The 1992 cult classic movie Christopher Walken walked out on: “Should I go after him?”
History has shown that it’s almost impossible to offer Christopher Walken a movie that he’ll turn down, but, strangely enough, he’s walked out on a couple at the very last minute.
To make it even stranger, he did it in consecutive years, too. Originally, the Academy Award-winning scenery-chewer had been lined up to antagonise Sylvester Stallone in Renny Harlin’s Cliffhanger, but when he jumped ship right before the start of shooting, John Lithgow stepped up to the plate.
Continuing the theme of Walken doing the most non-Walken-esque things imaginable, the second picture he stormed out of on short notice was directed by the filmmaker who holds the unique distinction of being the only director in recorded history who offered the star a part he refused to play.
By his own admission, the Deer Hunter and Pulp Fiction favourite is guaranteed to say yes to almost everything for the simple fact that he doesn’t have any children, he doesn’t have any hobbies, and he loves to work, which helpfully explains why he’s also been in such an alarming volume of shite.
Having previously collaborated on King of New York, The Addiction, and The Funeral, Abel Ferrara assumed that when he gauged Walken’s interest in making a fourth flick together, 2007’s Go Go Tales, it was a foregone conclusion. Except it wasn’t, since he didn’t want to travel all the way to Rome to make it.
That wasn’t the first time Ferrara had experienced a rejection from his would-be muse, either, and fresh from King of New York, he sought to reunite with his leading man for his follow-up, one that would generate plenty of controversy, find itself banned in Ireland, and give rise to an unlikely franchise.
“Walken was originally the ‘Bad Lieutenant,'” he revealed. “We spent the week together in LA at the Marmont, working at fine-tuning the script. On the Sunday morning before I had to go back to New York and finish the prep, we had a meeting in my room, the producer Ed Pressman, Walken, and myself.”
With the start of production looming, Walken dropped a bombshell that threw everything into disarray. “Chris, in his usual direct way, said, ‘Ed, I know what Abel wants now, and I can’t give it to him,'” Ferrara recalled. “Then he stood up, shook Ed’s hand, and walked out. It took a moment for it to register with Ed. ‘Should I go after him?’ I couldn’t even muster an answer.”
Fortunately, salvation arrived in the form of producer Jay Julien, who “came to the rescue” by giving the script to Harvey Keitel, who’d replace Walken as the title character in 1992’s Bad Lieutenant. He was incredible in the film, but you could easily imagine Ferrara’s first choice doing the part the same kind of unhinged, down and dirty justice.
