Richard Grieco - I Turned Down "Speed" The Movie
“I’ll be honest with you, I turned down everything from probably ’92 to ’94,” Richard Grieco reveals. “I looked at how the old actors worked, and I was definitely wrong at that point, about my assumption that you take one movie a year. And if it’s not the right film, you just don’t take a film. I didn’t know you do film after film after film after film. And there are a lot of films that I turned down that went on to be big things, and other films that didn’t.”
Grieco does not hold many regrets today, save for The One That Got Away.
“One that was offered to me that I turned down was Speed,” he says of the 1994 thriller that instead starred Keanu Reeves as the police officer who, along with passenger Sandra Bullock, foils a madman's (Dennis Hopper) plot to blow up a city bus if it dips under 50 miles per hour. The Jan de Bont-directed action flick racked up over $350 million worldwide. “But Keanu did a great job.”
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | March 29, 2021 6:34 AM
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Thanks for the update Richard. I’ll have a Pinot Grigio and my friend will have Dewars on the rocks. We’ll need a couple minutes with the menu.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | March 28, 2021 3:52 PM
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He was hot until his face melted. I love how these actors make all these claims decades later, it’s like filling your resume with closed businesses
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | March 28, 2021 3:58 PM
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[quote] He was hot until his face melted.
His nose melted too.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | March 28, 2021 7:49 PM
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Only one film a year? I don’t remember him doing A film
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | March 29, 2021 2:15 AM
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‘Sure Jan’ has never been more appropriate than now!!!!
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | March 29, 2021 2:23 AM
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But he didn't turn down meth, the drug.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | March 29, 2021 2:27 AM
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Never heard of this wannabe before.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | March 29, 2021 5:26 AM
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He's a Trumper so who on the DL really cares? I don't.
He makes bad career choices & bad political choices.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | March 29, 2021 5:31 AM
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Great example of an actor confusing the process with an offer. Nobody was offering Richard Grieco a lead in a studio feature in 1993. He didn't turn down the role that Keanu Reeves took.
It's likely the project was around for a while and he turned it down before doing IF LOOKS COULD KILL, which was a huge 1991 bomb (even though it's a fun movie that a lot of critics liked). Its very good for what it is and had a quality director. My guess is that he probably had some heat at studios before the movie was released (because it was good) and nobody went to see it (which made him unemployable as a lead).
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | March 29, 2021 5:42 AM
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In addition to what i wrote at r12 another more likely possibility is that his agency sent him the script along with 100 other ones. It doesn't mean there was an offer or any interest from the studio. Agencies do that to cover their asses in case the client leaves and does the movie down the road.
If CAA sent Grieco the script in 1991 (along with 500 other scripts) and he bails for another agency and the project comes together again and he does it, sometimes CAA can make a claim for 50% of the agency fee.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | March 29, 2021 5:45 AM
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Grieco’s worst mistake was his eyebows.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | March 29, 2021 6:34 AM
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