Casting Bad Santa Was An Uphill Battle For Everyone Involved
Terry Zwigoff's 2003 film "Bad Santa" was more or less destined for cult classic status. Starring an Academy Award-winning actor, "Bad Santa" was deliberately crass and misanthropic, an antidote to the treacly sentimentality that ordinarily infuses films explicitly about Christmas.
In "Bad Santa," Billy Bob Thornton plays an itinerant mall Santa named Willie who uses his seasonal job to plan last-minute mall heists with his partner Marcus (Tony Cox), who poses as one of Santa's Elves. The heists typically go well, but just barely, as Willie is a wrathful, cruel alcoholic who has a great deal of trouble controlling his constant base impulses toward cussing and lechery. The late Bernie Mac played Gin, a mall manager who caught wise to Marcus' and Willie's plan, and Lauren Graham played Sue, a woman with a Santa Claus fetish that Willie was happy to indulge. Nine-year-old Brett Kelly played an unobservant boy named Thurman whom Willie will initially exploit — as Willie happily crashes at Thurman's upscale home. John Ritter, Cloris Leachman, Lauren Tom, and Octavia Spencer also appear, which seems like a questionable decision for actors of their caliber.
"Bad Santa" was made on a modest budget of $23 million and earned a respectable $76 million worldwide. Like any Christmas movie, "Bad Santa" became rotated into many repertory theaters' holiday lineups, often as counterprogramming to warmer fare like "Miracle on 34th Street" and "White Christmas." To this day, "Bad Santa" remains as bitter and cynical as it was 19 years ago.
According to a 2016 retrospective in the New York Times, however, casting "Bad Santa" was something of an arduous process. Particularly, the studio heads bickered with Zwigoff over who should play Marcus. Cox recalls standing by while his part in the project was in limbo.
Meet Tony Cox
Tony Cox, 64, has had a long career in Hollywood, appearing in supporting roles going back to the 1980s. He appeared in "Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams" before playing one of the Munchkin performers in the truly bizarre "Under the Rainbow." He played an Ewok in "Return of the Jedi," and the blue elephantine alien in the Disneyland 3-D short film "Captain Eo." He was one of the Dink aliens in "Spaceballs," and played the minister at Beetlejuice's wedding. In 1988, he played the real-life nightclub owner William Clayton "Pee Wee" Marquette in Clint Eastwood's Charlie Parker biography "Bird," and — since he's incredibly funny — has starred in any number of broad slapstick farces including "The Silence of the Hams," "Me, Myself, and Irene," and several of the Friedberg/Seltzer "Movie" movies.
Cox was particularly beloved by director Terry Zwigoff, and he recalls that his audition went incredibly well. A rather stupid issue arose, however, when studios observed that the role of Marcus was written for a white actor. As Cox said:
"When I first read, Terry was laughing real hard. I was feeling good, and he said, 'I have good news and bad news.' I thought, bad news? You just laughed until you cried! He said: 'The good news is, that was a great reading. The bad news is, this role wasn't written for an African-American.' My heart sank. I thought, well, why did you call me in? He said, 'I have to rethink this.' All I could do was hope that was true."
Cox also said that he "read for the role about nine times." The director was adamant, saying to Cox "If they don't let me have you, then I'm not going to do it. You make this movie fun."
The role almost went to Danny Woodburn
Terry Zwigoff would have to fight to keep Tony Cox part of the project. The executive producers on "Bad Santa" were the Coen Bros., and according to producer Bob Weinstein, they were pushing for actor Danny Woodburn, who had appeared on the hit TV series "Seinfeld" in the recurring role of Mickey Abbott. Woodburn had a lengthy career of his own, having appeared in comedy films like "Jingle All the Way," "Death to Smoochy," and "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas." Woodburn had also played one of the main characters on the short-lived 2001 paranormal investigation show "Special Unit 2." Evidently, the Coens were fond of him as a performer and pushed to include him. Weinstein was in Zwigoff's corner, wanting to cast Cox. He put it:
"The Coens wanted Danny Woodburn, the short person from 'Seinfeld.' I said: 'What are you talking about? Did you see Tony's audition?' They said, 'We hate him.'"
Weinstein also recalled having to correct Zwigoff on the course of events. Zwigoff contributed an email to the "Bad Santa" retrospective saying that the studio not only wanted someone other than Cox, but also wanted a typical Disney-style moppet to play the role of Thurman. Weinstein recalls with clarity that wasn't exactly the case. He said:
"Terry can drop dead. That's not how it happened. The Coens wanted Angus T. Jones from 'Two and a Half Men.' Terry, Billy Bob, and I said, 'Are you kidding?'
Zwigoff and Weinstein held their ground, however, and both Cox and Brett Kelly would play the roles, both rather perfectly. Cox and Kelly returned for the 2016 sequel "Bad Santa 2." Cox, now 64, seems to have semi-retired, not having acted since then.