Actor David Dastmalchian reveals why he didn’t want to play the character in his new movie.
David Dastmalchian is a great secondary actor and we have been able to see him in movies like The Boston Strangler (2023), Dune (2021), The Suicide Squad or Ant-Man (2015). Now, he reveals that he didn’t want to play Lester Billings in The Boogeyman (2023), as he didn’t want to play any more dark characters.
Luckily, producer Dan Cohen was able to talk him down. This has been revealed by David Dastmalchian himself in a recent interview with Collider.
“Dan Cohen sent me the 21-page script and I’ve known Dan a long time. Dan said, this is the part, the director and I think it’s perfect for you and you have to do it, and I read it and I was like, Absolutely not! I have no interest in playing Lester Billings. I don’t want to go there. I’ve done too much in the dark and I need a break, and I can’t do it.”
David Dastmalchian
Dan Cohen did not give up and they were able to convince him.
This is how David Dastmalchian reveals why he ultimately decided to join The Boogeyman.
“Dan Cohen is many things, a talented producer, a wonderful human being, but he’s also relentless, and he kept talking to me, saying, if I could get you to talk to Rob Savage and hear his vision of what he thinks Lester could be and what could you do with it. I just don’t know if I have the capacity right now to go where you need to go. We are coming out of a pandemic, and it has been a dark time in all of our lives. You know, playing a guy who, in a lot of ways, represents a lot of the things that scare me the most in life. And then, of course, the fateful Zoom finally happens with Rob Savage and I’m like, he loved this guy.”
David Dastmalchian (image by cordonpress)
In the end, David Dastmalchian overcame his fears and accepted the role. The movie is already in theaters and it’s really terrifying. Here we leave you our review. In addition, it is being a great box office success, since with a budget of 20 million, it has exceeded 67 million worldwide.
