Wow! Owen Wilson Sided With His Morals And Turned Down A $12 Million Role To Play An Attorney In a Movie Depicting OJ Simpson As Innocent
Movie ideas these days are typically very stale and far from creative. If it's not a sequel, then it's probably some sort of remake or reboot. That's why when semi-unique ideas come around I'm willing to give them a fighting chance. Then you get a movie like this one below where the late OJ Simpson is going to be depicted as an innocent man. You know not exactly where I pinned them going, but sure I already said I'm open to all new ideas.
They sure didn't wait for the body to get cold to get this one in the works, huh? OJ dead? Doc officially called it? Alright who wants to star in this movie? Well, finding a star actor for the role of the conspiracy attorney has been quite the hurdle. Owen Wilson was reportedly offered $12M for the role but turned it down, wanting nothing to do with associating himself with saying OJ was innocent, satire or not.
Finding the right actor for that part, he notes, has been one of the major hurdles holding back the film’s completion. “Owen Wilson was perfect for the role,” Newton tells Rambling Reporter. “I actually had a meeting with him in Santa Monica. Everybody loved the script. His agent wanted him to do it. We offered him $12 million. But at the end of the lunch, Owen stood up and said, ‘If you think I’m going to take the lead role in a movie about how O.J. didn’t do it, you’ve got to be kidding me.’ ” Newton says he’s finally found another “spot on” actor for the part, though he won’t yet reveal who that might be. He’s hoping to complete the movie by Oct. 3, the 29th anniversary of Simpson’s not-guilty verdict.
So before we crown or crush Owen Wilson, let's lay out the rationale on both ends.
On one side, you get $12 million in the bank. Yes, Owen Wilson has money, but that's a really nice chunk of change for one role. All you have to do is portray a conspiracy enthusiast attorney who believes OJ is innocent. Sure people will give you shit, but at the end of the day it's very clearly going to be a satirical movie that takes the other side of a consensus belief in our country. Is it done in poor taste? Yeah maybe, but are people really going to remember you for this instead of a hit like Wedding Crashers? I highly doubt it. Hey maybe the movie catches everyone by surprise and it's really funny.
Hand up, I watched The Naked Gun recently and laughed my ass off. Yes OJ Simpson is in it, but I'm not gonna avoid it because of morals. I wanted to laugh so I watched it, plain and simple. Leslie Nielsen was the fucking best. At the end of the day we all are going to die and eventually the Earth will be swallowed whole by the sun. Turning down a role like this for morals just earns you fake brownie points that are essentially worthless in the long run. You're never going to make everyone happy.
On the other side, you're Owen Wilson. You have tens of millions in the bank (maybe more) with no need to risk your image for anything in exchange for a nice payday. It's kind of a sick fuck you to turn down a $12M role. He wins the day in the eyes of moral police, just hope they don't google that daughter of his who he apparently refuses to ever meet.
I wish Norm was still alive to react to this.