Why Demi Moore Wasn’t Hired For Cult Classic Fantasy Film

Demi Moore moved around a lot in her childhood, and her life wasn’t wholly rosy. As she’s described it, Moore frequently relocated around the U.S., struggling with her mother and her stepfathers, and often finding herself malnourished. When she was 16, Moore dropped out of high school and took a job as a receptionist at 20th Century Fox. She signed a modest modeling contract and was making ends meet. Her next door neighbor was, it turned out, Nastassja Kinski, and the German actor encouraged Moore to take acting classes. She continued to model while working her way into films, making her debut in the 1981 movie “Choices.” The following year, Moore appeared in the 3-D monster movie “Parasite.”

These were the first two steps in a career that experienced a massive upward trajectory. By 1984, Moore was already playing lead characters in major studio productions. She became an adjunct of the Brat Pack, appearing in films like “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Wisdom,” and “About Last Night.” In 1987, she famously married fellow superstar Bruce Willis, and the pair were often considered one of Hollywood’s best power couples.

Something Moore never got to do early in her career, however, was appear in Don Coscarelli’s well-liked cult fantasy film “The Beastmaster.” The film, thanks to immensely heavy rotation on cable TV, has become deeply beloved by a generation of fans, all of them fond of Coscarelli’s wild ideas, as well as the lead performance by the hunky Marc Singer and the lovely Tanya Roberts as the Beastmaster’s love interest, Kiri. An oft-repeated joke: there was a time when HBO stood for “Hey, ‘Beastmaster’s’ On.”

As it so happens, Kiri was initially offered to Moore. As Coscarelli related in his memoir “True Indie: Life and Death in Filmmaking by Phantasm and Bubba Ho-tep director Don Coscarelli,” he had every intention of casting Moore … only for her to lose the part when the film’s executive producer declared her voice was too low.

It should be noted that Don Coscarelly, likely for legal reasons, was not allowed to refer to the above-mentioned executive producer by name. Throughout his memoir, he only ever refers to this person as “Commercial Director” or merely “CD.” We at /Film are under no similar litigious restrictions, so we’re free to tell you that it was Sylvio Tabet, the producer of films like “Dead Ringers” and “The Cotton Club.”

Coscarelli recalled the casting process for “The Beastmaster,” as well as the time crunch he encountered. Shooting was scheduled to begin soon and he hadn’t yet found his female lead. Luckily, he wrote, “one of our assistants suggested we meet an 18-year-old aspiring actress he knew who was married to a rocker friend of his.” Moore didn’t have much experience at the time, but Coscarelli loved her. “She was terrific,” he wrote, “I was hooked and wanted her for the role.” More than anything, Coscarelli was impressed by Moore’s famously “smoky” voice.

There was one final step, however. He needed approval from Tabet. Then everything went south. Coscarelli continued:

“We quickly scheduled a callback so we could get the Commercial Director’s approval. Demi came back and gave another reading for him, which was even better than the first. I looked over to [co-writer] Paul [Pepperman] and he shot me an approving nod. Bingo! Then, after some rumination and worry bead clacking, the CD weighed in and made his decision known that we would not cast this young woman. He told us that he had consulted with experts, and was told her voice was too deep and low to be picked up by the microphones and recorded. Paul and I just sat there dumbfounded.”

Tabet’s claim that low voices like Moore’s cannot be picked up by microphones is, of course, total hogwash. He was either mistaken or making up a weird lie to reject Moore and get another actor involved.

Moore’s rejection wasn’t the only casting frustration Coscarelli had with “The Beastmaster.” It seems that he had also written the role of the film’s villain, Maax, specifically for the infamously gonzo German ultra-thespian Klaus Kinski. The actor, by weird coincidence, was the father of Moore’s old neighbor Nastassja. However, the role of Maax ended up going to Rip Torn after Kinski asked for too much money.

Coscarelli was also frustrated that Tanya Roberts was cast in the role of Kiri. At the time, Roberts was best known for her role on “Charlie’s Angels,” a notoriously shallow, sexed-up spy show that he hated. Coscarelli recalls traveling to the casting offices to meet with Roberts and being less than impressed. As he put it:

“When we arrived we learned that her name was Tanya Roberts. What? The Tanya Roberts from the cheesy television series ‘Charlie’s Angels?’ You had to be kidding. None of the Angels were considered great actresses, and Tanya’s reviews when she debuted as the newest Charlie’s Angel were not the best.”

But the executive producer fell in love with Roberts, so Coscarelli was stuck. Luckily, he recalled Roberts being incredibly kind. Still, he was miffed. “No Klaus Kinski and no Demi Moore. As for me, I had no choice but to deal with it,” Coscarelli wrote. Moore did “Parasite” instead, and Coscarelli moved on to “Phantasm II” a few years later. Most recently, Moore appeared in the amazing horror freakout “The Substance,” although Coscarelli hasn’t directed a film since 2012’s “John Dies at the End.”