"I Spent Months Stalking Him" – 16 Characters That Were Custom Made For A Specific Actor

"Had he not wanted to do it, I probably would have thrown the script away. It was so inspired by just knowing him that I wouldn’t want to see anyone else do it."

Often a casting process can be long and arduous. Sometimes, however, writers will know exactly who they want before they even begin or a stellar audition will cause a whole new character to be created.

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So, here are 16 characters that were created with a specific actor in mind:

1. Ralph Fiennes as Monsieur Gustave in The Grand Budapest Hotel

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Not only is the movie centred around the life of the eccentric, meticulous concierge, Monsieur Gustave, but it was actually inspired by the character, and written around Gustave. 

Wes Anderson, on creating the movie, said, "the first idea for the movie had nothing to do with the setting. It had to do with this one character, played by Ralph Fiennes." 

A friend of Wes actually inspired the role', but he quickly knew exactly who should play the lead – "My friend Hugo and I made the script together, and our friend was the model for this character, and immediately as we started writing it, I began to think, 'You know, I've wanted to work with Ralph Fiennes for some years, and I started thinking I would love to write this for Ralph.'"

"In the end, I really don't know who else could play this, nor would I want to see anybody else play it."

Here's the prison scene:

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2. Octavia Spencer as Zelda in The Shape of Water

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Octavia's role as Zelda in Guillermo del Toro's award-winning movie was actually written for Octavia, and convincing her to play the part was seamless. When she read the script, she knew that the film would be "magical" and also was sure that she wanted to be a part of it. 

It didn't hurt that she was already a big fan of the director, as she explained: "I'm a huge Guillermo del Toro fan. I've seen everything he's directed and just about everything he's executive produced and he's an auteur, a true auteur. The first scene when everything is underwater — I said 'Oh my God. They're gonna be doing things like this. I want to be a part of this movie.'"

In fact, when the two met to discuss the role, they spoke for three hours before even getting to the topic of the film itself, as she said explained: "We talked about everything. Life, love, antiques, our love of antiques, dieting, I mean everything but the movie." 

It was clearly an excellent choice for the part, as the film won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. 

Here's Zelda in The Shape of Water

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3. Bill Murray as Bob Harris in Lost in Translation

Focus Features

It's not always that simple to get an actor to join a project, however, even if the role was written with them specifically in mind, as Sofia Coppola found out when trying to cast Bill Murray for Lost in Translation. 

The director was set on casting Bill for the role, saying:

"I had to do it with him I just knew he was the perfect person for this. There's just no one like him, he's this great combination of funny and sensitive and sincere. I wanted to do a film centred around him." 

It wasn't a straightforward process to land him, however, having to spend months of reaching out, writing letters, and attempting to sit down with him – she said, "I spent months stalking him." 

The two finally got together for dinner, and he agreed to take up the part that was written with him in mind.

Here's the scene where Bob and Charlotte meet:

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4. John C. McGinley as Dr Cox in Scrubs

NBC

It's also not always straightforward to get a role that was written with you in mind, which is something that John C. McGinley found out when attempting to get the Dr Cox role in Scrubs. 

On the process, John explained how, despite being the exact person the writers had in mind when developing the character, he still had to audition multiple times: 

"I got the pilot for Scrubs sent to me, and in the margin for Dr. Cox, it said 'a John McGinley type.' So when I went in to audition, I said to Billy Lawrence, who’s a dear friend of mine, I said, 'Well, I’m John McGinley.'

And he said, 'I know, but because there’s so many ladles in the soup in television, you have to go through an audition process.' Disney was the producer, so I had to audition twice at Disney. And NBC was the exhibitor, so I auditioned twice at NBC. So I auditioned for 'a John McGinley type' five times."

Thankfully he eventually was confirmed for the role, and he (obviously) performed the "John C. McGinley type" perfectly. 

Watch some of the best of Dr Cox:

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5. Aubrey Plaza as April in Parks and Recreation

NBC

The part of April in Parks and Rec wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for Aubrey Plaza. There was no part for her there when one of the casting directors met her and told Michael Schur that he needed to put her in his show. 

Allison Jones told Michael, "I just met the weirdest girl I’ve ever met in my life. You have to meet her and put her on your show.”

