Why Bill Pullman Almost Quit 'While You Were Sleeping'
Sandra Bullock And Bill Pullman experienced movie magic While you were sleeping – but the iconic rom-com almost completely fell apart.
During the Wednesday, February 15 episode of the “Hollywood gold” podcast, one of the film's producers, Jonathan Glickmanrevealed that Pullman, 70, initially wanted to quit the 1995 film after the first reading was a total failure.
Glickman called the table read, which took place in Chicago just weeks before production began, one of the “worst” of all time, noting that the script “tanked” when the actors read it aloud in the room.
“Nothing was smiling. The energy was dead,” he said. “We had incredible professional actors there, real professionals – it was painful. And we knew it wasn't working.”
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At the time, the script had gone through multiple revisions but still didn't “work,” Glickman claimed. “The script was kind of a cut-and-paste of the stuff the original guys had written and the new person,” he explained. “And then [the director] Jon [Turteltaub]I think it was kind of a polish to make it make sense.
While you were sleeping follows lonely transit worker Lucy (Bullock) after she rescues her old crush, Peter (Peter Gallagher), from the path of an oncoming train. When he falls into a coma and Lucy tricks his family into believing she is his fiancée, things start to get complicated when she falls in love with his brother Jack (Pullman).
According to Glickman, Pullman and Gallagher, 68, approached him with the idea of switching roles as a possible way to fix the film. Glickman said Pullman even told him he wanted to quit the film altogether, but his team wouldn't let him.
“Bill Pullman said – he had just quit a movie he was making before – that his agent said he couldn't quit another movie,” he said, “or he would quit this movie.”
Happy original writers Daniel G. Sullivan And Frederick Lebow jumped back on board to prepare the script for theatrical release, creating the memorable story that fans still love today. The film went on to earn $182 million at the worldwide box office against an estimated budget of $17 million and earned Bullock a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – Comedy or Musical.
Pullman's doubts weren't the first casting problems the film faced, however. After Disney's Hollywood Pictures acquired the script in 1994, it struggled to find interested actors. Mega Ryan was one of the first to turn down the role, as Lucy was initially intended to be the one to fall into a coma.