John Travolta Was First Choice for Billy Flynn
Richard Gere ended up winning a Golden Globe for his role as Billy Flynn in Chicago, but he wasn’t the director’s or producers’ first choice for the part. Far from it! In fact, they originally offered the job to Hugh Jackman, who declined, only to go on to appear in highly successful movie musicals like The Greatest Showman and Les Miserables.
Richard Gere as Billy Flynn. Photo by Miramax / Producers Circle / Storyline / Kobal / Shutterstock
The role was also offered to John Travolta, star of Grease and Saturday Night Fever. Travolta was offered the part three times by Harvey Weinstein but refused to meet up with the director as he thought the film was all about women hating men, and he didn’t like the idea.