Turns out, he was brought in to replace Thomas Jane, who's been complaining that he got the boot in lieu of the "quote-unquote 'ethnic guy'" in producer Joel Silver's buddy cop formula: Thomas Jane fired from Sylvester Stallone movie for being white and having a big dick, says Thomas Jane.
When Thomas Jane was let go from the Walter Hill-directed, Sylvester Stallone-starring Headshot, he was quickly replaced with Fast Five's Sung Kang, giving rise to whispered rumors that producer Joel Silver was inspired to restructure the film after a late-night viewing of Rush Hour or something. While that's still just our own speculation, Collider's recent interview with Jane does confirm that his firing came about because Silver was looking to recreate the magical race-mixing formula that is so key to creating a successful buddy cop movie: "Well, Joel Silver came onboard the project and said that he has a quote-unquote 'formula' for these quote-unquote 'buddy movies' and it has to be a white guy and a quote-unquote 'ethnic guy,'" Jane says. "And they relieved me of duty and basically paid me off, which I was really upset about, you know?" Adding further insult, Jane says his would-be partner Stallone didn't even seem to care that he'd left: "I didn't get a call from Stallone. I was a little upset about that," Jane says, adding, "Maybe they didn't want anybody on the movie with a bigger dick than him."More here: Thomas Jane Confirms He Was Fired From 'Headshot' For Being Too White. I understand the guy's bitter because he kicked off a job, and things might have indeed happened the way he says. And that sucks.
But excuse me if I have a hard time feeling sorry for a guy who's had the privilege of lead roles in several movies and television shows, and will probably see a lot more work to come. And if you being excused for the role means our boy Sung gets a spot on that poster, I'm cool with it.