The actor who turned down ‘Saving Private Ryan’ because of Marlon Brando: “I would choose him”
In 99% of cases, there’s barely an actor alive who’d turn down Steven Spielberg when he comes knocking to offer them a role. That still leaves the other percentile, though, which saw one star reject Saving Private Ryan in favour of working with Marlon Brando instead.
It was Sophie’s Choice moment, and one they didn’t regret, with good reason. After all, this was late-1990s Brando we’re talking about, with the legendary star approaching the tail-end of a seismic career, and it was basically a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, since the film ended up as Brando’s penultimate credit.
On the other hand, Saving Private Ryan is a modern masterpiece, an undisputed classic, and one of Spielberg’s finest hours behind the camera, and it absolutely should have won ‘Best Picture’ over Shakespeare in Love, with its visceral combat and gut-punching character work turning it into one of the greatest war movies ever made and the highest-grossing World War II flick ever made.
Then again, Brando is Brando. There’s a high chance that he’s your favourite actor’s favourite actor, and while director Yves Simoneau’s 1998 caper Free Money wasn’t very good, as was the case with most things the method man made after Apocalypse Now, Thomas Haden Church regrets nothing.
“At the exact same time I was offered the lead in Free Money with Charlie Sheen and Marlon Brando, I was offered a role in Saving Private Ryan,” he shared. “And I chose to march off to Canada to work with Marlon Brando.” Years later, he ran into Spielberg, and there were no hard feelings between the two.
In fact, the filmmaker even told Church, “You know what, if I had a choice between me and him, I would choose him.” The actor’s agent didn’t feel the same way, openly questioning his client’s decision to knock back a sure-fire critical and commercial hit in favour of a breezy comedy that was almost certain to fall well short of expectations at the box office, which it did.
“And he was right!” Church acknowledged. “But the experience working with Marlon in his penultimate performance was irreplaceable. And I spent ten, 12 weeks with him in Quebec, and it was a remarkable experience, and I wouldn’t trade it for any credit on my résumé.”
As for which part he could have played? Church revealed years later that he’d “screen-tested for Tom Sizemore’s role in Saving Private Ryan,” but he didn’t confirm whether or not he’d been offered that part or another one. Either way, he also added that he “wanted to do that movie bad,” but when the opportunity arose to work with Brando, it was impossible to say no.
Saving Private Ryan was more of an ensemble piece anyway, with the exception of Tom Hanks, and as great as the picture turned out to be, and as poor as Free Money was by comparison, he’ll always believe that he made the right decision.
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