This year has already been a year of some pretty insane creative overhauls on movies -- from the expensive reshoots on Justice League to Solo: A Star Wars Story replacing Phil Lord and Chris Miller with Ron Howard behind the camera. That said, one of the most bizarre stories of the bunch has been the decision to recast Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer as J. Paul Getty in All the Money in the World after a series of sexual misconduct allegations came to light about the actor. Now Ridley Scott has finally opened up about the specific process of replacing Spacey, and how he went about doing it. Scott explained:
You have to know who you're going to go for and if he's available. Chris [Plummer] was always on the list. So you find that out, but quietly, because you don't want it going around. I flew into New York and met with [Plummer] and he said yes. So then we had to figure out if everyone else would be available to fit in these new days of shooting. Miraculously, they were. Before you can make the decision you have to make these quick phone calls around --- not to the actors directly, but to the agents --- saying there's a possibility I may need some pickups [a.k.a. additional shooting days]. You don't say why because of the gossip, but of course it was really for something much more significant.
Ridley Scott made a point to acknowledge that was happy with Kevin Spacey's performance before the reveal of the allegations against the actor. However, he also noted that he couldn't be seen as tolerating that alleged behavior by keeping the performance in the movie. From there, Scott told EW he got to work quietly recasting Spacey with Christopher Plummer (reportedly his first choice anyway) and made the necessary calls to keep the project moving forward.
That ability to work quickly and discreetly seems to have paid off for Ridley Scott in the long run, as Christopher Plummer has already been able to step in and replace Kevin Spacey in the marketing material for All the Money in the World. In fact, a new trailer has already dropped featuring Plummer as the new J. Paul Getty, and it looks like everyone involved is working tooth and nail to put the Spacey allegations behind the movie.
All the Money in the World isn't the only high-profile project to take steps toward replacing Kevin Spacey after the sexual misconduct allegations that recently grabbed headlines. Netflix's House of Cards has similarly parted ways with the actor, and the show is reportedly exploring options to continue its sixth and final season without Frank Underwood. However, All the Money in the World feels unique because of how close it was to premiering when everything became public; it's arguably unprecedented for something like this to happen in Hollywood.
With the now Spacey-less All the Money in the World aiming to hit its December 22 release date, we will bring you more updates related to the project as new information is made available to us. Elsewhere in the big screen world, you can check out our 2017 movie premiere guide and our 2018 movie premiere guide to see what else is debuting over the next year.
