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Saruman was cut from The Return of the King, and Christopher Lee was buzzed!
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00:00Look, it doesn't matter how brilliant a film is, how meticulously planned it is, how down to the
00:06wire everything gets. The fact of filmmaking is that things are going to change. These 10 actors
00:12turned up, did their work, got everything done for the director, and then on opening night sat there
00:17and were conspicuously absent from the released product. I'm Sean Ferry for What Culture and here
00:22are 10 actors who were completely cut out of huge movies. Number 10, Tim Blake Nelson, Dune Part 2.
00:30With his return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe after almost 20 years away, Tim Blake Nelson is
00:36set to return as the leader in Captain America Brave New World. This marks his first return to
00:42the MCU since his appearance in 2008's The Incredible Hulk, which is one of the most dangling plot lines
00:48in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date. As big as 2025 will be for the actor, 2024 could have been
00:55even bigger. He filmed scenes for Dune Part 2, which is currently dominating the box office,
01:02but alas, every one of his scenes were cut due to runtime. With any movie's source material,
01:08there's going to be adaptations and removals. Despite having a large role in the first film
01:13and the character appearing in subsequent novels, Stephen McKinley Henderson's Thorfer Howitt, which I
01:19have almost definitely mispronounced, was never even written into the sequel for Dune 2. Tim Blake Nelson
01:25had a slightly different experience. He showed up and filmed scenes for the movie, but they were all
01:30removed in the final edit, with the actor saying that he himself was heartbroken when he found this
01:36out. Though, as of recording, it's unclear what the role was or how big a part he was going to
01:41play in
01:41the film, Dune Part 2 looks set to be easily one of the biggest films of the year, so that
01:47surely must
01:47have been one of the biggest gut punches in the poor man's career. Any involvement he could have had in
01:52the film was sure to have meant a lot. Hopefully, his scenes will be restored when it comes to the
01:57DVD
01:58release when it comes out. Number 9, Christopher Lee, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King.
02:03Christopher Lee's Saruman played a huge role, particularly in The Two Towers, but in both
02:09previous Lord of the Rings releases before The Return of the King. He is, after all, responsible
02:13for the 10,000-strong Uruk-hai army that besieges Helm's Deep toward the close of The Two Towers. I
02:20say
02:20the close of The Two Towers, it's a good half the film. Let us not forget as well that it
02:24was he who
02:25essentially drove the Fellowship into the mines of Moria by calling a storm to try and bring down
02:30Caradhras on top of all of their heads. So, with such a large role in both The Fellowship of the
02:35Ring and The Two Towers, one would assume he would get quite the, if you like, resolution going into
02:42The Return of the King. Well, if you were sitting in the theatre in 2003, you were in for a
02:46bit of a
02:47surprise. In the theatrical version of The Return of the King, this is leading on from the defeat of
02:51Isengard by the Ents at the close of The Two Towers. Saruman, defeated in terms of strength,
02:56is locked up in his tower and that's it. In the theatrical version, they just say,
03:00leave him there, he's fine. In the extended edition, audiences are given a resolution to the character
03:06as the scene in which Saruman and Grima Wormtongue treat with the survivors of Helm's Deep is restored
03:12for the film. However, Christopher Lee was a well-known Tolkien enthusiast fan, read the book
03:20every year for decades, in fact, met J.R. Tolkien himself. Didn't take it well when he heard the
03:26scene was going to be cut, so much to the point where he actually boycotted the premiere. Now,
03:30himself and Peter Jackson did make up in the years afterwards. I assume the scenes restored on the
03:36extended edition probably helped, but also Saruman would go on to appear in the Hobbit trilogy as
03:42well. Number eight, Amy Poehler, Anchorman, The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Though Anchorman 2 was
03:47overall a bit of a letdown in terms of sequels when compared to the first film, there is a scene
03:53which
03:53is a pure highlight of the film and it's the slew of cameo appearances in the massive news brawl in
04:00the park. Among the likes of Liam Neeson, John C. Reilly, Will Smith, Harrison Ford and more, Tina Fey
04:07and Amy Poehler appeared in this massive scene. However, Amy Poehler had also filmed scenes for the
04:14first film that made it to the cutting room floor. It wasn't just Poehler's scenes that were cut,
04:18but an entire subplot in which Veronica Corningstone was kidnapped by the alarm clock gang,
04:23only to then be saved by Will Ferrell and the rest of his team. This was going to be the
04:28original
04:28ending before they switched to the one in the zoo. As part of a plotline that only made it to
04:33Wake Up Ron Burgundy, a straight-to-DVD collection of deleted scenes and plots, the gang attempted to
04:40rob Amy Poehler's bank teller. Apparently, even at the time, Poehler knew that the scene wouldn't make
04:45it to the film, so it was even more fun when she was able to come back in the second
04:50film and become
04:51a part of the entire franchise on screen. Number seven, Harrison Ford, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.
