20 Things You Didn't Know About The Ring

4. The Chris Cooper Cut

Samara The Ring
DreamWorks

Chris Cooper originally had an interesting role in The Ring but it was cut after test screenings were left baffled as to why he was not more prominent in the plot.

Cooper played a murderer (or a pedophile) seeking Rachel's help as a reporter in clearing his name. She knows he is guilty and refuses the assignment. At the end of the film, she needs to find someone to watch her son's copied videotape thus avoiding his death, so she passes on the tape to Cooper's character, believing him to be guilty and therefore expendable.

His presence threw up more questions than it answered so his cameo was dropped and a more ambiguous climax was inserted.

Contributor
Contributor

A lifelong aficionado of horror films and Gothic novels with literary delusions of grandeur...