‘RoboCop’: The classic Paul Verhoeven movie that should have starred Rutger Hauer
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(Credits: Far Out / MUBI)
In terms of great director-actor combinations, the pairing of Paul Verhoeven and Rutger Hauer often gets overlooked. The Dutch filmmaker cast his fellow countryman in his first major role on the TV show Floris in 1969 and then again in the 1973 feature film Turkish Delight. The two, of course, famously worked together many more times over the years and remained friends until Hauer’s passing in 2019 at the age of 75.
Outside of his collaborations with the master of the erotic thriller, Hauer is best known for appearances in movies like Nighthawks, The Hitcher, and Ridley Scott’s sci-fi stalwart Blade Runner, in which he plays the renegade replicant Roy Batty. He had an exceptional career with many fascinating parts to his name; however, according to his frequent collaborator, one more legendary character should also be on his CV.
While chatting with Film Comment, Verhoeven revealed one thing he would change about one of his most famous films, 1987’s RoboCop. “I think the movie would have been just as good, or perhaps better, with Rutger,” he said of the lead character, Alex Murphy. Hauer was considered for the role of the policeman who gets cybernetic enhancements after being wounded on duty, alongside the likes of James Remar, Tom Berenger, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The part eventually went to Peter Weller.
One of the reasons why Hauer didn’t get cast was because of an argument he and Verhoeven had had on the set of a previous film, Soldier of Orange. “At the end of the movie, we hated each other,” Verhoeven said. “We couldn’t stand each other anymore!”
The film, which was released under the name Survival Run in the UK, is set during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, a time Verhoeven lived through as a child. It was the most expensive Dutch movie ever made at the time and earned a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ in 1980.
Verhoeven clarified that the disagreement had been over the director of Hauer’s character. “He had changed so much because of the film industry, and he was not the same guy anymore,” he claimed of his star. “Rutger probably would say, ‘Paul was so insecure because it was his first American movie that he couldn’t direct me anymore’. Yeah? So we have two very good reasons, two ways of looking at things. And it would be not realistic to say that my version is the best one. I believe my version, of course – but I’m sure he believes his.”
This falling out wasn’t the only reason Hauer didn’t get the part. He was considered to be too large to fit inside the iconic ‘RoboCop’ armour, an issue that also kept Schwarzenegger out of the running. Ultimately, this sort of character is more about presentation than anything else. People recognise RoboCop but don’t necessarily know the name of the guy inside the suit. You can’t even really see his face. Weller does a great job, and it’s hard to see what Hauer would have brought to the role, so maybe it’s for the best that he didn’t get it.
As for the actor’s friendship with Verhoeven, that was eventually repaired. “It’s reconciled in that I don’t feel that anymore. And I doubt if he still feels it,” the director concluded. “I was looking at Soldier of Orange a couple of weeks ago – my kids were looking at it – and I was just looking at Rutger and I said, ‘Oh, fuck, he’s such a great guy! It’s so wonderful what he’s doing there. It’s so well done.‘ And I could express myself so wonderfully via Rutger. He was like an alter ego for me.”
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