Miles Teller must have a weird feeling of deja vu. Around this time last year, while on the circuit for “Bleed For This,” the actor addressed rumors that he turned down $4 million to star in “La La Land,” and that as negotiations dragged out, his scheduling window basically closed, leaving him to go off and do “Allegiant.” Originally slated to star Teller and Emma Watson, the pair were replaced by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, and rest is history. Teller called the chatter about his exit “complete bullshit,” but now offers slightly more insight about what went down.
Speaking with Vulture, Teller suggests that he was committed to the movie, but unceremoniously dumped by the filmmakers.
“I’d say things played out in an interesting way. I’d also say it played out much differently than people think. The New York Post or somewhere said I was offered four million to do it and turned it down because I wanted six. I’m pretty sure a talent agency planted that story to try and turn me against my own agent — it was absolutely false. The money side of it was fine. I can 1,000 percent assure you that if there was a part I wanted to play, I would not turn down four million dollars to do it,” the actor explained.
“A couple people know the truth,” he continued. “When that movie was almost falling apart, I stayed attached to it and told directors that I really wanted to work with that I couldn’t jump ship from ‘La La Land’ just because the project was in flux. I’ll go to my grave knowing that when push came to shove I expressed extreme loyalty to [director] Damien [Chazelle] and that movie. That’s sorta all I can say.”
For a moment, it seemed that Chazelle and Teller were going to be the new moviemaking bromance, going from “Whiplash” to “La La Land.” However, the director now has a new bud in Gosling, who is leading his next film, “First Man.” We still don’t know the whole story, but something clearly went down that was beyond contracts.