Ridley Scott and the team behind his upcoming film All the Money in the World have detailed how they were able to cut Kevin Spacey out of the film when the actor was hit with sexual misconduct allegations less than two months before the film’s release.
The film was completed in October when Spacey was accused of making unwanted sexual advances towards Anthony Rapp when the actor was just 14 years old in 1986.
Rapp’s accusation was followed by more, and eventually Spacey checked himself into a sex rehab clinic.
Ridley Scott and the team behind All the Money in the World have revealed how they replaced Kevin Spacey (right) with Christopher Plummer (left) after Spacey’s sex scandal hit in October
The scandal surrounding Spacey was a nightmare situation for Sony Pictures and Imperative Entertainment, who produced and financed his latest film, about the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III.
Spacey played J. Paul Getty in the film, who refused to pay a $17million ransom to secure his grandson’s release.
The New York Times reports that the team behind the film gathered on October 30 to discuss the issue, the day after Spacey apologized for his behavior towards Rapp, which he claimed not to have remembered.
Hollywood has seen several other projects impacted this fall due to the sexual harassment scandals sweeping the industry. The release of Louis CK’s I Love You, Daddy was cancelled when he was accused of masturbating in front of several women. And Harvey Weinstein’s projects have also been postponed or cancelled in the wake of that scandal. Netflix also postponed the final season of Spacey’s House of Cards and cancelled the release of a Gore Vidal biopic starring Spacey.
But the producers of All the Money in the World believed delaying the release would only hurt their film further in the long-run since Christmas is the only time a period drama would do well. Plus they needed to get it out before FX released a mini-series on the kidnapping.
So they decided to release the movie as planned, on December 22, despite the fact that it would likely tank at the box office with many proposing a boycott of the film.,
The film follows the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III (played by Charlie Plummer in the film) and his grandfather J. Paul Getty’s refusal to pay a $17million ransom
It also stars Michelle Williams as John Paul Getty’s mother and Mark Wahlberg, as a Getty family fixer
A few days later though, they had a change of course when two of the film’s producers – Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas – visited Sony movie chief Thomas Rothman at his office and proposed something that had never been done before: Replacing a leading actor from a film less than two months before the release.
Director Ridley Scott (pictured) agreed to re-shoot all 22 of Spacey’s scenes in just nine days last month
They said it would add about $10million to their budget, bringing the total cost of the film to $50million, which is very high for a period drama.
They suggested Christopher Plummer for the role, who was one of Scott’s original choices. Scott eventually went with Spacey for several reasons including scheduling.
‘Twenty years from now, I want to be able to pull this film off the shelf and be proud of it,’ Friedkin recalled saying in the meeting to the Times.
‘That would theoretically be fantastic,’ Rothman said. ‘But I have supervised 450 movies over the course of my career. And what you are saying is impossible. There is not enough time.’
Despite Rothman’s pessimism, Scott agreed and the plan went forward.
‘You can sit there and let something kill you, or you can take action,’ Scott said. ‘I took action.’
The first step was convincing Plummner to take on the job. Scott flew to New York on November 7 where he met with the actor at the Four Seasons Hotel and pitched him the idea – reshooting all of Spacey’s 22 scenes with just six weeks until the release.
‘I admire you very much, but I still have to read the script,’ Plummer, 88, recalled telling Scott.
The next morning he called Scott up and said he was in.
Posters with Spacey’s name in them (like the one on the left) were quickly taken down until new posters with Plummer could be distributed (right)
Plummer said part of his hesitation was that he was scared he wouldn’t be able to learn all of the lines in time.
‘At my age, which is enormous, you get worried that your memory won’t hold up,’ Plummer said. ‘But this was too damn good to pass up.’
The cast and crew reassembled on November 22 for nine days of filming in London, followed by Rome.
Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg, who play John Paul Getty III’s mother and a Getty family fixer, also agreed to do the re-shoots, even though they took place over Thanksgiving.
The crew worked 18-hour days to re-shoot the film, accomplishing in nine days what usually takes at least a month.
Spacey was in rehab while the film was being re-shot. He has only apologized to one of his alleged victims, but says he doesn’t remember the incident
Scott, 80, said he would typically arrive at set around 6:30am to have breakfast and go over his camera angles. They would then shoot through lunch, digitally sending the footage over to his editor to piece the film back together.
In the evening, he would make adjustments to those edits.
Scott says they were lucky they shot on location since they didn’t need to reconstruct any sets. They also saved time since Plummer didn’t need the aging prosthetics that Spacey required to play Getty.
In the end, they were able to film the movie pretty much on time, pushing the release back just three days to December 25.
But the road isn’t over for the film yet, which may have a tough fight earning back the $50million it cost to make the film.
There’s stiff competition around Christmas with the release of the new Star Wars film as well as Hugh Jackman’s The Greatest Showman and Matt Damon’s Downsizing.
Scott said they saved time because Plummer (left), being closer in age to Getty at the time, didn’t need aging make-up like Spacey did (right)
They also lost time marketing the film while waiting on new footage of Plummer to make a new trailer.
But the film has one thing going for it so far – critical acclaim.
Before Spacey was cut for the film, he was already receiving advance praise for his portrayal of Getty. But it’s possible that Plummer outdid his performance.
‘I think it’s a fantastic change,’ Scott said. ‘Kevin’s performance was colder. Christopher has enormous charm — a twinkle and a smile — that makes this coldly logical character feel even more dangerous.’
The real J. Paul Getty (pictured above circa 1960) eventually agreed to pay $3million for his grandson to be released
John Paul Getty III was held for three months by his captors, and at one point had his ear chopped off
Sony was able to send an unfinished version of the film to Golden Globes voters, securing nominations for Plummer as Best Supporting Actor, Scott for Best Director and Williams for Best Actress.
Scott says he didn’t tell Spacey that he was recasting him because he never received a call from Spacey after the scandal.
‘A phone call would have been nice,’ Scott said. ‘At first I was disappointed. Then I was mad.’
Nothing in Spacey’s contract protected him from being recast, and he was still paid for the film.
Scott called the allegations against Spacey ‘shocking’ while Plummer said he didn’t want to weigh in because his words had been twisted in the past. He may have been referencing the quote he gave Vanity Fair, in which he said he felt ‘awfully sad’ for Spacey.