Timothy Olyphant Has a Funny Story About Getting Fired From ‘Practical Magic’

“Is it a movie about two sheriffs who fall in love with Sandra Bullock?”

Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock starred in Practical Magic (1998) and Timothy Olyphant ultimately did not. He did, however, star in Scream 2 the previous year.

Timothy Olyphant is a terrific actor who has donned the Ghostface mask in Scream 2, faced off against a serial killer in A Perfect Getaway, fled from the government in The Crazies and portrayed a badass U.S. Marshal in Justified. But even great actors have bad jobs. This is either because they’re a bad fit for the role, because of the director’s personal feelings or because of any number of reasons that have nothing to do with their talent.

One of Olyphant’s “bad jobs” was as a police investigator and love interest of Sandra Bullock’s character in Practical Magic — a job from which he was fired. The actor told the story as a guest on Jimmy Fallon. Basically, he was too young for the part and wasn’t a good fit and was unceremoniously replaced by Aidan Quinn.

Olyphant told the story as a guest on *Late Night with Jimmy Fallon*.

Here’s how it went down:

“I was in a movie for a minute there called ‘Practical Magic’ with Sandra Bullock. If any of you have seen the movie you know how this ends.

I got fired from that movie. I got hired last minute… I took the job, I rehearsed for a couple days and I was just terrible… As I was leaving for the airport I got a call from my agent and my business manager… he was talking to a colleague that morning and said his new client Tim Olyphant was doing a Sandra Bullock movie. The colleague said “Oh that’s great. My client, Aidan Quinn, he’s in that movie. What’s Tim playing?”

My business manager said “He plays a sheriff who falls in love with Sandra Bullock. What’s Aidan doing?”

The other business manager says “He plays a sheriff who falls in love with Sandra Bullock…”

And they’re like “Is it a movie about two sheriffs who fall in love with Sandra Bullock?”

By the way, that would have been a good movie.”

Aidan Quinn ended up with the role of Gary Hallet in *Practical Magic*, though Timothy Olyphant was originally hired for the part.

Aidan Quinn indeed replaced Olyphant in Practical Magic. Luckily Olyphant had a great agent who immediately got him hired onto a different movie, the crime comedy Go (1999). Olyphant ended up being able to keep the hotel room he booked to film Practical Magic to stay in while he filmed Go instead.

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Chrissy Stockton

Chrissy is the co-founder of Creepy Catalog. She has over 10 years of experience writing about horror, a degree in philosophy and Reiki level II certification.