Hollywood loves a good rivalry, and back in the ’80s, Charlie Sheen and Tom Cruise found themselves quietly competing for the same spotlight.
Sheen recently revealed how one of acclaimed director Oliver Stone’s films sparked a decades-long rift between the actor and the filmmaker.
It was Charlie’s older brother, Emilio Estevez, who first broke the news that Tom was stealing his thunder.
Highlights
- Charlie Sheen revealed he was originally chosen by Oliver Stone to star in Born on the Fourth of July, until Tom Cruise unexpectedly replaced him.
- The casting switch caused a decades-long rift between Sheen and the Oscar-winning director, who “ghosted” him shortly after.
- The film went on to become one of the biggest hits of the ’80s, earning eight nominations at the 1990 Oscars.
“Well, it was also the betrayal factor of it,” the Two and A Half Men star admitted.
Charlie Sheen lost his role in the Oscar-nominated film Born on the Fourth of July to Tom Cruise
Image credits: Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images
Born on the Fourth of July, ranked among the Top 10 Films of 1989, earned director Oliver Stone an Academy Award for Best Director, while Cruise received a nomination for Best Actor, though he ultimately didn’t win.
The movie centered on the real-life story of Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic.
During a rare interview appearance on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, uploaded to YouTube on Thursday, October 30, Charlie revealed that prior to Cruise’s casting, he and Stone had agreed that he would play the role of the United States Marine Corps sergeant.
Image credits: Bryan Steffy / Getty Images
However, during a phone call, Emilio broke the news of Tom’s casting, who, at the time, was an up-and-coming actor.
“Emilio, he calls me. He says, ‘Hey, man. You sitting down?’ And I think somebody d**d, right? I'm like, ‘No, what's going on?’”
The 60-year-old star believed he and Oliver Stone had a mutual agreement about him being cast in the lead role
Image credits: Gage Skidmore / Wikipedia
“He says, ‘Cruise is doing Born on the Fourth.’”
Charlie added, “I love that Emilio thought that I needed to be seated to get news he thought was going to make me faint. I mean, what are we doing here? It’s a movie.”
The Platoon actor admitted that he was already familiar with Tom, given his success in the 1986 film Top Gun, and even moved in the same circles as him at the time.
Image credits: Graham Bensinger / YouTube
Moreover, Charlie’s brother Emilio had co-starred with Cruise in the 1983 movie The Outsiders and Cruise had even stayed at the Sheen residence for a while when he first arrived in Los Angeles.
Although Sheen emphasized that it was a “betrayal,” he clarified that his feelings were directed toward Oliver, who had previously assured him that he would play the part.
The director reportedly ghosted Charlie shortly after the news of Tom’s casting broke, something Sheen described as a “betrayal”
Image credits: Graham Bensinger / YouTube
“It’s a big deal. Well, it was also the betrayal factor of it. So I was like, ‘OK, all right.’ You know, Oliver’s been a fan of Tom’s for a long time. It’s a different movie if Tom does it than if I do it.”
Charlie further revealed that he had even met with Kovic himself, accompanied by the 79-year-old filmmaker.
However, things abruptly changed, and he was never informed about it by the director directly.
“We had meetings about it, and we had a dinner with Ron Kovic. And then I stopped hearing from him.”
"We stopped talking about it, and I reach out to Oliver, and I'm told that he's in Cuba. Whatever. This is like 1988 or '89, right? I'm like, 'OK, well, tell him I'm looking for him,’” Sheen said during the podcast.
The Mission: Impossible star had once stayed at Charlie’s family home in the early 1980s and even worked with Emilio Estevez on a film
Image credits: Ron Galella / Getty Images
Reflecting on how he came to terms with losing the role in the blockbuster, Sheen attributed it to a positive shift in mindset.
He explained that despite having a verbal agreement, nothing was ever legally confirmed since he “didn’t sign a contract.”
“You can't lose something you never had.”
Image credits: imdb
Years after being completely shut out by Stone, Charlie recalled unexpectedly running into the director at a bar.
Stone explained his reasoning for replacing Sheen with Cruise, attributing it to what he perceived as the actor’s lack of “passion” for the project.
Image credits: imdb
“I stopped in and he was there, and I was drunk enough and he was drunk enough for that thing to finally be brought up. And he was like, 'I just felt like you didn't have any passion for it. I felt like you lost interest.'”
Charlie praised Cruise’s performance in the 1989 film, saying he “should have won the freaking Oscar”
Image credits: Ron Galella / Getty Images
However, the Spin City star didn’t agree with Oliver’s reasoning behind replacing him, responding, “I was like, ‘Well, I didn't see you. How do you know how much passion I lost or interest that evaporated if we never talked about it again?'"
Image credits: Frank Trapper / Getty Images
After two decades of tension following the casting fallout, Charlie and the award-winning director eventually buried the hatchet when they reunited for the 2010 film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
Sheen made a brief cameo in the sequel to his 1987 crime drama Wall Street.
And despite everything that went down, Charlie held nothing but admiration for the Jerry Maguire star’s acting skills.
Image credits: rottentomatoes
“It wasn't like a thing where I'm going to talk s**t about him… When someone gets a job and does that with it, you're just like, of course. You don't sit there and dissect it and like, 'I'd have done that better.' No, go f**k yourself. That's brilliant, and you should have won the freaking Oscar."
“Why does it seem like people are trying to make Charlie Sheen a thing again,” wrote one social media user
