Considering that he passed just recently and that speaking ill of the dead isn’t a personal habit it’s still fair to say that Don Imus had a life that as a mix of bad luck as well as a bad attitude for a while that kept him in trouble and moving about as he tried to find his niche. His stint in radio, that lasted up until his passing in December, didn’t offer any safe haven however as Imus was still known to be something of a problem and hard to work with at times as he had a bevy of habits that kept him from being the absolute best he could be at his work. Despite that however this was still a man that went toe to toe with Howard Stern on the radio and managed to keep his name and his popularity as people continued to follow him. Why he got away with so much is hard to reckon unless one factors in the idea that he was making his station money, but when he made the very well-known remark about the Rutgers women’s basketball team things just got even worse. Finding someone to play Imus in a movie would require a talented individual that knows how to be a jerk through and through and yet still is seen as someone to look up to.
Here are five individuals that might be able to fit the bill.
5. J.K. Simmons
Watch either Whiplash or Spider-Man, the Sam Raimi version, and you’ll understand why he’s on this list. He has the definite attitude that’s needed for the role and while the two movies mentioned see him take things well beyond Imus’ usual level it’s easy for Simmons to tone it down and still be something of a condescending individual. In a way he’s one of the many that doesn’t get enough attention even though he’s been a perfect supporting character in so many movies that it’s hard to count them all. Placing him as the lead in a movie like this would be something special since it would let people see just how skilled he is.
4. Sam Elliott
If you’ve watched The Ranch on Netflix then you know that Sam can play a crusty old bugger that doesn’t take crap from anyone and isn’t that easy to get along with. Whether he’d be interested in a role like this, that might make people wonder why he said yes, is kind of hard to say. He’s played the good guy so often that seeing him play someone problematic is a bit different but not entirely out of bounds since he’s still got the skill and the experience necessary to make something like this work. If he did say yes it would definitely be newsworthy and it would be something we’d be dining out on for months to come.
3. Jeremy Irons
His accent would be the only trick when it came to fitting him into this role since the long face, the overall look that could be accentuated by a different hairstyle and so on and so forth would be simple. It’s that accent that tends to be an issue for some folks when it comes to how thick it really is in some people and how hard it is to tamp down. Some people can do this in such a convincing manner that they’ve been mistaken for Americans without fail, but with Jeremy Irons it’s hard to say just whether or not he’d be able to tame that accent long enough to make this part work. His acting talent would be perfect, but again, his accent would be the only tripping point.
2. Jim Carrey
It’s difficult to say if he could even be bothered to accept this role but it does feel as though he could bring something to it that might make the movie a little more noticeable since Carrey is the kind of guy that throws himself into a role no matter what it is. His place in pop culture as of late has been disputed by many fans since he’s been seen as unstable by some and as a truth-teller by others. Just leaning on his acting talent would be the trick since whether or not he would even want to take on a part like this would be the first and most important question.
1. Harrison Ford
There’s no doubt that Harrison Ford can play a character that’s a little rough around the edges since this type of character helped to make him famous decades ago in Star Wars and then in the Indiana Jones movies. He’s fully capable of being the type of person you want to cheer for but at the same time want to see get some comeuppance at some point. Just like anyone else though the question would be whether he wants to take the part or not.
Don Imus was a unique individual, that’s for certain.
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