Ed Harris, Chris Cooper, and, Christopher Walken are three American veteran actors known for their iconic work in Hollywood in the 2000s. With Harris starring in movies like The Truman Show, The Rock, and The Abyss, the actor received quite fame for his roles.
Chris Cooper wasn’t far behind as the veteran actor also devoted himself to movies and starred in October Sky, The Bourne Identity, and, American Beauty. Christopher Walken also had his fair share of movies but all three actors share one similar thing. They all rejected a certain role in 2002!
Ed Harris, Chris Cooper, And, Christopher Walken Rejected The Same Role!
After the success of Spider-Man in 2002, director Sam Raimi was searching the world for an actor to be cast in the role of Doctor Otto Octavius in Spider-Man 2. The director had several main actors in mind and Ed Harris, Chris Cooper. and Christopher Walken were on the top of the list.
In a 2004 interview with TV Guide, Alfred Molina, the actor who portrayed the role of Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2 revealed that there were a total of 4 actors in the competition. Harris, Cooper, and Walken, each had a fantastic and worthy background but none of them starred in the role of Doc Ock.
“[Director] Sam Raimi saw a whole bunch of us character actors. It was me, Ed Harris, Chris Cooper and Christopher Walken. We were all actors on a list because we all had movies that made a bit of a splash.”
He further continued
“Chris had a SAG nomination and an Oscar nomination. Ed Harris had an Oscar nomination. I had gotten a SAG nomination and a BAFTA nomination for Frida.”
Ed Harris, being an iconic actor with a plethora of movies to his name, talked about working with veteran director James Cameron.
Ed Harris Allegedly Once Punched Director James Cameron!
While working on the sets of the 1989 movie The Abyss, Ed Harris hated working with director James Cameron. In ’89, Cameron had not yet found his fame and thus, he was a difficult director to work with. As per film trivia, Harris once allegedly punched James Cameron while they were filming a drowning scene.
Although it isn’t confirmed whether the punch did happen or not, Ed Harris revealed in a 2016 interview with Entertainment Weekly that the cast did receive terrible treatment during the shooting of the film!
“We were guinea pigs, in a way, Jim wasn’t quite sure how this was all gonna go down… [in the drowning scene I was] screaming at her to come back and wake up, and I was slapping her across the face and I see that they’ve run out of film in the camera — there’s a light on the camera — and nobody had said anything.”
Although Alfred Molina portrayed a spectacular version of Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home, we couldn’t help but wonder what if the role had gone to Ed Harris, Chris Cooper, or Christopher Walken?
With Molina in the villainous role and Tobey Maguire in the lead, Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home are available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.
