In 2003, the directors of Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary, Peter and Bobby Farrelly, released Stuck on You. The movie starred Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear as a pair of conjoined twins who run a burger joint in Martha’s Vineyard. Damon’s character, Bob, is content with living a low-key life even though Kinnear’s character, Walt, has big dreams of becoming a famous actor. Stuck on You wasn’t as big a hit as the Farrellys’ earlier movies, but if they’d gotten their original choices for the lead roles, that might’ve ended up being a totally different story.
As early as 1999, TIME magazine reported that Woody Allen would star in the movie. When Stuck on You was released four years later without the famous comedian in the lead, Bobby Farrelly said that things hadn’t worked out with Allen or Jim Carrey, who was supposed to be his co-star. Farrelly went on to say that they’d had a meeting with Allen that seemed to confuse him initially. His first question for the Farrelly Brothers was “What do you want with me?” The filmmakers explained that they were interested in casting him as Carrey’s conjoined-twin brother (we’re assuming Allen would’ve been playing the more introverted role that went to Damon). After giving it some thought, Allen started laughing at the idea and agreed to do it.
Peter Farrelly told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014 that Allen wanted to be in the movie, but his one request for the filmmaking duo was “no toilets, please.” As for why the brothers looked wildly different from one another, Damon revealed in an interview that the Farrellys had come up with an idea for that while Allen and Carrey were still attached (to the movie). Their explanation was that one of the twins wound up having a little bit more of their shared liver, causing him to age worse than his brother. Damon’s character, getting stuck with the bulk of the liver, did find its way into the final film, as did a reference to Allen’s 1977 film Annie Hall.
When it came time to make a deal, Allen dropped out because they wouldn’t meet his asking price. Why Carrey left the production isn’t exactly clear. The Farrelly Brothers had just two backup choices whom they seriously considered before Damon and Kinnear signed on: Will Smith and Samuel L. Jackson. As opposed to what some people have reported over the years, the plan absolutely never involved having Allen and Smith play the twin brothers, though the more we think about it, the more fascinating that idea becomes.
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