Howard Stern said he was almost replaced by the role he was born to play: himself.
The self-proclaimed “King of All Media” radio host is best known for playing himself in movies. private partsthe 1997 biopic based on his own 1993 book. But, Stern told them on the latest episode of his podcast with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett not smartthe studio behind the film at one point threatened to replace him with Jeff Goldblum.
During their conversation, Bateman jokingly asked Stern how many times he would audition for his starring role.
“You want to know something about private parts? Funny,” Stern replied. “I wrote this book and when they said they wanted to make a movie out of it I had no idea – how do I make a movie out of this thing?”
“I was involved in writing some of the scripts – we had other writers, this and that,” he continued. “There were 25 complete drafts of this thing, and each one was worse than the next.”
Stern went on to explain that there was a clause in his contract that gave him full approval for adapting the script. “They couldn’t make the movie unless I got full script approval,” he said. “I wrote half the scripts and they were terrible!”
The shocked athlete told not smart The host said the studio was so frustrated with his failure to approve the script that they threatened to cast Goldblum in his place.
“They said, ‘Listen, this is crazy. We’re spending all this money on these writers and you’re not accepting any of these scripts. We’re going to hire Jeff Goldblum to play you because you’re not going to do this, “Stern recalled.
“I look them in the eye and say, ‘You know what? I’d pay to see this,'” Stern said. “‘I’d love to see Jeff Goldblum play Howard Stern. I think that would be great.’
Of course, that never happened. Stern does play an adult version of himself in the film, with young actors Bobby Borriello, Michael Macaron and Matthew Friedman playing him when they were 7, 12 and 16 years old respectively. Other cast members include Paul Giamatti, Allison Janney, Kelly Bishop and Jenna Jameson. private parts The film became the number one film at the North American box office during its opening weekend and received positive reviews from critics including Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.
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However, Stern’s performance earned him a nomination for “Worst New Star” at the March 1998 Razzie Awards.
exist not smartArnett agreed with Stern and thought it would be fun to see Goldblum play the character. “It would be great to shoot some scenes with Jeff Goldblum today,” he said. “Right? Then put it online.