04:57Steven Spielberg is one of the most prolific and respected directors of all time, with just so
05:04many amazing films in his repertoire. What's even more impressive is when one considers that two of
05:10his best films, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, both came out within a year
05:15of
05:15each other. Of course, Spielberg had worked with Harrison Ford on Raiders of the Lost Ark. This was
05:19at the height of his Han Solo fame with the Star Wars, well at that stage, duology having come out
05:27and look, everyone was Han Solo mad. But what people might not know is that he also worked
05:32with Harrison Ford on E.T. In the scene that ended up on The Cutter Room 4, Harrison Ford came
05:37in to
05:37play the principal of Elliot's school. Though he kept his back to the camera the entire time,
05:42never showed his face. There's literally no mistaking Harrison Ford's voice. Behind him,
05:47E.T. made Elliot's chair levitate in the air and drop back down quick enough that the archaeologist
05:54slash principal was none the wiser. Though the scene wouldn't have really added anything to the
05:58story, it would have made for a fun Easter egg and certainly would have served as young star Henry
06:04Thomas's favorite day on set. But to be fair, how often at that age do you get to work with
06:09someone
06:09as successful as Harrison Ford? Number six, Jack Whitehall, Frozen. Jack Whitehall has gone from
06:15starring in such comedies as Bad Education and Fresh Meat, to starring alongside Dwayne Johnson and
06:21Emily Blunt in Disney's Jungle Cruise, to also appearing in Clifford the Big Red Dog. On top of this,
06:26he almost appeared in one of Disney's biggest films of all time, in which he was going to play a
06:32troll
06:32Loki, where he would have exactly one line of dialogue when Anna, Kristoff and Olaf would all
06:38arrive to speak to the trolls. Speaking on the Graham Norton show, he revealed that he discovered
06:43his one line of dialogue had been reduced to a non-speaking role in an animated film. Imagine being
06:50such a big fan of Disney and getting to be in one of the biggest films of their entire catalogue,
06:55only to then realise, actually no you didn't. One of the worst things is that it's not just the
06:59gargantuan success that Frozen would go on to have without him, it's the fact that he found out when
07:04he was sitting in the cinema watching it. Number five, Tobey Maguire, Life of Pi. In very basic general
07:11terms, you could say that the bigger the star's power, the more opportunities and the more variety of
07:18roles there will be to offer to them. Obviously that's not a hard and fast rule, but I think there's
07:23enough examples of that in Hollywood. One actor who actually suffered from their status was Tobey
07:30Maguire. While he was still riding on the high of his appearance in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy,
07:35something that still sees him receive a lot of love today, director Ang Lee decided he was too famous
07:42to appear in the film Life of Pi. The role was a relatively small one and Lee reckoned it was
07:49in fact
07:49too small for someone as famous as Tobey Maguire because the actor's fame might actually pull focus
07:56from the character and from the scene. The problem is that by the time Ang Lee came to this decision,
08:02Tobey Maguire had already been cast and filmed his scenes. He was then replaced by the, at the time,
08:08much less recognisable Rafe Spall. Number four, Matt Damon, Ocean's Eight. In almost every spin-off,
08:15reboot or sequel, there will usually be ties back to the original, whether this be lines of dialogue
08:22saying, oh do you remember that time when, or visual cues, or as often happens, cameos. Ocean's Eight is no
08:29different. The female-led spin-off to Ocean's Eleven featured two cameos already. Elliot Gould returned
08:35as Ruben Tishkoff and Kin Xiaobo returned as Yen. There was almost more. Matt Damon actually filmed scenes
08:42for this sequel spin-off but was cut from the final film along with Carl Reiner's Saul Bloom. Damon
08:48played Linus Caldwell back in Ocean's Eleven and appeared in Ocean's Twelve and Thirteen as well,
08:53but it seems that there was just no room for him in this film. Director Gary Ross insists that this
08:59was done purely for story purposes, but it is hard to ignore that there was a petition around at the
09:05time
09:06to have the actor removed from the film in light of comments he made about Harvey Weinstein and the
09:11Me Too movement in 2017. Number three, Paul Rudd, Bridesmaids. There aren't many actors in the business
09:17who seem to be as universally loved as Paul Rudd. For over 20 years he's been in the biz making
09:23us just
09:24just fall in love with him over and over again, and on top of that he just seems to be
09:28a nice guy.
