. It would have been nice to see Carrey and Cage work together on a bigger project though, and there’s no doubt that Cage would have been fun to watch in the role at least.

2 Charlie Hunnam: Aldous Snow In Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

When writing Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jason Segel had his former Undeclared co-star Charlie Hunnam in mind to play Aldous Snow: the character was supposed to be a young actor, at first.

Hunnam was looking to do more dramatic work and dropped out of the film, eventually getting cast in Sons of Anarchy. Russell Brand scored the role thanks to his great audition, which lead to Segel changing the character to a rock star. It’s unfortunate that Segel and Hunnam weren’t able to work together on this film, but Brand really steals the show whenever he’s onscreen.

1 James Spader: Brick Tamland In Anchorman (2004)

In a 2013 interview with BallerStatus.com, Anchorman director Adam McKay recalled that James Spader was interested in playing bizarre meteorologist Brick Tamland. Having read the script, Spader told McKay how funny he thought it was and that he would do anything to get the role.

McKay felt Spader was almost “too good” for the part, and soon cast Steve Carell after he wowed McKay and the producers with his audition. Spader certainly could have added some odd touches to Brick’s character, but Carell improvised a lot of Brick’s best moments in the film, and casting another actor could have made these scenes less memorable.