“I was like, ‘Ooh…”
It is a highly coveted role played by Tom Sturridge in Sandmanthe Netflix series by Neil Gaiman.
We know that Joseph Gordon-Levitt campaigned for a long time to make a film in which he would play the leading role. And before him Michael Jackson too !
The author of the original comic revealed to the podcast Happy Sad Confused that the King of Pop tried to lobby to play Morpheus in the 1990s. Neil Gaiman remember : “In 1996, I was taken to Warner Studio where the president of Warner Bros. called me in to tell me that Michael Jackson had called him the day before! He had asked him if he might play the role of Morpheus in a film Sandman…”
Sandman on Netflix: A Waking Dream (review)
Neil Gaiman doesn’t actually say why he said no, but he does remember: “There was a lot of interest in this title and they knew it was one of the crown jewels. So what did I think of it at the time? I was like, ‘ Ooh…” Somewhere between surprise and embarrassment.
Two decades later, the British writer saw 1500 actors to play his Morpheus in Sandman. And the face of Tom Sturridge caught on quickly, being among the first four names received in an email from casting director Lucinda Syson. “I figured that following a few weeks we would have a shortlist of five or ten people as good as him, as fair as him, who would be able to say the lines as well as him. But following one week we had Tom. After two weeks we still had Tom. After a month we still had Tom. So following six weeks we told Warner Bros. it was him. He had this certain something in the way he said the lines, this thoughtful way of finding the poetry, the beauty and the melody of the Morpheus sentences. It was wonderful. It was right”.
Michael Jackson wanted to play Morpheus in THE SANDMAN. Yup, you read that right.
Watch the full #happysadconfused with @neilhimself here: https://t.co/04iXe0GGvp pic.twitter.com/vrchzPHAsU
— Josh Horowitz (@joshuahorowitz) August 26, 2022
