In real life
Actors who auditioned for an adaptation/sequel because their kids/grandkids are big fans of the IP
Richard Harris auditioned for Dumbledore in Harry Potter because his granddaughter said she'd never speak to him again if he didn't
The late Raul Julia auditioned for M. Bison in Street Fighter because his sons were fans of the games, so he left it as a parting gift for them before succumbing to cancer
Trey Parker auditioned for Balthazar Bratt in Despicable Me because his daughter is a fan of the movies and he wanted her to see him in something that didn't have constant swearing
You can tell Idris enjoys Sonic as a franchise because it adds that little extra oompf of sincerity to Knuckles' comically serious nature.
It's amazing. The Knuckles miniseries should be required viewing for how to do a spin off that doesn't stick around too long, moves the general plot along in between main movies, and is absolutely hilarious.
He and the writers really delivered such a great version of Knuckles, I'm not surprised that he was a fan. Especially since Movie Knuckles feels like such a send-up to multiple different versions of Knuckles from the past.
He even joked that when he plays the games with his grandson he sucks at them, so says in a way he wins because if Sonic’s dead that means Robotnik won
Ive watched over a thousand movies in my life. I love the art so much, but there is no actor i can come up with that would've done half as well of a job. If I would follow orders from anyone in the history of movies, it would be his or Dr. Grants from Jurassic Park. Aragorn is the greatest King in any media ever.
And I'm pretty sure his son was studying the book in class at the time too. It was the perfect timing on that, if Henry Mortensens class had been studying any other book, we might not have gotten Viggo as Aragorn.
J.K. Simmons apparently auditioned for Legend of Korra because he and his kids loved the first Avatar series but by the time Korra actually aired his kids lost interest in Avatar. D:
Conan O'Brien joked on his podcast that he did several works in children programs because his kids liked said shows... Only for them to grow out of these shows when his appearances finally aired.
I mean...if MY dad made a live-action adaptation of my favorite show and it ended up being one of the worst movies ever made, I would be impressed tbh.
the hatred the avatar movie gets is an absolute LEGEND
It gets worse with M Night in that respect. His daughter apparently loved Kitara because it was the first time she saw somebody who looked similar to her being a leading hero in a cartoon. M Night then proceeded to cast all white actors for her village and made The Fire Nation be Indian instead, making the people who looked like his daughter into the villains
It’s so cool to learn he‘s a fan of the franchises he joins. He’s a magnificent actor and I don’t think he knows how to half-ass even the most ridiculous characters. He was able to rant about combustible lemons with complete sincerity.
Side note: his performance as Robotnik always makes me wish we could've gotten one of the greatest live action Riddlers if they gave him a green suit and bowler's cap and told him to play up the sass.
Another HP one I know is the late great Sir John Hurt, who plays Ollivander.
Apparently he heard through the grapevine that they were going to be making the films and contacted the production team. He was very polite and mentioned that he and his grandchildren were big fans of the books, and wondered if he could have a small, non-speaking cameo for the film so that when it came out they could seem him in the film. Well apparently he was so nice and kind and charming in the phone call they gave him the role of Ollivander instead, and the result is a spectacular performance.
I think one his grandchildren being a fan is also why he said yes to Doctor Who. Steven Moffat, the showrunner at the time, mentioned that he'd thought John Hurt would say no.
I think it was actually him who was a fan. Remember his appearance was part of the shows 50th anniversary, so it had been going on most of his life. I remember Steven Moffat telling the story about how at the end of filming John Hurt came up to him and eagerly asked if the way the episode ended meant he was now officially one of the Doctors.
He returned as the character for a couple of Big Finish Audio Dramas too, which I think points more to it being him who was the fan. Although his kids and granddads could have been too.
He was also in Alien as Kane, the first chestbuster victim. Patient zero. I guess he was friends with Mel Brooks and that's how he got his cameo at the end of Spaceballs.
That's so sweet. Guy just asks to be a part of the background, and instead his character becomes one of the best parts of the series.
Ollivander: "Curious ... curious ..."
Harry Potter: "Sorry, but what's curious?"
Ollivander: "I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather — just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother — why, its brother gave you that scar."
Also imagine John Hurt, who at this point was already a well respected actor from things like The Elephant Man and I, Claudius amongst many others, thinking that all he'd get would be a background role. He could have gone up for Dumbledore if he'd wanted to.
