Jonah Hill Almost Starred In One Of The Best Crime Thrillers Of The 2010s

It can be surreal to learn about the casting decisions that almost happened. "A Clockwork Orange" star Malcolm McDowell almost played Pennywise the dancing clown. Val Kilmer was almost Morpheus in "The Matrix." For every movie or TV show, there are a whole bunch of "almost" casting stories that would have completely changed the way things turned out. (Seriously, can you imagine Kilmer as Morpheus? Wild.) Usually, things seem to work out for the best, but there are always those circumstances where fans wonder what might have been. There's even one to ponder about actor Jonah Hill (you know, from "Superbad" and "Moneyball"). 

Brothers and directors Josh and Benny Safdie had a long road to making their 2019 thriller "Uncut Gems," which eventually starred Adam Sandler as Howard Ratner, a jeweler and gambling addict who gets in way over his head. It's a harrowing anxiety attack of a movie in the best possible way, and Sandler's performance is a career best, surpassing even his work in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch Drunk Love." But apparently, once upon a time, it almost starred Hill instead of Sandler. 

In an interview with Yahoo! Movies, the Safdies shared that while they originally wanted Sandler for the role, he initially passed and they had to try other avenues. When Hill expressed interest in working together, they tried to reshape the character to be significantly younger and found that it didn't quite work. As Josh Safdie explained:

"You found that the character became less sympathetic because he was younger and there were certain things we were trying to force in. It just became difficult and then, when Jonah became unavailable because of his schedule, it was kismet because we were able to go back to the person we originally saw being the character."

Hill ended up getting busy with work on his directorial debut, "Mid90s" (read our review here), and then working on the trippy Netflix sci-fi miniseries "Maniac," so the Safdies were back to the drawing board. Thankfully, enough time had passed that Sandler was available, they got him interested, and the rest is cinema history. Honestly, it all worked out for the best in this case, because it's absolutely impossible to imagine Hill bringing the same sort of sad, lovable sadness to the role that Sandler managed. Hill is a great actor, but Sandler gave the performance of a lifetime. Not to mention, the role of Howard Ratner was written for Sandler, so it's truly difficult to imagine anyone else tackling it with the same level of humor and pathos ... even if the legendary James Caan was also in consideration. Sometimes it all works out and everyone gets to do their best work, even if in this case it meant portraying one seriously stressful situation.