Was Chevy Chase considered for the role of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark?
According to the internet, he was. While I was doing research into the casting process that led to Harrison Ford being cast as the iconic archaeologist, I came across several trivia sites that claimed that Chase was one of the many actors considered for the role of Indiana Jones. This struck me as being rather odd. Even though Raiders of the Lost Ark was produced at a time when Chase was still a legitimate film star, it was hard to imagine anything about his screen persona that would make producer George Lucas or director Steven Spielberg view him as being a potential Indiana Jones. The idea of Chase as Indiana Jones struck me as being so strange that I started to search for the source of the rumor. I read post after post about the lost roles of Chevy Chase. I clicked on link after link. And what I discovered is that the main source for Chase being considered for Indiana Jones was an anonymous, unsourced piece of trivia on the IMDb. In fact, according to the IMDb, Steve Martin and Bill Murray were also considered for the role.
I’m just going to say it. I don’t buy it. I don’t think any of those people were considered for Indiana Jones. For that matter, I don’t think John Belushi was considered for the role of Dr. Loomis in Halloween, and I also don’t think Chase was seriously considered for the role of Han Solo.
With that in mind, the idea of Chevy Chase playing Han Solo reminded me of just how important Harrison Ford was to the success of the first three Indiana Jones films. Even if Chase wasn’t one of them, a lot of actors not named Harrison Ford were considered for the role of Jones. Jeff Bridges has said that he was considered for the role, but he also denies having ever gotten a firm offer. According to Spielberg, Peter Coyote’s audition for the role led to Spielberg later casting him in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Tim Matheson, Nick Mancuso, and John Shea have all been confirmed as having been, at the very least, officially considered. Sam Neill said that he auditioned for the role. Was David Hasselhoff a contender for Indiana Jones? I’ve seen Hasselhoff’s name mentioned on several sites, but it seems that this is another case where the ultimate source is the same anonymous piece of trivia that included Chase, Martin, and Murray as contenders. But the idea of the Hoff as Indiana Jones amuses me to no end, so I’m going to go ahead and say that he actually was considered. Yeah, I’m a hypocrite. So what?
George Lucas has said that he was initially hesitant about casting Harrison Ford because he (1) felt the star should be a relative unknown and (2) didn’t want the critics to say that he wasn’t capable of making a movie without Ford in the cast. Marcia Lucas famously felt that Tom Selleck would have been the perfect Indiana, and George agreed with her. It appeared, at the time, that CBS was going to pass on producing Magnum, P.I., a show for which Selleck had been signed to star. When Lucas and Spielberg asked CBS to release Selleck from his contract so that he could do Raiders, CBS instead put the show into production because Selleck was now “in demand.” With Selleck out of the running, Harrison Ford was finally cast in the role that he was born to play.
I’ve always loved Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones but, to be honest, who doesn’t? What always enchanted me about Ford’s performance is that he wasn’t afraid to be intelligent. No matter what adventures Indiana Jones found himself in, Ford always played him as an academic first and an adventurer second. In the first three films, Indiana seemed just as excited as the audience to see what he would discover in his travels. As for the final two films, they failed because they both tried to bring in a replacement. Audiences didn’t want to see Harrison Ford replaced by Shia LaBeouf. They sure as hell didn’t want to see him being put in his place by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It doesn’t matter how old he gets or how grouchy he may be. Audiences love Harrison Ford, and they love it when he says that it belongs in a museum.
As for who was considered for the rest of the Raiders ensemble, here are the names that I’ve seen mentioned as having been considered. As always, take these names with a grain of salt.
Marion: Debra Winger was not available. Neither was Spielberg’s girlfriend, Amy Irving. (By most accounts, Irving didn’t think much of any of her future husband’s films.) Sean Young screen-tested with Tom Selleck. Wendie Malick has talked about auditioning for the role while hungover. Jane Seymour, Mary Steenburgen, Michelle Pfeiffer, Stephanie Zimbalist, and Barbara Hershey were reportedly also considered, but the role was offered to Karen Allen.
Brody: Apparently, only Denholm Elliott was considered for Brody, and it is impossible to imagine anyone else in the role.
Sallah: Danny DeVito was actually offered the role, but he was appearing in a television show and couldn’t get out of his contract. John Rhys-Davies was cast instead.
Belloq: Jonathan Pryce, who would have been a great choice, read for the role. Giancarlo Giannini and French singer Jacques Dutronc are frequently mentioned as being other possibilities. The role went to Paul Freeman.
Toht: In his autobiography, Klaus Kinski wrote about turning down the role because it didn’t pay enough. Some sites say that Roman Polanski was offered the role. (If that’s true, one imagines that Spielberg is probably happy in retrospect that Polanski turned him down.) Ronald Lacey was cast in the role, and personally, I think he was perfect for it. As intriguing as the idea of Harrison Ford vs. Klaus Kinski might be, the role of Toht didn’t need a familiar face. It just needed someone who could be menacing.
(Actually, the idea of Chevy Chase vs. Klaus Kinski is even more intriguing! That would have been an interesting set to visit.)
In the end, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the few films that one can say is perfectly cast, from Harrison Ford to Karen Allen to John Rhys-Davies and Denholm Elliott. And we’re all the luckier for it!
