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How different would Hollywood look today if instead of Tom Cruise playing the lead in Jerry Maguire back in 1996, winning his second Golden Globe award and getting his second Oscar nomination, Woody Harrelson had been the guy to utter the lines “You complete me” and “Show me the money!”?
Because this… almost happened.
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That’s right. The guy who recently said he once survived a “brutal” dinner with a talkative Donald Trump by leaving to spark a joint halfway through it was offered the role of Jerry F***ing Maguire.
In the cover story for the September 2019 issue of Esquire, Harrelson shared the story of why he did not end up taking the now iconic role.
Woody discusses his career regrets (“I was offered — what’s the ‘Show me the money’ movie? Jerry Maguire? I was offered Jerry Maguire, and I said to Jim [James L. Brooks, one of the film’s producers], ‘Nobody is going to give a shit about an agent’ ”); his initial impression of Zombieland (“My agent sent me the script, and I said, ‘Zombies, dude? Really? Has it come to this?’ And he said, ‘Will you please just read it?’ Finally, I did, and I’m like, ‘Damn. That’s good writing’ ”); and his possible homecoming (“I kind of love the idea of moving back to Texas, maybe Austin, maybe over by Matthew [McConaughey] or up by Willie”).
I’m sorry, but I am having a real hard time wrapping my head around Woody Harrelson doing this scene…
Not that I wouldn’t love to see it. Someone like Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon has got to get Harrelson to do it the next time he’s on one of their shows.