A Scream Actor Lost A Role In Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey

Although it seems like every male actor in the world has been cast in Christopher Nolan's upcoming movie "The Odyssey," it turns out that a few of them missed the cut. Such was the case with Skeet Ulrich, an actor best known for playing the most interesting Ghostface in the "Scream" franchise. Ulrich revealed in a recent panel that he was on the shortlist for an undisclosed role, and it was between him and two other actors. He had high hopes for the movie, but he'd found out the night before the panel that he wasn't picked. 

"It's almost a weekly experience of putting yourself out there for things and hoping and falling in love with material, then having to move on," Ulrich said about the film. "There are big wins, so that makes it palatable, but it's a lot of rejection."

It seems hard to believe that an actor who loomed so large in the '90s has trouble landing roles these days, but being beloved by "Scream" fans doesn't quite translate to long-term Hollywood success. But although Ulrich struggles to make peace with the routine rejections of Hollywood, he still assured the panel audience that it's all worth it. As he explained:

"When you do what you love, which I think is one of the most important things that you can do in this world — how many of you are artists, actors and singers and writers and painters? Yeah, it's not an easy life, but you're doing what you love to do. So, when you get those moments that you get to do it, it makes everything else fall away. I think it's crucial that you find what you love to do."

Ulrich did not disclose which role he was auditioning for, which is unfortunate because I for one would love to know. Would he have starred as one of the gods, or would he have been a mere mortal? We already know who'll be playing the main roles — Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope — but "The Odyssey" has a massive cast of crazy characters, some of whom stop by for a single scene and then disappear. The possibilities for Ulrich are endless.

Given that my main experience with Ulrich is his role as Billy Loomis, the role for him here that comes to mind is someone like Antinous, one of the devious suitors who keeps hitting on Penelope despite her clearly not being into it. There are a lot of mischievous suitors in "The Odyssey," all of whom serve to make the reader care more about Odysseus' quest to return home. Antinous is the cruelest and most arrogant of them, and it's easy to see Ulrich do this sort of threatening character justice. Some might say Ulrich is too old to play a suitor, given that their arrogance codes them as young men in the source material, but Ulrich's Antinous being older than the others would help distinguish him as the worst of them. Antinous is someone who should know better than to behave this, and an older actor playing him could really underline that point. 

But perhaps Ulrich is no longer interested in the sort of bad boy roles he's most famous for playing. In that case he might've been aiming for a role like Poseidon, the god of the sea who gets revenge on Odysseus by delaying his return home for literal years. Or maybe Ulrich could've played someone like Zeus, who isn't out to get Odysseus but who nevertheless intervenes in his journey from time to time. Honestly, the possibilities are endless; I'm sure Christopher Nolan had good reasons for going with a different actor, but it is a shame that we'll never see what Ulrich would've brought to the film.