The most famous film by comedian and actor Rik Mayall – who sadly died two years ago today at the age of just 56 – was of course “Drop Dead Fred”, in which he played Phoebe Cates’ anarchic, imaginary best friend.
What his fans may not know, however, is that he was supposed to play the lead role in an even more famous film – “Harry Potter”.
He was cast as the poltergeist Peeves in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and as he explains in this hilarious interview, he actually filmed the role.
Take it away, Rik:
“I’m telling you, this is the best damn movie I’ve ever been in, and not because of the movie, but because the movie, with all due respect… no, without any respect… the movie sucked, and I’ll tell you why.
“A long time ago, all the kids at my children’s school said, ‘Hi Rik, have you read Harry Potter? It’s fantastic.’ I said, ‘What?’
“My agent said, ‘Hey Rik, do you want to be in Harry Potter?'”
“I said, ‘What, is it a book?'”
“He said, ‘It’s a movie.'”
“I said, ‘Ah, it’s my favorite book, of course I want to be in it.'”
“I had never read a word about it. He said, ‘Okay, you’re in.'”
“I thought, ‘Damn cool. What’s the money for?'”
“So I did it, I went and bloody did it. I played the role of Peeves in Harry Potter. I got sent off the set because every time I tried to do a bit of acting, all the boys who played the school kids kept giggling, they kept acting up, so they threw me off.
Above: Peeves as he appeared in the play Prisoner of Azkaban
“So, they asked me to do it with my back to them and they laughed anyway. So they asked me to do it on the other side of the cathedral and shout my lines, but they laughed anyway, so they said they would do my lines with someone else.
“So I filmed a little bit, then went home and got the money. That’s significant.”
“Then, a month later, they said, ‘Um, Rik, we’re sorry, but you’re not in the movie. We cut you out of the film.'”
“It was three weeks later, so I was in the movie for about three weeks and then they cut me out.
“But I still got the money. So this is the most exciting movie I’ve ever been in because I got the money and I wasn’t in it. Fantastic.”
“I hadn’t told my kids I wasn’t going to be there, and when they came back they said, ‘Damn good makeup. You didn’t look like yourself at all, Dad.'”
“They thought I was playing Hagrid, the role played by Robbie Coltrane.”
According to director Chris Columbus, the scene was cut because they weren’t happy with the design. He said: “David (Heyman, producer) and I looked at Peeves’ design and thought: we can do better.”
However, this was never the case and as far as we know, the scene was never included on the DVD as a deleted scene (tell us in the comments below if you saw it). Instead, the character Peeves was simply written out of the film series, despite playing a prominent role in the books.
Perhaps we’ll see Rik’s portrayal of the mischievous ghost in a future home entertainment release.
Image credit: WB Games/TheJournal.ie/Getty