09:29It's hard to imagine any comedy not being made better by the appearance of Paul Rudd, but Bridesmaids
09:34went in an opposite direction. There was a scene in which Paul Rudd brought Kristen Wiig's character
09:38out on the worst date imaginable to an ice rink where he insulted all of the children there until
09:44eventually being knocked out by one of their parents. It might seem bonkers to cut someone
09:47like Paul Rudd from your film, but there's actually sound reasoning behind it according to director Paul
09:52Fyke. He said that the scene only served to reinforce how terrible Annie's love life was, but that the
09:58plot with Jon Hamm's character did that already, so this was just more rather than better. With the scenes
10:07cut the film came down to a more manageable two hours, and though it must have hurt so much, the
10:13fact is
10:13the film is probably better without the scene anyway. Number two, Tim Roth, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
10:20Directors like Christopher Nolan frequently work with their favourite actors again and again, and
10:25in his case Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy would be two outstanding examples, but Quentin Tarantino
10:30likes to do the exact same thing. Alongside the likes of Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Madsen,
10:35one such Tarantino favourite is Tim Roth. The actor played a key role of Pumpkin in Pulp Fiction,
10:40the deceptive Mr. Orange in Reservoir Dogs, and Oswaldo Mowbray in The Hateful Eight. He also appears in
10:46the credits of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, despite not appearing in the film itself. In order to bring
10:53the
10:53film down from a ridiculous five-hour runtime to a slightly less ridiculous three-hour runtime,
11:01Tim Roth's character and entire arc were scrapped. The English actor reportedly filmed a bunch of scenes
11:06as Jay Sebring's Butler, but what the nature of these scenes were now is not known. Roth was apparently
11:13shown the version of the film that still included his character, and his name still turns up in the
11:19credits. That is a testament to, despite being cut from the film, how much Tarantino really does
11:24obviously respect this man. Number one, Ana de Armas, Yesterday. Test audiences can be an absolutely
11:32vital tool for filmmakers that they can watch a version of the film, provide their feedback, and
11:38filmmakers can then go and make changes based on. In a version of Yesterday that was shown to test
11:43audiences, Jack's eyes wandered away from Ellie at one point as he started to fall in lust with Ana
11:49de Armas' character, but it weakened the overall romantic subplot. The decision was made to cut
11:55Ana from the film altogether, which actually broke director Danny Boyle's heart as he described her
12:00as radiant in the role. However, without this plot's inclusion, they were able to focus more on
12:06Jack and Ellie's love story. What's slightly odd here is that while Ana was cut from the film,
12:10she wasn't cut from the trailers. So you might understandably have seen the trailer and gone to
12:16the cinema thinking you're going to watch Ana de Armas in a film. When she didn't show up,
12:20two cinema goers, they took that personally. Some actors can draw audiences based on their name alone,
12:26and even though Ana de Armas had yet to star in the arguably career-making role of Knives Out,
12:33two cinema goers went to the cinema purely because they wanted to see Ana de Armas. When she then didn't
12:39turn up in the film, they attempted to sue based on false advertising. The case was thrown out.
12:44Now, we were going to try this one.
12:44I'm going to turn it over to you.
12:44Now I take offense.
12:44We will pause.
12:44Now, I have to try this one.
12:44Now I take offense.
12:44I have to try to take offense.
12:44Now, I am going to turn it over to you.
12:45Let me tell you to turn it over to you.
12:46Now, I have to try.
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