Earlier than turning into king of a bizarre late-night comedy, David Letterman was one other comedian searching for a break. However Letterman knew his strengths and weaknesses and didn’t see himself as an actor. Sadly for him, after David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker (ZAZ) noticed him on the Comedy Retailer in Los Angeles, they thought he would possibly make an excellent lead for his or her upcoming film Airplane! The remaining, as they are saying, is historical past: Letterman didn’t get the half.
In an excerpt from ZAZ’s new oral historical past of Airplane!, entitled Absolutely You Can’t Be Severe, published by EW, the author/administrators and Letterman lastly fess as much as what occurred.
“They have been very nice to think about me for a movie as a result of I can see the place individuals would assume, ‘Oh, now we have a factor the place we’re opening an Alpha Beta [supermarket]; are you able to come out and speak to the bag boys?’ That made sense,” Letterman mentioned. “However a film? And the man who produced it was Howard Koch, who had a official film profession and big-time credit. He was any individual that even I used to be conscious of, and so I assumed, Geez, he’s not gonna need something to do with me!”
Letterman wasn’t simply up for any function. He was up for the lead: Ted Striker, which finally went to Robert Hayes. Nonetheless, Jerry Zucker knew “he wasn’t an actor, however he was humorous” and he “appeared nice onscreen.” Nevertheless, the “entire concept of performing” was anathema to Letterman. “I feel all of it appears too phony to him like he’s bullshitting,” Zucker mentioned. “It simply wasn’t him.” Apparently, that got here via within the audition.
Letterman recalled doing the scene within the cockpit a few instances as he “stored saying all alongside, “I can’t act, I can’t act, I can’t act.”
“We did the scene as soon as, after which they got here in and gave me some notes, after which we did it possibly two extra instances,” Letterman mentioned. “And I stored saying all alongside, ‘I can’t act, I can’t act, I can’t act,’ after which certainly one of them got here to me after the audition and mentioned, ‘You’re proper: you’ll be able to’t act!’ It was all so good-natured that I simply laughed my method again to the automobile. I by no means felt any sense of disappointment as a result of, from the very starting, I advised them, ‘I can’t act.’ After which I used to be proper, and all of us ended up parting as pals. So it was an excellent time.”
“I preferred these guys, and once I noticed the film, it was simply pleasant, and I used to be delighted to see it figuring out that I didn’t have to have a look at myself,” he mentioned. “As a result of that may’ve ruined it. If not the entire film, it definitely would’ve ruined it for me.”
Although Letterman didn’t get the function, footage of his screentest did wind up on Late Evening. On March 15, 1982, Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker introduced the display take a look at to Late Evening, the place a really uncomfortable Letterman begrudgingly aired the clip.
“Perhaps if I had gotten the half, that film would’ve made some cash,” Letterman joked. Airplane was the fourth greatest film of 1980, behind Stir Loopy, 9 To 5, and The Empire Strikes Again. Think about that, in 1980, seven of the 10 highest-grossing movies of the year were comedies.
