John Belushi is one of the most iconic Saturday Night Live cast members of all time. His life was characterized by a meteoric rise to fame, chaotic partying, and tragic death at a young age. It's the sort of life made for a big screen adaptation, but Hollywood has struggled mightily to make it happen.
Belushi will be portrayed by actor Matt Wood in the upcoming film Saturday Night, but seeing as the film takes place on a single night, and revolves mainly around SNL founder Lorne Michaels, the iconic cast member will be more of a supporting character. This was not the case, however, when a Belushi biopic was floated in the early 2010s.
Emile Hirsch was told to get to 230 pounds
Emile Hirsch shed light on the biopic during a recent appearance on the It Happened In Hollywood podcast. The actor claims that he was approached to play John Belushi in the film, and was even told to gain a sizable amount of weight for the part. Hirsch was all on board, but the problem was the film hadn't even been funded when he was approached.
"I had a conversation with the director at one point, and he was talking about the weight gain," Hirsch recalled. "This is how stupid this guy was: He was like, 'Just gain the weight and then we’ll make the movie.'"
The planned 2013 film could never acquire funding
The actor was reportedly to get up to 230 pounds to play Belushi, but he, understandably, hesitant to put his body through such a drastic transformation for a film that could potentially never happen. His gut (no pun intended) proved correct:
"I’d be the biggest sucker in the known universe to go and, like, gain 100 pounds."
The film never got made, and Hirsch never packed on the pounds to get into Belushi-like shape. It would still be interesting to see a film based on Belushi's life in the future, however, especially since the only one to date, Wired (1989), currently has a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Nowhere to go but up.