21 years on, director James McTeigue has been chatting about replacing James Purefoy with Hugo Weaving in V For Vendetta. Marking the 21st anniversary of the film V For Vendetta, based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore, David Lloyd and Tony Weare, director James McTeigue has been answering questions on ... V For Vendetta | Why James Purefoy was replaced
21 years on, director James McTeigue has been chatting about replacing James Purefoy with Hugo Weaving in V For Vendetta.
Marking the 21st anniversary of the film V For Vendetta, based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore, David Lloyd and Tony Weare, director James McTeigue has been answering questions on Reddit about the movie.
In particular, he was asked to clarify what happened with the casting of the role of V. In the final movie, we see Hugo Weaving donning the mask for the character. But Weaving was a late replacement, after James Purfoy was originally given the part. Legend goes that Purefoy walked off the movie, but the actual story was a bit more down to earth.
As McTeigue clarified in his session, “James was replaced because he wasn’t comfortable in the mask, and it was affecting the way he was working, and it just seems sensible at the time to let him go so we could move on with the film in the way that it needed to move on.”
In fairness, that doesn’t sound like the easiest or most pleasant conversation to have, and previously, the cover-all term ‘creative differences’ has been cited. Purefoy hasn’t talked much about his departure either, and the internet loves little more than a bit of doubt to throw theories at.
McTeigue isn’t complaining at how it turned out, though. “Hugo stepped into the role, and I can think of nobody more perfect in the role as V, so maybe it was Kismet, and he is now definitely the iconic V”, he wrote.
The full Reddit AMA session, where he also confirms he had “one cranky phone call” with Alan Moore ahead of filming – where Moore said he was disowning the movie before one frame of it was shot – can be found right here.
The movie itself is available on 4K disc here.