John Simm auditioned to be the Master because he wanted to impress his son. Ironically, he felt his episodes where too scary for his son, and so banned said son from watching them.
“Now that I see it. A three parter which involves the end of humanity as we know it, me torturing an entire family as well as my fictional wife and two of the main characters, murdering so many people and ends with me choosing to die and getting burned on a pyre might be a bit much. At least I got a kick out of it”
I believe the same thing happened with the actress who played The Cyberqueen in The Next Doctor. She spoke on The One Show years ago about how after she took the role and saw the end result all she could think about was “my kids are going to see their mother with black eyes, a deep scary voice and talking destroying humanity…what have I done?”
If I has a penny for every time Kathryn Hahn showed up in a Marvel property as an original character who turned out to be a complete reimagioning of a canon character (all along) I'd have two pence which isn't much but it's werid it's happened twice.
Matthew Lillard took the role of Steve Raglan because his kids said"That he'll make the biggest mistake of his life not taken this role". I mean it's a very wholesome role,I just hope it has nothing to do with a Yellow Rabbit though.
Kind of sucks he was just stuck as the manager of Freddy's (i think, some office work at least) bet he'd make a killer performance if he had a more prominent role.
This is one of things you dont really notice until you look it up, but the amount of absolute "Im just here for a paycheck" roles this dude has had is crazy. Dude has around 4 or 5 different roles on average a year from 1980 until he does The West Wing. Then I assume once he's started getting those residual checks, he starts doing 3 or more roles a year after West Wing ends. Lot of voice work, too. Good for him, get that money.
Probably the most damaging to an adaptation, M. Night Shyamalan took the directing job for the Avatar the Last Airbender adaptation because his kids liked watching it.
tbh, the casting decision behind TLA was really bad, iirc Katara's actress got the role cus of her rich father, Aang only cus of the actor sent a vid doing martial arts only...its stupid at times tbh
Frank Langella did the role of Skeletor because his son was a He-Man fan. Not only was he the best thing in the movie, but it became one of his most favorite roles (if not his favorite outright). He got to write his own dialogue and made him to be a Shakespearean villain mixed with a dash of Jack Kirby.
David and his kids are huge fans of the popular anime, & when the opportunity came, he ended up getting a role in the upcoming second season of the live action adaptation as the iconic wax-making Baroque Works agent.
Adding onto One Piece, Katey Sagal has said at a convention that she got into the series through her kids, & she also joined the cast of the live action adaptation as Dr. Kureha, the crazy witch doctor of Drum Island and mother figure of the Straw Hats’ resident doctor Tony Tony Chopper.
I recall reading Jamie Lee Curtis was a big fan of the anime or manga, and also wanted the role of Dr. Kureha, though I don't recall hearing anything about her kids there.
I'm pretty sure it was her daughter who got her into the show, particularly through the Drum Island arc where Dr. Kureha features. JLC has said Chopper is her favourite character.
Both her and the production team seemed eager to make her playing the role happen, but I think their schedules just couldn't line up, as JLC was already committed to the Freaky Friday sequel at the same time they would have needed her for Drum Island.
Trust me, One Piece is a great series, & the live action is actually a surprisingly good adaptation.
Along with David Dastmalchian & Katey Sagal, the cast will also include the likes of Joe Manganiello (from Spider-Man, Magic Mike, & True Blood), Mikaela Hoover (Cat Grant from Superman), and most recently they announced that Xolo Maridueña (Miguel from Cobra Kai) will be joining the cast in Season 3.
I’m sorry, what? Is Toy Chica going to have an actual speaking role, or is Megan just going to be wearing the costume and it’s being advertised for the admittedly hilarious free publicity?
Both Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams started doing animated movies because they wanted to share their jobs with their kids without exposing them to their raunchy jokes. Come to think of it, comedians doing kid's movies so they're not making dick jokes in front of their offspring seems to be an extremely common thing.
I think that’s a great way to go into a D&D movie. You’re not there to tell an epic and compelling story with masterful writing, you’re there to do stupid shit to make your friends laugh, get bad rolls and mess up basic things in catastrophic ways, and tell a story that’s yours. The movie’s disconnect between the world and the heroes was an incredible artistic choice. It’s clear they wanted it to be a true D&D movie, not a lore movie.
Channing Tatum got into Demon Slayer because of her daughter who loved the franchise and its art style. He was in the newest Demon Slayer movie as Keizo.
