Guy Pearce banned from Chris Nolan films because a Warner Bros. Exec disliked his acting
Guy Pearce revealed in a new interview with Vanity Fair that he was blocked from starring in Christopher Nolan movies after 2000’s “Memento” because a Warner Bros. executive just didn’t like his acting. The director’s relationship with the Hollywood studio started right after “Memento” with the 2002 psychological thriller “Insomnia.” Nolan and Warner Bros. then worked together for 18 years through the 2020 release of “Tenet.” The director’s tenure at the studio included blockbusters like “Inception” and “The Dark Knight” trilogy.
“He spoke to me about roles a few times over the years,” Pearce said when asked about his relationship with Nolan after the breakout success of “Memento.” “The first ‘Batman’ and ‘The Prestige.’ But there was an executive at Warner Bros. who quite openly said to my agent, ‘I don’t get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to employ Guy Pearce.’ So, in a way, that’s good to know. I mean, fair enough; there are some actors I don’t get. But it meant I could never work with Chris.”
Pearce said this particular Warner Bros. executive “just didn’t believe in me as an actor,” which blocked him from acting in Nolan movies like “Batman Begins” even though the director had him fly to London to read for the role of Ra’s al Ghul. Nolan cast Liam Neeson in the part.
“They flew me to London to discuss the Liam Neeson role and I think it was decided on my flight that I wasn’t going to be in the movie,” Pearce remembered. “So I get there and Chris is like ‘Hey, you want to see the Batmobile and get dinner?'”
Fortunately for Pearce, Nolan’s tenure at Warner Bros. came to an end after the 2020 release of “Tenet.” The director made his most recent movie, the Oscar winner “Oppenheimer, at Universal Pictures and is re-teaming with that studio for his mysterious new project that is releasing in 2026. Nolan’s new movie is starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway and more. Both Damon and Hathaway have appeared in previous Nolan features.
Pearce, meanwhile, is expected to land an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor this season thanks to his acclaimed role in “The Brutalist.”
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | December 16, 2024 5:34 PM
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going for that Best Supporting Actor sympathy vote I see
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | December 14, 2024 3:26 AM
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What studio executive has that sort of power?
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | December 14, 2024 4:10 AM
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He is the best thing in The Brutalist. Brody goes full ham in it
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | December 14, 2024 4:27 AM
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One of my favorite actors.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | December 14, 2024 4:31 AM
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R9 - yeah, that's what I would want to know. That's very specific - and for it to go on for years is strange. It's about box office receipts.
But - to be fair - there are a lot of actors I see who I just don't like. Literally anyone else but them.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | December 14, 2024 6:25 AM
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Time Machine is a masterpiece.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | December 14, 2024 9:49 AM
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I've always wondered why his career didn't take off after LA Confidential. He's very good looking by any objective measure and has always had a hot body. His acting credits are diverse from his beginning in soaps to playing gay and sci-fi roles (if you can call Memento sci-fi).
If it boils down to acting chops I'd say Guy Pearce has more depth than Keanu Reeves , Kevin Bacon and even Tammy.
There can only be one answer: Guy refused to suck someones's cock.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | December 14, 2024 3:28 PM
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Guy Pearce would have been great in Oppenheimer.
He has the perfect look for that era.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | December 14, 2024 3:28 PM
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R12 - Guy doesn't come off as very warm and I haven't seen him do a ton of press or interviews historically. Not saying he hasn't done them - but he keeps a relatively low profile.
This sounds a bit simplistic - I think there were other issues.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | December 14, 2024 3:30 PM
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Pearce should have had Robert Downey Jr’s role in Oppenheimer.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | December 14, 2024 3:44 PM
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Since when have studio executives ever cared about merit or talent?
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | December 14, 2024 3:47 PM
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He disappeared so far off the map after LA Confidential that Memento (2000) was actually seen as something of a comeback for him and resulted in him getting Time Machine. I remember seeing Memento FOR him, before anyone knew who Christopher Nolan was. Keep in mind that by the time Memento came out, his costar Russell Crowe had already been nominated for an Oscar for The Insider and already starred in the blockbuster film that would win him an Oscar, Gladiator. Pearce had only done, IIRC, the cannibal thriller Ravenous.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | December 14, 2024 3:48 PM
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[quote] He disappeared so far off the map after LA Confidential that Memento (2000) was actually seen as something of a comeback for him and resulted in him getting Time Machine.
It was around that time between Memento and Time Machine, that Guy became SCARILY skinny.
Like, skeletal. He looked fucking awful.
There was so much speculation around his looks. Some said drugs, some said anorexia, some even guessed he had HIV.
I'm thinking drugs, and he might have left that part out, about why he was black listed.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | December 14, 2024 3:55 PM
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This may or may not be true for [italic]Batman Begins[/italic] — I think Neeson is excellent in the part— but it's hard to imagine any executive at Warner Bros. being able to keep Guy out of any Nolan movie after that. Nolan has been able to pretty much write his own ticket since [italic]Begins[/italic].
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | December 14, 2024 4:12 PM
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I've never seen that picture or that era of Guy Pearce, R18. Shocking!! You think it was drugs? He's still very handsome, even to this day. I just watched him in the 2019 BBC/FX three-part "A Christmas Carol" miniseries. The most handsome Scrooge you could ever imagine. It almost made the whole thing implode because Scrooge is supposed to be old, and ugly from the inside out. But Pearce is a brilliant actor, and he made it work. (The quality of the rest of the show, is to be debated. Great acting all around (Joe Alwyn as Bob Cratchett, btw) - but the liberties taken from the original Dickens book are REALLY over the top.)
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | December 14, 2024 4:29 PM
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True R14 he keeps a very low profile but comes across as a nice person in this interview and doesn't hold back when asked about Kevin Spacey...
"At least I was 29 and not 14".
Touché. Shows he has the smarts to survive in the industry and, dare I say, might be closeted himself. Look at the hand gestures in this interview and adoration for Kate Winselt (in Mildred Pirece!) and Kylie Minogue.
Maybe I shouldn't have been so sarcastic with my cock sucking remark but I agree, there has to be other issues as to why his career stalled after LA Confidential.
Glad to see his star is back on the rise.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | December 14, 2024 5:00 PM
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Idk but yesterday I watched L.A Confidential (what a fucking movie) for the first time in ages and realized, contrary to what I thought before, it's not Crowe's Bud White that is the most fuckable of the characters, but Pierece's Edmund Exley. Man he was so fucking hot in the movie, all tight assed and straight laced and ambitious. The characters kept telling him to lose his glasses but boy did I disagree, they just made him hotter...and when he fucks Lynn? Yowza.
Also, man I miss Spacey as an actor. I know he's a terrible person but at his prime he was just out of this world.
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | December 14, 2024 5:20 PM
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