As we’ve mentioned before, Bad Santa was shaping up to be a somewhat different movie in its early stages. It was originally written with James Gandolfini in mind for the lead role, and when he passed, everyone from Robert De Niro to Bill Murray to Jack Nicholson was considered. They also wanted Angus T. Jones from Two and a Half Men to play Thurman Merman. On top of that, both Peter Dinklage and Mickey Rooney auditioned for the part of Willie’s sidekick, Marcus.
Interesting as all those names sound, they might never have been all that close to being cast. As a matter of fact, none of them made it far enough to actually film any scenes for the movie. When The Hangover director Todd Phillips stepped in to do reshoots after test screenings went poorly, he tried to include one more cast member than we ended up seeing in the final cut—or any cut, for that matter. It was during those reshoots that Sarah Silverman made a brief, but ultimately unseen contribution.
We were supposed to see Silverman immediately after the title flashed across the screen in the beginning. Following our last glimpse of Willie puking his brains out in an alleyway, we fade into a classroom scene with Silverman behind the desk. She’s in the middle of teaching a room full of shopping mall Santa Clauses—including Willie—“Santa’s Ten Commandments.” Among the things she’s already jotted down on the blackboard are “No alcoholic beverages,” “Do not smoke in costume,” and “No swearing”—all rules Willie would go on to break throughout the course of the movie.
In fact, as the camera first pans to Willie in the back of the class, we come to find out that he’s already in the process of breaking one of the commandments. While Silverman continues her speech, Willie pulls a small bottle of liquor out of his boot and stealthily pours some into his soda. Silverman goes on to say that a good Santa’s job involves smiling, and further emphasizes that learning to smile with one’s eyes is sometimes necessary when dealing with a big white beard. We then zoom in on Willie’s face as he does the exact opposite of what you would consider smiling with your eyes. Take a look below.
Though she didn’t make it into Bad Santa, Silverman would eventually get cast in Phillips’s 2006 movie School for Scoundrels, which also starred Billy Bob Thornton.
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