Terry Zwigoff’s Bad Santa premiered in 2003 and became an immediate box-office success. Described at the time as “It’s a Wonderful Life meets South Park,” it tells the story of a foul-mouthed alcoholic named Willie, played by Billy Bob Thornton, who works as a department store Santa every year to rob the mall he works at with his dwarf friend Marcus (Tony Cox). The film was well-received upon release and has since become a holiday staple. However, it was a troubled production from the start, and it was practically a Christmas miracle that it got made at all.
For starters, an R-rated Christmas movie was a tough sell. Universal passed on it because they thought it was misogynistic and anti-Christmas, among plenty of other things one would consider harmful. Miramax’s Bob Weinstein bought it for those very reasons. Things didn’t exactly go smoothly from there.
Brett Kelly, who played Thurman Merman, got chickenpox before shooting and was sent home for a week. Billy Bob Thornton was also legitimately drunk during filming a couple of times and hungover other times. To make matters worse, after the movie scored poorly with test audiences, Bob Weinstein asked for reshoots. Director Terry Zwigoff refused, and Joker director Todd Phillips stepped in an uncredited role.
We haven’t even covered the casting issues yet. Angus T. Jones from Two and a Half Men was the first choice for Thurman Merman; needless to say, that didn’t happen. They also had trouble finding someone to play the dwarf character, with everyone from Peter Dinklage to Mickey Rooney auditioning for the part before Tony Cox was cast.
But the most trouble they had was apparently with casting the lead role. Robert De Niro and Bill Murray were attached to play Willie at one point, but backed out (Murray supposedly stopped returning people’s calls). Sean Penn, Nicolas Cage, and Jack Nicholson were all courted as well—unsuccessfully. The actor whom the filmmakers wanted more than anyone else was Sopranos star James Gandolfini. So much so, in fact, that the Coen brothers, who executive-produced the movie, had screenwriters John Requa and Glenn Ficarra write the script in Gandolfini’s rhythm, which we can only take to mean that some gabagool jokes ended up on the cutting room floor.
The Coens had just worked with Gandolfini on The Man Who Wasn’t There, and figured he’d be an easy get. Unfortunately, they didn’t get their wish, but to help you visualize what we almost got, here’s a video of Tony Soprano yelling and cursing in front of children after his meal is interrupted:
The post The ‘Sopranos’ Star Who ‘Bad Santa’ Was Written For appeared first on VICE.
