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You may have heard the story before: if things had gone differently, Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones might have been played by Tom Selleck instead of Harrison Ford. Ford addressed the Raiders of the Lost Ark outcome only last year, and Selleck himself wrote about it in his recent biography, You Never Know: A Memoir.
I happened to pick up the book on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and was surprised to find BTS stories about Selleck’s National Guard experience, as well as Hollywood tidbits about Mae West and the Lancer TV series the actor drily notes is only remembered thanks to a reference in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. But the one thing that stuck out really hard to me was how close Selleck was to playing the iconic Indiana Jones — like really close, like to the point where Steven Spielberg told him he had the role.
So back I went. ‘We want you to play Indiana Jones.’ I think it was Steven [Spielberg] who told me. George [Lucas] had always been kinda quiet. Always thinking, taking things in. But I think I detected at least a hint of a smile on his face.
He landed the role. He thought it was a sure thing. So what happened?
What Happened With Magnum P.I. And Indiana Jones, According To Tom Selleck
After auditioning with a young Sean Young (who didn’t ultimately land the movie either), Tom Selleck was offered the role. At the time, he looped in Spielberg and Lucas about a CBS pilot he’d shot called Magnum Initially it didn’t seem to be a big deal (the name change to P.I. came later), though the actor recalls he felt like he was in “the World Series of waits” while he awaited word about both the movie and the TV pilot moving forward.
The worst case scenario happened. While Selleck was in limbo, the two famous moviemen did keep the offer on the table for more than a month. Then Magnum P.I. continued moving forward and the head honcho at CBS Bob Daly flat out told the directors his new, shiny TV actor couldn’t say yes to both. He was worried Selleck would jump ship to the big screen, according to Selleck. The actor’s own feelings on the matter?
No, I didn’t pretend I was happy about losing Raiders, but I was not about to think of myself as a victim. Whether I thought CBS made the wrong decision – and I think they did – that did not mean I was treated unfairly. I had learned many times over by now that life isn’t fair, but at least I could be. Nobody made me sign a contract for Magnum. At that moment in time, it was the best thing that happened happened to me in a dozen years as an actor.
That wasn’t the end of the story, however. Next came the longest Hollywood strike with the Screen Actors Guild. At the time. Selleck had just nabbed a “charming place” in Hawaii when it happened, but it did lead to some frustration over what had happened.
What Happened After Harrison Ford Was Cast As Indiana Jones
While Selleck was settling into life in Hawaii, Harrison Ford had landed the role of the whip-bearing hero Indiana Jones. Intriguingly, while the SAG strike affected most of the industry, Indiana Jones was allowed to work on the production during these tenuous times. The Magnum P.I. actor recalled in You Never Know the one moment in this saga that nearly got to him, but that he tried to have the right perspective on.
He said one day he was eating breakfast during the strike when he saw the headline: ‘Spielberg to Finish Movie in Hawaii.’ They’d work out a deal to film the movie in the midst of the strike when Selleck was off Magnum P.I. anyway. He wrestled with the frustration of the entire deal and wrote in his book he tried very hard to distract himself from losing the role, buying a surfboard (and surfing unsuccessfully) and more. He wrote of that time:
There was one thought that could have had the potential to make Mr. Frustration a worth opponent. But I pushed it away and didn’t allow the idea to form. At least for a while. Raiders wrapped shooting the last few days of that month. The Screen Actors Guild Strike was still very much a reality. I couldn’t push it away any longer. I coulda done both.
It took Tom Selleck a long time to really break into the industry. He was 35 when Magnum P.I. went to series and he said he struggled with fame when he broke big.
Still, it had its perks, as he later on went on to land big screen roles in Three Men and a Baby and had a storied TV career that included notable roles in Friends, Las Vegas and most recently Blue Bloods. (Not to mention the Jesse Stone movies, which Selleck would like to resurrect.) This led him to be able to buy and work on his famous avocado farm and more, even without the Indy money.
But it’s hard to sometimes not look back and think about what could’ve, would’ve, should’ve been.