While most people would likely rather eat a shoe (or place some sort of bet on the shoe starring in a Lifetime movie about Elizabeth Taylor) than see the train wreck that will be the Lindsay Lohan-starring Liz & Dick, the production just keeps chugging along. And good on them, too, with rumors abounding that Lohan has been displeased with the parade of actors who have been brought around to try their hand at the Richard Burton role, adding still more fuel to the fire that Lohan is a bad choice for the role both in terms of her behavior (bad) and her talent (negligible). Somehow, though, they’ve finally found the Dick to her Liz!
Deadline Wellington reports that, “after an extensive search,” Kiwi actor Grant Bowler has been set to co-star as Burton in the film. Executive producer Larry A. Thompson continues to be unusually chatty about the production, proudly nattering on about how he wanted a Welsh actor for the role but how Bowler’s “gravitas” made him the perfect fit for the part. For good measure, Thompson even recited his own mini-Burton history: “Burton was a Welsh poet, a rascal, and a man’s man, who swept Elizabeth Taylor off her feet and flew her so close to the sun that they both exploded into stardust that still lights up Hollywood.” So…he was Icarus? Cool! Old Hollywood was so wacky and mythologically obtuse!
Of course, this all begs the question: just who in sweet hell is Grant Bowler? Only the owner of the one of most hilarious resumes currently in Hollywood circulation!
Perhaps best known for playing “Cooter” on True Blood (because of course), the actor is also famous for starring in a number of Australian television shows, being replaced as the host of the Aussie version of The Mole, narrating the reality show Border Security: Australia’s Front Line (who the hell would have suspected that Australia, an island, had a border control problem?), and playing Hank Rearden in Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 (it’s okay to pause for laughter now). He’s also popped up on LOST and Ugly Betty, in addition to having a small role in Killer Elite.
So, wait, where’d they get this guy? Beyond the chemistry that reportedly “erupted” in his reading today with Lohan (sounds painful), let’s just be honest here – they blew their wad on casting and insuring Lohan. At least this guy apparently likes to work. And he has the right chin.
The film is set to start shooting on June 4th. Set your DVRs now.