10 Times Actors Had Personal Reasons For Taking Film Roles
Nicolas Cage just really, really wanted to be a knight.
A lot goes into an actor weighing the pros and cons of taking a role - chiefly among them money. But there's plenty at stake including reputation, adoration for the dialogue or character and being Nicolas Cage.
When Dennis Hopper was asked by his son why he took the part of King Koopa in Super Mario Bros., he explained he did it so he could have shoes. His son dryly replied, "I don't need shoes that badly."
However, on occasion, a script will come by an actor's desk that they have a more personal identification with; an autobiographical connection to the role that will allow the artist within to work through a personal, existential crisis or simply identify aspects of their own personality they'd be interested in exploring. Acting, like all art forms, is a therapeutic, often cathartic, way of tackling issues head-on - be them personal or political, and the very best exploit that to maximum effect.
Here are just some actors who took roles to make a statement, or at least exorcise some demons along the way.
10. Gregory Peck Did The Omen To Cope With His Son's Suicide
When one hears the name Gregory Peck, their mind typically drifts to the human embodiment of morality: Atticus Finch. Peck's portrayal of the Southern lawyer and nurturing father figure is so memorable he's still seen as a fictional civil rights icon.
Few people leap straight to his starring turn in Richard Donner's 1976 film The Omen, as Peck was not typically associated with the horror genre. At that point, the closest he'd come was playing a defense attorney mercilessly harassed by former client Robert Mitchum in Cape Fea
The Omen was released in the mid-70s religious horror niche-era post The Exorcist, and many have claimed the set itself was cursed, with both Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer's separate planes struck by lightning, Rottweilers attacking their trainers, and Donner's hotel suffering an IRA bombing, among other incidents.
But Peck's involvement is perhaps the saddest and most tragic chapter. Taking on the role of a tortured father who may well be raising the Devil's spawn drew him in due to his own guilt over being absent when his own child, Johnathon, took his own life in 1975.