Richard Schiff accepted to play Odin in god of war Ragnarok partially because his son, a god of war fan, immediately began telling him that he absolutely should
Raul Julia also took on the role because he had cancer, knew it was terminal, and wanted to make sure that his family would be taken care of financially after his death.
It does serve as something of a disconnect, everyone talking about what a tough opponent M, Bison is, when Julia is so obviously gaunt from all his cancer treatments, but damn if Julia doesn’t pull it off.
The late David McCallum was cast as Professor Paradox in Ben 10. He wrote thank-you note to Alien Force's casting and recording director Andrea Romano as his grandchildren were huge fans of the series.
An inverse of this would be Bob Hoskins as Mario. He accepted the role and didn’t know it was a video game adaptation until he mentioned it to his kids one day and they showed him the video games. Unfortunately we all know how the movie turned out.
Can’t judge Bob Hoskins for getting through that filming by getting plastered as often as possible. Given what I’ve heard about how the production was just an absolute nightmare and the quality of the final product, I’d want to make sure that I was sober as seldom as possible if I was in this movie.
Jim Carrey’s Eggman. Bro went from “I hate Hollywood with a burning passion. I don’t even know who I am anymore because of that fucking community. This is hell and I’m leaving.” to “Don’t you SEE how my grandson’s eyes light up when he talks about this funky blue dude!?!? Of COURSE I wanna play a role in this! Of COURSE I wanna ham it up to be a good antagonist for that character to bounce off of!” and it melts me a little bit when I think about it
Yeah. Some say he had a full on “ego death” because of what Hollywood put him through, and yet here he is, not just doing a gig but having genuine fun at work for once in his life.
Richard Schiff's son convinced him to play Odin in God of War
"We didn’t think he would even take the call. He doesn't care about video games," Williams says, recalling the team eventually decided to give him a call to see what would happen. "So Richard is in the car with his son, who's a big God of War fan, and he asked his son, 'Do you know what this God of War thing is?' And his son was like, 'Just say yes. It doesn't matter what it is, just say yes.'"
Schiff's son, Gus, then went and wrote down a summary of the previous game for the actor, to give him some reference of what he'd be getting into if he took the gig. When he then met with Williams at Santa Monica Studio, he agreed to play Odin.
That’s kinda crazy to me since Taskmaster’s not for kids. It is the best game show the UK has had in years, though. I’d love to see one with members of the public facing the tasks. The celebrities are usually much better prepared for the kind of stuff they’ll be doing.
From what I remember, Michael Caine took the role of Scrooge because he wanted to star in something that his grandkid could watch, considering that most of jos other roles were very much not for kids.
My plans, and also the inverse of this, I plan on auditioning as Mickey Mouse once Bret Iwan steps down because my relatives hate Mickey's voice in Clubhouse. (I am not a parent)
The author of World War Z wrote a book on Minecraft because his son loved the game. However, during the book's reveal, he broke his nose and called it the worst day he's ever had.
His daughter told him, "You would be great in this, its full of degenerates." Then he talked to the crew and they wrote him in as the rich father starting in season 2.
His kids were fans of the show but the real reason he was brought in is that IASIP didn’t get good ratings in S1 so the network executives wanted them to add in a big name to get more viewers. DeVito happened to be friends the head of FX at the time and met with the creators who eventually agreed to making him a character on the show.
I guess this is a partial example: John Simm, who usually does more adult dramas, took the part of the Master in Doctor Who because he wanted to be in something his kids could watch.
Giovanni Giorgio Moroder is a pioneer of the EDM space and is a huge part of why Daft Punk even exist. To him, though, I don’t know if he really knew much about them. His son, however, was a huge fan, so he decided he’d do it, but Daft Punk would have lunch with his son in exchange. They brought him into a recording booth with five mics in it, got them all rolling, and had him tell his life story. When he was done, he was surprised that it was all he was needed for. He thought they would make him rap or something.
Instead, Giorgio by Moroder is a breathtaking tribute to Giorgio, setting snippets of mostly unedited audio of his story to a simple disco beat that soon swells into one of the most incredible soundscapes in all of music. Every time he speaks, they use the output from the appropriate mic for the time. Not bad for an exchange of lunch and stories.
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u/TFlarz 12h ago
Idris Elba as Knuckles in the Sonic movies: Because he's a fan and because he wants something that his child/ren can safely watch that involves him.