Terrence Malick is one of those directors who rarely films and is adored by the actors.
When he announced that he was starting casting for The Red Line , which would become one of his finest films, every Hollywood actor lined up. So much so that those responsible for casting quickly had to officially announce that they were no longer accepting applications because they were inundated with proposals…
George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino and Gary Oldman offered to work for a quarter of their usual salary.
Others offered to work for free.
After reading the script, Sean Penn simply told Malick, “I’m doing the movie for a dollar. You just have to tell me where and when to show up.”
Bruce Willis, for his part, promised first-class plane tickets to the casting directors (to the destination of their choice) if they managed to land him a tiny role with a few lines.
Among the actors that Malick found interesting and who auditioned for a role but were not selected, we find: Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Kevin Costner!
Finally, there were also actors who filmed for the film, but whose performance was cut during editing!
Thus, Bill Pullman, Gary Oldman, Lukas Haas, Viggo Mortensen, Martin Sheen, Jason Patrick and Mickey Rourke all filmed under Malick’s direction, but do not appear in the film!
Mickey Rourke in a never-before-seen scene from the film presented as a bonus on the DVD.
Billy Bob Thornton should have also been in the film. He recorded the entire narration in voiceover. But Malick ultimately preferred that the film be narrated in voice-over by the eight main actors!
But the most severely injured of all the actors who played in The Red Line is certainly Adrien Brody.
He had won the role of Corporal Fife, the central character of the book from which the film is based. As the script also gave him pride of place, he expected to be at the heart of the project. However, Malick ultimately decided otherwise during editing, cutting almost all of his scenes, leaving him with virtually no dialogue. Adrien Brody only discovered this on the day of the film’s premiere, much to his dismay.