The Surprising Comedic Actor Who Almost Played The Lead In The Wire

"The Wire" almost went in a completely different direction from Dominic West by casting John C. Reilly ("Step Brothers") in the role as the boozing Detective Jimmy McNulty. "The Wire" creator David Simon recalled in an interview that he received a callback from Reilly while he was making his way through a corn maze with his son, leading Simon to tell Reilly he'd need to call him back about the role (via GQ).

West and Reilly are opposite in just about every way, but Simon told GQ he was a fan of Reilly. In his words, "I thought John C. Reilly could be a different McNulty, certainly not the same, but I thought he could carry all of the excesses and vices of McNulty in a different way. I've loved his work in a lot of stuff."

It certainly would have been a different show with Reilly — mainly known then for smaller parts in comedies like "Anger Management" or for providing similar comic relief in films like "The Perfect Storm" — as McNulty, but Reilly could have definitely pulled off an intriguing performance. Alas, it wasn't meant to be, as Simon recalls Reilly stopped taking calls. 

Reilly later explained to Dominic West — his eventual co-star in "Chicago," where he also plays a character sleeping with Reilly's wife — that his wife was not ready to up and move to Baltimore. Simon chalked it all up to just part of the casting process. "That's kind of how casting is sometimes. You go in one direction. You find out you're on the wrong track or circumstance thwarts you, and you end up going in a different direction."