Disney’s 1996 animated adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is now regarded as a classic, but new stories about the film’s casting prove it could have turned out completely differently. For one–Meat Loaf, aka Michael Lee Aday, was almost cast as the titular hunchback Quasimodo, according to a recent Collider interview.
Collider talked to the directors of Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, who revealed that they were closer to a Meat Loaf casting than you would expect. “The first person that was actually cast as Quasimodo was Meat Loaf,” Wise said, though Trousdale corrected him with, “he wasn’t cast, he read for it. He was almost cast. It was an almost kind of thing. I don’t think we actually put pen to paper.”
“There was never a signed contract,” Wise agreed. “But we got so far as to meet with Meat Loaf at a recording studio off Santa Monica Blvd. We talked with Meat Loaf. He ran through ‘Out There,’ Quasimodo’s song a few times.”
“He was really good,” Trousdale said. “It was pretty far along in the process. Like almost cast. To the point where Kirk and I were asking each other on the way to the car, ‘Do we call him Meat? Or Mr. Loaf?'”
Other near-castings included Cyndi Lauper, who at one point was cast as one of Quasimodo’s gargoyle friends, though she was released from the role. More infamously, Mandy Patinkin went for a disastrous audition for Quasimodo, which saw him bring his own arrangement of the song to perform for the original composer and lyricist. You can check out the full rundown of the so-called “Patinkin Incident” on Collider.
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame is one of the Disney movies said to be in the queue for a live-action reboot, with the most recent news indicating Josh Gad was signed on to produce.