When Michael met her, he agreed, saying: ”Aubrey came over to my office and made me feel really uncomfortable for like an hour, and immediately I wanted to put her in the show. We didn’t totally know what we were going to do with her, we just thought it would be funny if Leslie had a college-aged intern who she wanted to inspire, and that person would be Aubrey Plaza."

Here's the best of April being mean:

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6. Chris Pratt as Andy in Parks and Recreation

NBC

It wasn't just Aubrey who changed what Parks and Rec would look like, but Chris Pratt too. His character, Andy, was supposed to be quite different from the one we saw. When he auditioned, the writers felt like they had to tweak the character in order to have Chris become one of the main roles, as they'd only planned on having Andy stay for a few episodes.

Michael Schur explained their decision: 

"We’d originally designed the character of Andy to be there for six episodes, then be gone. Ann was going to wise up and realise he was a loser and get rid of him. But Pratt auditioned, and we were like, 'This guy’s too funny to not use.' We slowly changed that character to one that’s more loveable and sweet—a moron and doofus, but not a bad person." 

Here's the best of Andy:

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7. Chris Colfer as Kurt in Glee

Fox

Chris was just out of high school when he auditioned for a part in Glee, but the part he auditioned for is not his role as Kurt. Instead, he came in to audition for the role of Artie, which eventually went to Kevin McHale.

Chris' performance impressed them so much, however, that they decided to create a role just for him. He said, "that night we got a call from my agent saying that they liked what I presented so much that they were going to write in a role for me." 

Casting Director, Robert Ulrich, explained why they made up a whole new character just for him, saying: "He really didn't fit any of the parts. Basically, we wrote the part for him on the spot."

Watch the best of Kurt here:

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8. Rebel Wilson as Brynn in Bridesmaids

Universal Pictures

Another actor whose audition merited their own role was Rebel. She'd initially gone in to audition for the role that went to Melissa McCarthy, but she was a bit too young for that part at the time. On the audition, she said:

"I went in and improvised for them, with Kristen Wiig, for an hour in a room. Judd Apatow said, 'Tell Kristen about your love life. Go!,' and I said, 'But, I’ve prepared the script.' And I just kept going for an hour while they filmed it all." 

They liked her audition so much that they added the part of a roommate to the script! 

Here's Rebel Wilson in Bridesmaids

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9. Robin Williams as the Genie in Aladdin

Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

Robin's performance as the Genie in Aladdin has become iconic, and not only did they write the script with Robin in mind, but they also completely expected him to take it in any direction he wanted. 

Codirector, Ron Clements, explained how Robin improvised and adlibbed his way to create the part: 

"John Musker and I wrote the original script with the specific idea that Robin would voice the Genie and that he would be a visual as well as vocal shape-shifter. Robin would be encouraged to improvise to his heart’s content."

Ron recalled the first day of recording the Genie's intro, which perfectly illustrated just how much Robin played around with the part: 

"The original scene was meant to be about three minutes long. For each take, Robin would add and embellish, so by the 25th (and last) take, the scene had expanded to about 20 minutes long! Robin kept coming up with more and more ideas. And he was consistently hilarious. At one point, we had to remove the genie’s lead animator, Eric Goldberg, from the recording stage because his uncontrollable laughter was messing up takes."

Here's some of the Genie from Aladdin:

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10. Jack Black as Dewey Finn in School of Rock

Paramount Pictures

Jack Black's performance as Dewey is definitely one of the most perfectly cast roles, and that makes a whole lot of sense, seeing as screenwriter Mike White wrote the part, and the whole film, for Jack.

Mike, who played Ned in the film, spoke about how he came up with the idea for the movie based on Jack, saying:

"The whole idea of the movie came after I saw Jack in another movie I wrote called Orange County. He was really funny but the part was not written for him. And I just kept thinking there’s so many different colours to his comedy than people have seen, at least in terms of the movies he’s headlined.

I just had this image in my head of him jamming with a bunch of little kids, and while I was kind of afraid of what the Paramount version of that could be, I couldn’t shake the idea. So I just wrote it."

And it's a good thing that Jack was happy to take up the role too, because Mike explained that without him as Dewey, he wouldn't have wanted to continue with the movie, saying: "Had he not wanted to do it, I probably would have thrown the script away. It was so inspired by just knowing him that I wouldn’t want to see anyone else do it."

