Billy Bob Thornton Reveals He Was Cut From 1990 Horror Film 'Misery'
'There was a time I went in and read for Rob Reiner for Misery,' Thornton revealed to a stunned Bates. 'I swear to God. Originally, Richard Farnsworth, who played the sheriff, had a deputy. I saw Rob Reiner for it. And Rob said right in the room, 'You're the guy. We can send everybody else home.''
Thornton said he was 'very excited'—until he got an unexpected call from Reiner soon after.
'Not many directors would do this,' Thornton noted. 'He called me and he said, 'Listen, I've been looking at the script and been planning out what I'm going to do with this movie.' He said, 'You can come up here and shoot this for the money or the insurance or whatever you need, but I'm just telling you, it's not going to be in the movie. …I don't want you to come up here expecting that this is going to be in the movie. And I didn't want you to be disappointed.' He said, 'But I'll leave it up to you. Do you want to come shoot it anyway?' And I said, 'No.''
'I thought that was very cool of him,' Thornton added.
At the 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival, Reiner revealed that he knew Bates was perfect for the role of evil nurse Annie Wilkes as soon as she auditioned for the part. Casting her victim, played by James Caan, was not as easy, the director said, per IndieWire.
Reiner revealed that William Hurt, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, Robert Redford, Kevin Kline, and Gene Hackman all turned down the role of novelist Paul Sheldon.
As for Thornton, while he never made it to Misery, the actor has worked with Bates on several occasions. The two co-starred in the 1998 Mike Nichols comedy-drama Primary Colors (Reiner also appeared in the film). In 2016, Bates played Sunny, the estranged mother of Thornton's character, Willie, in Bad Santa 2.Billy Bob Thornton Reveals He Was Cut From 1990 Horror Film 'Misery' first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 16, 2025
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