Editing The Elephant Man (1980 film) (section)

===Casting===
[[Dustin Hoffman]] wanted the role of John Merrick, but Sanger rejected the idea, saying "We’re always going to be looking to see where the Elephant Man ends and Dustin Hoffman begins". Lynch considered his friend [[Jack Nance]], who he worked with on ''Eraserhead'', for the role, but he cast John Hurt in the role after seeing ''[[The Naked Civil Servant (film)|The Naked Civil Servant]]''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://inews.co.uk/culture/the-elephant-man-anniversary-film-tributes-john-merrick-john-hurt-cast-interview-416029 | title='More a mission than a movie': Celebrating the Elephant Man at 40 | date=April 6, 2020 }}</ref> At the time, Hurt was still making ''[[Heaven's Gate (film)|Heaven's Gate]]'' which had fallen badly behind schedule due to director [[Michael Cimino]]'s perfectionism. Hurt spent so long waiting for something to do that he performed the role of Merrick in the interim before returning to ''Heaven's Gate'' to complete shooting.<ref>{{cite web |last=Lambie |first=Ryan |title=10 stories of excess from the production of Heaven's Gate |date=March 27, 2014 |url=https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/heavens-gate/29865/10-stories-of-excess-from-the-production-of-heavens-gate}}</ref>