Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves directors explain [spoiler]'s cameo: We 'asked him on a lark'

Warning: This story contains spoilers from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, so skip this if you haven't seen the movie.

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Bradley Cooper was asked to cameo in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves "on a lark".

The Silver Linings Playbook actor previously worked with Dungeons & Dragons co-director John Francis Daley on the short-lived TV series Kitchen Confidential.

The two stayed in touch over the years. And when Daley showed Cooper a rough cut of the movie, the A Star is Born star agreed to make a brief appearance as the pint-sized Marlamin, the ex-husband of Michelle Rodriguez warrior Holga.

Daley told Entertainment Weekly: "I asked him on a lark if he would be game to come and spend a day with us.

"We sent him a rough cut of the film and fortunately he really responded to it."

An early cut of the film showed actor-and-director Dexter Fletcher (Rocketman) in the role, which the directors explained was done as a favour because of Covid-19 restrictions during filming.

Co-writer and co-director Jonathan Goldstein said: "Anybody who was willing to come to work with us had to endure a quarantine in the UK. So it limited some of the choices we had.

"Dexter was a friend of the court and someone who we thought would be great, and he was kind enough to come and do the part."

Goldstein added: "He was great. It was a really sweet, touching scene, but our intention had always been to cast that role with someone who immediately, when they open the door, the audience gasps in recognition."

The point of the gag was the size discrepancy between the hulking Holga and the diminuitive Marlamin. The filmmakers first shot Fletcher on a giant chair, which Daley thought "wasn't as provocative" while reviewing the cut. 

"It wasn't as instantly disparate in his size compared to Holga," Daley explained.

So when the scene was reshot with Cooper, the chair made "30 percent bigger" to highlight the difference in size between Marlamin and Holga.

Rodriguez said Cooper's casting made the moment even funnier.

She said: "I felt like I dropped character for a second there and it was like a spoof on a spoof within the movie, and then we can go back to suspension of disbelief. 'Cause for a moment there I think everybody is not thinking about the character within the movie. They're just seeing Bradley Cooper, this iconic actor, celebrity on screen.

"And I thought that was kind of really funny. I noticed in the audience at Austin [where the film had its world premiere at SXSW festival] we all were thrown aback for a minute there.

"It was really cute. It was funny. It was a funny moment."

Co-star Justice Smith, who plays Simon the wizard, added: "What I love about that scene is that it's hilarious, but it is also very sincere." 

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is now in cinemas. — BANG SHOWBIZ 

Photo: TPG News/Click Photos

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