Justin Long Says His ‘Dodgeball’ Casting Got ‘Pushback’ from Studio: ‘I Was Way Too Old to Play That Part’
Samantha Bergeson
Justin Long waited 20 years to cop to the fact that he was too old to play a high schooler in “Dodgeball.”
Long co-starred in the 2004 sports comedy alongside Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn. During a recent “Dinner’s On Me” podcast hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Long revealed that his part was “written for a 15-year-old.” He was almost a decade older at the time.
“It was because of ‘Ed’ that I got [‘Dodgeball’] because it was an episode from ‘Ed’ that the writer, Rosson, the writer/director saw, and he wrote this part for me,” Long said. “The character’s name was Justin and…Ben and Vince Vaughn were two of my favorites. I so admired them. They were idols of mine, you know, and so it was such a fantasy and I was really nervous for the table read because I thought ‘This part is mine to lose.'”
However, the studio for “Dodgeball” looked twice at Long’s age as a casting decision.
“And then the studio didn’t…there was pushback,” Long said. “They wanted somebody younger because I was way too old to play that part. I was, like I said, 24, 25.”
Long shared in 2022 that he and fellow “Dodgeball” alum Vaughn were looking to film a sequel, as long as Stiller returns as well.
“I do know that Vince has a great idea for it and it’s just a matter of getting Ben on board,” Long told ComicBook.com. “Of course I would love to do it and I hope that it ends up happening, but I think Ben [Stiller] is a little…what he told me on that podcast was that he’s a little trepidatious about doing a sequel to something so beloved, something that people enjoy so much that. It’s very risky, you don’t wanna shit on the original, you want something just as good. So I think he’s a little wary of that, of trying to re-create something that was very specific to that time, but I hope he comes around on it.”
Long continued, “Vince is a very convincing person, so I’m just hoping Vince can convince him with his idea. It’s a funny idea, I don’t wanna say what it is. I know Ben loves ‘Dodgeball’ and loves that character. I remember how much fun he had playing it. He was always laughing.”
