Why V in V For Vendetta Was Recast

James Purefoy was the first choice for V in V For Vendetta, but the first choice isn’t always the right one. The English actor quit the movie a few weeks after production started, and they had to find someone else for the role. Rumor has it that Purefoy’s quitting had something to do with the mask. It’s not entirely true, but it’s also not very far off.

V For Vendetta was a huge hit. Hugo Weaving took the torch from Purefoy to be V, and has since become a cultural touchstone. It turned out that director James McTeigue’s last-minute decision worked out in his favor. V For Vendetta was his first feature film. Having worked as an assistant director on The Matrix, McTeigue wasn’t a new face in the film industry. V For Vendetta carried a lot of weight, and despite all the unforeseeable issues, the film eventually came together to become a cult classic. Purefoy and McTeigue both agreed never to speak about it, but the director has mentioned it a couple of times in interviews.

James Purefoy Was Rumored to Have Left V For Vendetta Due to the Mask

V For Vendetta was James McTeigue’s first feature film. Adapted from Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s graphic novels, the Wachowskis did a complete rewrite for the film’s screenplay. V, the mysterious anti-hero, doesn’t show his true face. The mask is worked into his identity and who he is. In a way, V wouldn’t be V without the mask. He’d be a person, just like anyone else; but with the mask, he becomes a vigilante and a symbol for the cultural movement.

Purefoy’s departure a few weeks into filming became a mystery and sparked curiosity among fans. One theory says that he left because of the mask. While it may sound far-fetched today, the rumor, in fact, came from McTeigue himself. He told SyFy in an interview that Purefoy “wasn’t comfortable in the mask” and couldn’t “make peace” with it, so they called Weaving, who the director and the Wachowskis had worked with on The Matrix. It turned out the Agent Smith actor had exactly what it takes to rock the role with a mask.

Related

What the Banning of Maus and V for Vendetta Tell Us About Comic Book Censorship

The banning of the classic comic books Maus and V For Vendetta from American schools opens a number of alarming questions about censorship.

Many took what the director said at face value. The rumor was that Purefoy left because he couldn’t act with the mask or that he refused to wear it, but none of it was true. In another interview with CBR, McTeigue spoke highly about the actor, revealing that despite Purefoy’s skills and experience, he just “wasn’t right” for the role, saying:

Judging by an early interview Purefoy did with Portman as reported by IGN, he was well aware that the role would involve wearing a mask most of the time and was also on board with the decision. In the same interview, Purefoy spoke about the importance of V’s mask and how it adds to the character’s mystery. The actor found the mask “melancholic and isolating” and “reflective of the character” while making V “infinitely more mysterious,” which suggests that he understood what the role was about and what it would take to portray the character. His comment also indirectly debunked the rumor about him being unwilling to wear the mask. However, sometimes what sounds good in theory might not work in reality. Even though Purefoy seemed like the right choice before the filming started, there were challenges.

James McTeigue Had a Vision for V

To McTeigue, the mysterious vigilante in his feature film is a “very complex character.” The director wanted V to be both an idea and a person. “I think in the graphic novel, he is kind of human while he still does represent an idea,” the director said in the same interview with CBR. Not getting “the humanism of the person behind the mask lost in the idea” is one of the biggest challenges for the character V. He wanted to capture it, so even though V is behind a mask the whole time, the performance should be very nuanced. “On one hand, he has this vendetta against this world that has created him and how he hopes to eventually find justice in that world, on the other hand, he has this very altruistic notion of how government can be or how people can be with government,” the director said. The character in the film has to walk that fine line of ambiguity to examine politics in a cyclical manner.

Related

Why DC Comics Replaced Its Darkest Hero Twice – And Where Its Hellblazer Stand-Ins Went

DC Comics has had to replace their darkest supernatural hero twice over, although neither stood a chance of replacing the original Hellblazer.

In an interview with Total Film magazine, Purefoy said that his exit had nothing to do with the discomfort of wearing the mask. He said it came down to “genuine creative differences.” He and the director disagreed on the directions they wanted to go with the character.

Hugo Weaving Was Right for V

A genuine creative difference between Purefoy and McTeigue led to the actor’s departure from the film. When an actor’s vision doesn’t match with the director’s, they have to part ways because it’s simply not a good fit. In order to bring a character to life fully, both need to be on board and share the same understanding. Things don’t always work out, and even known actors like James Purefoy and Ryan Gosling run into these unfortunate situations sometimes.

15 years later, McTeigue revealed some details to Little White Lies about why they had to let Purefoy go. The director admitted that what happened was “unfortunate,” especially when the actor had “gone on to do many varied roles.” There was one thing nobody realized at that time, including the actor himself, that “his main instrument” was “his face” and with it “being taken away,” it was just not going to work. The director admitted that it was a “mutual conclusion” they reached that “it wasn’t really working.” McTeigue said:

What happened with James is unfortunate because he’s gone on to do many varied roles, but the thing he didn’t realize at the time was his main instrument – his face – was being taken away. We came to this mutual conclusion that it wasn’t really working.

It turned out that one thing that made Weaving the V they were looking for was the fact that the actor has a lot of experience with mask work, which was part of The Matrix actor‘s acting training, so the actor had no problem delivering what McTeigue had in mind for the character. The good thing was that McTeigue’s last-minute gamble gave him more than he could ever have asked for. Recalling the first scene Weaving did with Portman where Evey came out of the prison and saw V, realizing that he was the one who imprisoned her, the director revealed that Weaving impressed him on the very first take. He said:

I remember the very first thing Hugo did was the scene where Evey has been in prison for a long time and receives a letter from Valerie. She comes out and V is waiting for her, and she realises he is the person that’s imprisoned her. It’s a big emotional scene. On his very first take, I just thought, ‘Oh my god, he’s saved me. This is going to be amazing’. And he was. We couldn’t really mic the mask properly so we had to loop a lot of Hugo’s dialogue later, and he gave a complete other performance all over again.

Sometimes, it’s simply obvious when the actor and the role are a fit. This certainly was the case with Hugo Weaving. For the right combination to happen, it also means letting go of the choice that didn’t suit the role. Purefoy went on to do many other projects. While the world didn’t get to see his version of V, viewers get to see him in many other fantastic roles.

Director

James McTeigue

Release Date

March 16, 2006

Studio

Warner Bros

Cast

Natalie Portman , Hugo Weaving , Stephen Fry , John Hurt , Stephen Rea , Rupert Graves , Imogen Poots , Roger Allam

Runtime

2h:12min

Main Genre

Action

Expand