Here's Jack Black in School of Rock:

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11. Chelsea Peretti as Gina Linetti in Brooklyn Nine-Nine

NBC

If anyone was going to warrant their own role, it was Chelsea Peretti/Gina Linetti. That's right, the larger-than-life assistant wasn't in the initial script, but when Chelsea auditioned (for Rosa), they decided to create the part for her:

"I initially auditioned for the part of Rosa, which was not called Rosa at the time. Did not get it, but they called me and were like, 'We're going to write a different part for you.' So my part was not in the script that I initially read."

Check out the best of Gina:

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12. Terry Crews as Terry in Brooklyn Nine-Nine

NBC

It turns out that B99 could have looked a whole lot different because Terry's character was also made specifically for him – there was no role there when he first met with the producers, as he eluded to:

"The character on Brooklyn Nine-Nine didn't exist. "I went in and met with the producers, they didn't have a role. They were like 'we wanna add you to the show so much that the name of the character is you'."

They weren't joking about making the character him – after telling them about his life they even included personal details in Terry's character, including him driving a minivan! 

Here's the best of Terry:

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13. Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in The Avengers

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Samuel L. Jackson became the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. long before his appearance in the MCU. It was Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch who used Sam's likeness for the comic book character in 2001, and they did it without his permission: 

"Sam is famously the coolest man alive and both myself and artist Bryan Hitch just liberally used him without asking any kind of permission."

The two weren't exactly subtle about using Sam's likeness, in one comic Nick Fury even answered a question about who he would get to play him in a hypothetical movie with: "Why, Mister Samuel L. Jackson, of course. That's not even to debate, Doctor Pym."

After seeing his likeness in the comics, Sam's reaction was totally positive, in fact, he contacted Marvel and asked for the part in a potential movie, to which they said, "Yeah, we are planning on making movies, and we do hope you’ll be a part of them."

Mark Millar said what it was like when eventually met Sam – "The first thing I said was I hope you don’t mind me completely exploiting your appearance in my book thirteen years back, and he said, 'Fuck, no, man. Thanks for the nine-picture deal.'"

Watch some of the best of Nick Fury:

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14. Danny DeVito as Frank Reynolds in It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

FX

For the first season, the team filmed seven episodes. When the first aired on the new network, FX, at 22:30 on a Wednesday and no one really watched it, the president of the network, John Landgraf, called Rob McElhenney and said: 

"We don't have a marketing budget, we're also a fledgling network, but we love the show. We want it to succeed, so we want to add an actor that has a bit of cache, somebody who can bring some exposure to the show."

He suggested Danny DeVito, to which the team said no. The reason for them turning Danny down was that they thought they had something good going, and the idea of inserting a movie star could upset the chemistry. The decision didn't go down well, however, because John then said "okay then, I'm going to cancel the show." 

Needless to say, Rob immediately warmed to the idea of Danny, and they wrote in Frank to be played by Danny, which was of course an absolute success.

Watch the best of Frank:

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15. Jorge Garcia as Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in Lost

ABC

Sometimes an actor's performance on one show can lead them to land another role. That's what happened to Jorge with his role in Lost. When J.J Abrams saw Jorge in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, he instantly decided that he should be part of Lost. 

It was then a job for the writing team to develop a character based on Jorge's personality, which they did excellently. Jorge was humbled by this, of course, saying, "It makes you feel like you're pretty good at what you do."

Watch the best of Hugo here:

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16. Ice Cube as Doughboy in Boyz n the Hood

Columbia Pictures

John Singleton came to Ice Cube because he wanted to make a movie about NWA. It was John that gave Ice Cube the opportunity and confidence to become a Hollywood staple. On meeting John, Ice Cube said:

“He was just adamant about the group, NWA, the kind of music that we were doing. And, you know, his whole thing was like ‘the film version of what you are doing and, you know, nobody is showing that.' So he just kept saying, ‘Man, you Doughboy, you Doughboy, man. I could see it.’"

Ice Cube was listening, interestedly, but thinking that John would be casting a big actor for Doughboy. John, however, kept saying "It’s you." So, with Laurence Fishburne taking him under his wing, and giving him acting pointers, Ice Cube became Doughboy. 

You can see Ice Cube here:

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When else has a role been written specifically for an actor? Let us know in the comments below!