The Shawshank Redemption, perhaps one of the finest movies in every movie enthusiasts list. Among many other important depictions, it showed the friendship of two prisoners over a time period of almost 2 decades; Andy and Red. The supporting characters included Heywood, Lloyd, Brooks and Tommy Williams. However these characters could be completely different, if the person who was first asked to portray it said yes in the first place.
Let’s start with Andy; this role was offered to Tom Hanks and Kevin Costner but they couldn't do it because of issues with the dates. Though Tom Hanks went on to win the best actor in a leading role at the Academy Awards, Kevin Costner strongly regret his decision for turning down the character of this Andy Dufresne, so it finally went to Tim Robbins.
Red; the role for Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding was determined to go to Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman and Robert Redford but director Frank Darabont wanted to cast only Morgan Freeman as Red.
Frank Darabont made sure that his favorite character actor James Whitmore must get a role in this film, so he asked him to do the role for Brooks. The role for the character Tommy Williams played by Gil Bellows who had a screen time of around 30 minute only was first going to Brad Pitt.
Author: Amrit Rukhaiyaar
