John Cleese Regrets Turning Down a Role in This Steve Martin Comedy

John Cleese has obviously starred in some truly iconic comedies, including the Monty Python films, Time Bandits and A Fish Called Wanda. He’s also seemingly willing to work for any film production that cuts him a check, hence why he narrated Beethoven’s Christmas Adventure (the one featuring Tom Arnold as the voice of Beethoven).

Despite his prodigious movie career, Cleese has at least one regret — and it has nothing to do with that bitter public feud with one of his oldest friends.

During a recent interview with NOLA.com, Cleese was asked if there’s any role that he wishes he hadn’t turned down. “The one that still makes me sad is when (director and Muppets puppeteer) Frank Oz rang me up immediately after A Fish Called Wanda and asked me to be in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” Cleese explained. “It was the Michael Caine role.”

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, of course, told the story of two warring con artists operating in the French Riviera. Steve Martin played the boorish American huckster, Freddy, while Caine played the more refined Lawrence.  

Oddly enough, the film began as a project for Mick Jagger and David Bowie, following their hit cover of “Dancing in the Street.” Although it’s hard to imagine Jagger playing “Ruprecht.”

Why would Cleese turn down the opportunity to work with a comedy superstar in a scenic location? “My marriage was a wreck, as usual, so I did not feel I could just go straight off and do another movie and be away for two months when I didn’t know whether I was married or not,” Cleese recalled. “So I went back to England. Within a week, I knew that I was not going to go on being married, but then it was too late.”

Weirdly, Cleese also revealed that he turned down the Anthony Hopkins role in the acclaimed 1993 Merchant Ivory drama The Remains of the Day, which he claimed was originally much funnier. “I loved the script,” the Fawlty Towers star stated, “And then they brought in (Nobel Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter) Harold Pinter and he took all the humor out. I thought it was too much of a downer without the leavening effect of the humor, so I passed on that.”

“But I should have just done these movies,” Cleese concluded. “As Michael Caine always said, ‘If it’s no good, it disappears in three weeks, and nobody remembers it. It’s not a black mark forever against your name.’”

Of course, when he said that, Caine probably hadn't seen Beethoven’s Christmas Adventure.