Rob McElhenney may have been cut out of last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine, but a previous acting experience of his blotted out from another film stung more.
Appearing on Sean Evans’ Hot Ones interview program, the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star and co-creator addressed a particular core memory from the industry that isn’t as bright and cheery: his vanishing from the 1997 Columbia Pictures’ The Devil’s Own, centering on an Irish American policeman (Harrison Ford) and IRA extremist (Brad Pitt).
“Not even close, by a country mile: getting cut out of The Devil’s Own,” McElhenney said. “That was one of the most humiliating and terrible experiences of my life because it was my first acting job in a movie. I got to do a scene with Harrison Ford, I got to do a scene with Brad Pitt, I got to do a scene with Julia Stiles, Rubén Blades — all these incredible actors.”
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He continued, “Then the movie’s coming out, and I notice I don’t get an invite to the premiere or the friends and family screening, but I’m still just starting out — I’m like 19 or something, 18, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, it’ll be fine.’ Of course, for a year, I’m telling everybody I got this movie; nobody believes me because I hadn’t worked at all doing anything else. And then, we go to the movie — all my friends, everybody, my family buys tickets — and I’m just not in it at all. They cut me completely out of the movie, didn’t give me a heads up, nothing. They were all A-players and I was a D-player on the ground. I wasn’t even a player, I was on the editing room floor.”
McElhenney would then go on to make his feature debut the following year, in 1998’s Oscar-nominated John Travolta vehicle A Civil Action, from director Steve Zaillian.
And, all’s well that ends well, given that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, soon to return for its 17th season, remains the longest-running live-action U.S. sitcom. McElhenney is also the showrunner and star of Apple TV+’s video game workplace comedy Mythic Quest, currently airing its fourth season.
The post Rob McElhenney Recalls “Humiliating And Terrible” Experience Of Getting Cut From Feature Debut In ‘The Devil’s Own’ appeared first on Deadline.
