Why Ed Harris Changed Dennis Hopper In The Truman Present

Peter Weir’s 1998 movie “The Truman Present” was forward of its time. The movie tapped into a typical paranoid fantasy born of the ultra-saturated media age, more and more fascinated with “actuality tv.” What if, the film requested, you have been being filmed by hidden TV cameras 24 hours a day, and your life was being broadcast world wide for an keen viewing public? By extension, what if all of the folks you meet are paid actors, solely pretending to be your pals and lovers, inserted into your “present” for dramatic functions? All life is now public, and it is getting used as fodder for leisure. “The Truman Present” was an existential disaster for the MTV technology, and the authentic script was even darker if you happen to can imagine it.

“The Truman Present” imagined such a situation, with one Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) at its middle. Truman was adopted by a TV firm at start, and raised inside a city-sized bubble by actors who pretended to be his dad and mom, after which later, his buddies and girlfriends. Now in maturity, Truman is starting to suspect one thing is amiss about his life, and curious occasions start occurring. A rain cloud rains solely on him, as an example. A TV highlight crashes to the bottom out of the sky. His buddies are behaving erratically. Truman is lastly starting to suspect his life is being staged. 

The director of Truman’s life is a mild artiste named Christo (Ed Harris) who has been calmly manipulating Truman’s life from the start. Christo is sort of like God to Truman … and he appears to really feel that manner somewhat as properly. He struggles to retain management as his creation slowly develops free will. 

Again in 2001, a web site referred to as the Sabotage Occasions talked to a Hollywood legend who was initially solid as Christo, however who was fired by Peter Weir after solely two days. Ed Harris was this legend’s substitute, it appears. The actor in query by no means discovered why he was canned, and the firing bruised his ego. 

The legend was Dennis Hopper. 

Hopper revealed that he was fired from “The Truman Present” for causes he was by no means capable of precisely decide. It appears, nonetheless, that neither director Peter Weir nor producer Scott Rudin, have been very keen on his efficiency. It appears that evidently Hopper wasn’t doing something incorrect, however Weir and Rudin definitely did not prefer it. It wasn’t till later that Hopper discovered he was sort of on probation the whole time. He mentioned: 

“Scott Rudin, the producer, had made an settlement with the director that … He did not need me to do the half, and if he did not like what I did after the primary day’s dailies then he would fireplace me. And so they fired me.”

When requested if Hopper’s firing could be based mostly in something private, the actor may solely say “I assume, clearly. However what, I do not know. I do not even know the person.” He additionally mentioned that dropping the job was a “main blow,” including that he has “gone and actually researched the half. It was actually an unlucky state of affairs.” It was curious, as properly, that Bizarre and Rudin did not have an understudy in thoughts; after Hopper was fired, the pair started trying to find a brand new Christo. This was based on a 1997 article in Selection, printed through the movie’s manufacturing. That article additionally cited the normal catch-all for firings: “inventive variations.” 

However Hopper would get his due. In 1999, Ron Howard made a really related movie to “The Truman Present” referred to as “EDtv” whereby the title character, Ed (Matthew McConaughey) agreed to be a 24-hour-a-day TV star, solely to rapidly be taught that he cherished his privateness. Hopper performed Ed’s estranged father, Hank, capable of reconnect together with his son and his ex-wife due to Ed’s newfound fame. It wasn’t the God character, however Hopper did get to make a late-‘90s actuality TV satire in spite of everything.