Sacha Baron Cohen Chose 'Les Miserables' Over 'Django Unchained,' Explains What His Small Role Would Have Been

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by Kevin Jagernauth
January 3, 2013 3:55 PM
8 Comments

Most actors would kill to have the kind of "Sophie's Choice" decision Sacha Baron Cohen was faced with about a year ago. Way back in the fall of 2011, it was reported that the comic actor had boarded Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained." But six months later, the actor had dropped out (one of a handful who came and went -- like Kevin Costner, Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Anthony LaPaglia -- as the film's production grew longer and longer). So, what gives? Well, it looks like a meatier role coupled with a tight deadline forced him out.

"I was editing 'The Dictator' and we were very close to release and Paramount wouldn’t push the date. And then I knew I’d have to jump straight from there into 'Les Mis[erables]' and it basically became a choice of either pulling out of 'Les Mis' or pulling out of 'Django,' " the actor told Deadline. "I’m sure 'Django' is an incredible movie, but it was essentially one scene." (Cohen also said last spring that the press tour for "The Dictator" was also problematic for scheduling).

So who was he going to play? "It was a character by the name of Scotty, whom Leonardo DiCaprio’s character plays a poker game with. The stakes become Scotty’s slave girl, Broomhilda," he said. But there's a bit more to it than that. It was a rather long, tangential flashback explaining how Broomhilda was sold to DiCaprio's Calvin Candie in the first place. The character was Scotty Harmony, who in early drafts was an overweight 24-year-old who comes into possession of Broomhilda thanks to his father, who buys her for him, to help boost his confidence. Harmony's also deeply enarmored by her, and this whole sequence tries to display another ugly secret of the racism of the south: the white men had no problems having black girlfriends known as Ponys in their underground clubs. Whether or not this is another historical fabrication of Tarantino's -- we haven't researched it enough -- it sure sounds like it. And as you know by now, the character and the scene didn't wind up making the final film anyway.

So did Cohen make the right choice? He's certainly bringing some much needed life and levity to "Les Miserables" in theaters now, and the audience we saw the movie with loved his take on "Master Of The House." But either way, 'Django' seems to be doing just fine without him.

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More: Sacha Baron Cohen, Les Miserables, Django Unchained

8 Comments

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Zack | January 3, 2013 9:04 PMReply

I had always assumed Scotty was cut because Tarantino decided he didn't want any of the slave-owners in the film to be sympathetic.
Shelly | January 3, 2013 8:57 PMReply

This is such bs. QT decided he didn't like SBC and axed the part. Period.
RooMcGoo | January 3, 2013 5:29 PMReply

An Incomplete History of Les Miserables: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-vCwLY8DWg
berk | January 3, 2013 5:26 PMReply

So how did this go again? Baron-Cohen and Jonah Hill were both supposed to play Scotty at one point only to have the part cut, Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell were supposed to play Ace Woody only to have the part cut (and folded into Walton Goggin's Billy Crash), Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Lapaglia were supposed to play two of the Australians at the end but had to bail and Gerald McRaney was supposedly cast but never appeared in an unnamed role. Anybody else?
Ade | January 3, 2013 5:59 PM

QT has recently also mentioned Sam Worthington and Steve Bisley in relation to the Aussie scene.
Kinick | January 3, 2013 5:24 PMReply

He made the right choice; his scene(s) would have been first to hit the cutting room floor.
Glass | January 3, 2013 4:47 PMReply

Crazy decision - Django's a way better movie, but he's one of the most memorable things about Les Mis (to me, the best part). He did the right thing. I'd still love to see him in a Tarantino movie someday.
Josh | January 3, 2013 4:20 PMReply

He's not at all how I imagined Scotty when I read the script. Too old and too skinny.