Why Matthew Perry turned down ‘Independence Day’: “That was such a failure”
Many actors regret turning down what could have been their role of a lifetime. John Travolta, for example, famously declined the role of Forrest Gump, and Jack Nicholson rejected the chance to play Michael Corleone in The Godfather, while Will Smith regretted passing up on The Matrix, and Michelle Pfeiffer turned down the role of Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs, a part Jodie Foster went on to win an Academy Award for.
But, for some actors, turning down a role is one of the best decisions they make. At least, that’s how Matthew Perry feels about German “master of disaster” director Roland Emmerich’s 1996 film, Independence Day, or ID4 as it has become known.
One of Emmerich’s classic catastrophe movies, alongside 2004’s The Day After Tomorrow and 1998’s Godzilla, Independence Day follows disparate groups, including a geek, a pilot, and the US President, who converge in the Nevada desert to save mankind from an alien race that threatens to destroy the major cities of the world.
The Friends actor was offered the role of Captain Jimmy ‘Raven’ Wilder alongside Will Smith as best friend Captain Steven Hiller, a Marine F/A-18 pilot leader of the Black Knight squadron and aspiring astronaut. But Perry dropped out before filming began, with the part eventually being offered to Harry Connick Jr. Ironically, Perry’s own father appeared in the film as a Secret Service agent, with some of the actor’s improvised lines from his audition allegedly being kept in the final cut.
“That was such a failure that turning it down didn’t really bother me,” Perry revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Reflecting on his career, he explained how young, impressionable actors, including himself, often accept the first roles that come along, knowing that it is “just a big deal” to get offers at the time: “We didn’t think about what movies they were”.
“Maybe when you’ve been in the business for ten years, you can read a script and know whether it’s gonna bomb,” he said, or fly, in the case of Independence Day, which went on to earn $817million worldwide in box office profits, making it the highest-grossing movie of 1996, and, briefly, the second-highest-grossing film worldwide of all time behind 1993’s Jurassic Park.
Will Smith was reportedly paid $5million for his role as pilot Steve, who incidentally was due to be played by Ethan Hawke but allegedly turned the role down after seeing the script. The film even won the Academy Award for ‘Best Visual Effects’ and was nominated for the Academy Award for ‘Best Sound’, but lost to The English Patient. A sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, was released 20 years later on June 24th, 2016, as part of a planned series of films, but its poor ratings seemingly dashed hopes of further instalments.
Matthew Perry mostly appeared in chick flicks like Fools Rush In and comedies like The Whole Nine Yards after his Friends years. Despite brushing off the success of Independence Day, it must have been difficult for him to not feel even slightly regretful about dropping out of such a cult classic.
