Sometimes it pays to be in it for the long run. Even when something doesn't seem to be as great as it could be, a bit of work and dedication can go a long way. This is ultimately the moral of this article and what acclaimed actor Roy Scheider completely neglected to acknowledge. Instead of playing Robert De Niro's role in the Academy Award-winning masterpiece, The Deer Hunter, Roy got stuck in a role that he REALLY didn't want.
Here's the truth about why Roy Scheider stepped away from one of the most acclaimed movies of the 1970s to be stuck acting in...
Jaws 2 Was An Absolute Nightmare That Roy Had To Be In
Steven Spielberg's 1975 shark adventure thriller was groundbreaking. It was the first movie to ever make a million dollars at the opening weekend box office and ushered in the era of summer blockbusters. Not only that, but the Oscar-winning movie permanently altered the way people look at the ocean. To this day, it's considered one of the most effective, enjoyable, and long-lasting cinematic achievements of all time.
It's sequels... not so much.
To be fair, Steven Spielberg absolutely did NOT want to make a sequel to Jaws, let alone three. At the time, he told the San Francisco Film Festival that "making a sequel to anything is just a cheap carny trick". Of course, this is something that he would later change his mind on. But Universal wouldn't have any of that. Jaws was one of their biggest successes ever and they had to find a way to further capitalize on it without Steven's involvement.
Not surprisingly, Jaws 2 was plagued with production problems, including issues with the cast and the director not nailing the tone that they wanted. Ultimately, they ruined the sequel but continued to do even worse by the original by making two more, Jaws 3-D and Michael Caine's worst movie, Jaws: The Revenge.
Obviously, Steven was right to want to leave Jaws alone. After all, the movie could have been a B-horror film. Instead, it was a masterpiece of suspense that delicately balanced a bit of comedy, horror, and a buddy-adventure film all at the same time. Then there's John Williams' score which is undeniably one of the greatest of all time and the fact that it made an A-list star out of Roy Scheider.
Before Jaws's release, the late-Roy Scheider was a working actor. While he had a bunch of credits to his name, it was Jaws that made him a star and ultimately what led Universal to lock him into a multi-picture deal. Meaning, Roy had to make a certain number of movies with them.
Right after Jaws, Roy was cast in The Marathon Man and then another acclaimed script crossed his desk... The Deer Hunter.
Roy's Undisclosed Problems With The Deer Hunter
Universal Studios wanted Roy to play the lead character of Staff Sergeant Michael Vronsky. And Roy was involved with the production for a very long time. After all, the script looked good and the talent involved was undeniable. Roy was also in that sweet spot in his career where the good roles kept flying in. But he ultimately had to take a few of them as he was contractually obligated to do so by Universal Studios who were all about making that good Roy Scheider money.
Very little is known about what led Roy to drop out of the Deer Hunter. But we do know that he did so at the very last minute... about two weeks before the film went to camera. This meant that the director and filmmaking team had to do everything they could to find a suitable actor to replace Roy... Ultimately, they went with Robert De Niro which turned out to be one of the best decisions they could ever make. It was also the very first time that Robert De Niro made over a million dollars for a role.
Too bad for Roy.
Actors like Mark Wahlberg have missed out on major roles for a variety of terrible reasons, but the only one that Roy gave was "creative differences". Usually, this comes down to personality clashes. But instead of working through them, or working through any creative problems Roy may have had with the script, he jumped ship... and this landed him on a sinking one.
Roy's contractual obligation to Universal Studios meant that he basically had to take the next project on the studio's roaster... and that turned out to be 1978's Jaws 2.
Fortunately for Roy, he managed to avoid tanking his career by being cast in a number of acclaimed movies immediately after Jaws 2. This appeared to erase the massive mistake that he clearly made.