15 Actors You Didn't Know Were Almost Cast In Tarantino Movies

6. Matt Dillon - Butch Coolidge (Pulp Fiction)

The Role: The rule of daddy issue-addled boxer Butch Coolidge eventually went to Bruce Willis (of course), but it very nearly didn't go that way, with young up-and-comer Matt Dillon originally being promised the part. What Happened?: Willis was originally after the part of Vincent Vega before it went to John Travolta, at which point Willis focused on locking down Butch instead. This created a conflict as QT had already promised the part away, but when Dillon said that he wanted to "sleep on it" before confirming, Tarantino's famously volatile temper caused him to drop him from the project entirely, insisting that if he couldn't decide on the spot, then his heart wasn't in it. This conveniently allowed him to bring Willis in, whose star power appeased an otherwise very concerned Harvey Weinstein. Would It Have Worked?: Definitely. Dillon is almost a decade younger than Willis, so the character probably would have had more of a James Dean-esque vibe about him, but he's a great actor and would surely have totally killed it.