'Days Of Thunder' Star Spews Vulgar, Sexist Rant At Anne Hathaway For Her Role In Sequel
Randy Quaid publicly attacked Anne Hathaway's casting in the "Days of Thunder" sequel and pushed for Nicole Kidman instead.
Celebrities
Tom Cruise and Anne Hathaway announced her casting in the "Days of Thunder" sequel with a video posted over the weekend. Randy Quaid, who played a team owner in the 1990 original, responded with a public tirade about it that included a reference to the fact that Hathaway is currently pregnant.
The suggestion nobody requested
His proposed alternative was Nicole Kidman — Cruise's co-star in the original film and his former wife — which answers a question nobody had asked and immediately raises several others.
Kidman has given no indication of any interest in returning. And the role Hathaway is reportedly taking, per Deadline, is a team owner and engineer rather than a reprise of anyone's earlier part, so the substitution being demanded is not even a substitution. It is a different person in a different job.
A familiar genre
Quaid's intervention belongs to a recognizable category: the former cast member of a beloved property announcing that the new version has been ruined, framed as a defense of the original and functioning, transparently, as a request to be asked back.
That genre is usually harmless and occasionally endearing. What removes this one from it is the decision to bring the actress's pregnancy into the complaint, which moves the objection out of the realm of casting opinion entirely and into something else.
The film itself
The sequel arrives in summer 2028, with Cruise returning as Cole Trickle. That is a 38-year gap, and the film is being made for an audience that spent decades adopting the original as a NASCAR touchstone despite reviews that were not kind to it at the time.
Hathaway, for what it is worth, is a plausible piece of casting for a racing film that presumably wants to be about the business and engineering of the sport as much as the driving. That is what team owners and engineers do.
No good response
Neither Cruise nor Hathaway has responded, and there is no version of responding that improves their position. Engaging elevates the complaint; ignoring it costs nothing, since the people who care about the film are not consulting Randy Quaid before buying tickets.
The movie comes out in 2028. He is not in it, and after this week the probability that he ever will be has not improved.
