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Even from the choreographed dance number that played over the credits.

It's fairly common for an actor's performance to get trimmed down substantially or completely removed, but Brody was the main character. He had filmed his entire role, done press junkets and magazine interviews, and brought his freaking parents to watch the movie's premiere, all with the understanding that he was the central character and that The Thin Red Line was his big break. To call back Saving Private Ryan, this would be like if Steven Spielberg had cut Tom Hanks' role down to three lines and didn't tell him about it until the movie came out.

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Brody was understandably heartbroken -- he'd filmed countless hours of material and endured six months of boot camp with Sean Penn and John Travolta, which automatically entitles you to an Academy Award for Special Achievement in Not Killing Yourself (see Carrie, above). Years later, he still considered the experience an exercise in public humiliation, a feeling probably shared by the rest of the people Terrence Malick cut out of the film, including Gary Oldman, Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Sheen, Viggo Mortensen, Bill Pullman, and Mickey Rourke, who, in all fairness, was probably removed because the editors mistook him for a leathery old rhinoceros that had accidentally wandered in front of the camera.

20th Century Fox

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That didn't stop Armond White from praising Rourke's performance as "powerful."

Peter loves his homegirl, Jess, and hopes this shout-out is an acceptable Christmas present. Also, please help launch his buddy's awesome game, Ascendant!

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Related Reading: Some actors actually weren't acting. Like when Michael J. Fox was nearly hanged in Back to the Future 3. Marty McFly nearly killed the actor playing him. But to be fair, some actors wind up wishing they could kill their iconic roles: such was Sean Connery's hate for James Bond. He still wound up better off than the actors who had these terrible final films.

Why do we love to be scared? There's a reason there are 1,000 SAWs and Paranormal Activities. But now that love is spreading into our newsfeed with increasingly over-embellished headlines terrifying us on a daily basis. Our latest podcast, Jack O'Brien and David Wong sit down to discuss this phenomenon and its unsettling origins. Be sure to download it here and subscribe to it here.