25 Things You Didn't Know About The Shawshank Redemption

6. Charlie Sheen Was Desperate To Play Andy

While the script was being passed around Hollywood, it ended up landing in the lap of rising star Charlie Sheen, who loved the script enough to call up a Castle Rock executive he was familiar with and beg them to hire him to play Andy.

Sheen even offered to do the part for nothing more than a SAG scale fee and proposed filming a test reel to prove he was up to the task. However, Castle Rock refused, and shortly thereafter cast Tim Robbins in the part.

As much of a laughing stock as Sheen might be nowadays, the earlier days of his career saw him give genuinely compelling dramatic performances in the likes of Platoon and Wall Street, even if by the time Shawshank was going into production, he was better known for comedy vehicles such as the Hot Shots! franchise.