The 80-year-old director then chose veteran actor Christopher Plummer to replace the "House of Cards" star in the movie.
Talking about his decision, Scott told New York Daily News, "Immediately. I knew it was a problem... This kind of film is a more challenging sell. It's not crashing cars, and drug addicts and monsters... This was a kind of really epic, intelligent view of a family in the '60s and the '70s, which was fascinating.
The filmmaker said he is glad to have Plummer on board the project, who will portray J Paul Getty in the story about the infamous 1973 kidnapping of his grandson, 16-year-old John Paul Getty III.
"Christopher essentially is a man with a smile and twinkle. At the same time, he's a man of great elegance. You put that into the role of Getty, and Getty is saying such down-to-earth, practical and therefore sometimes cruel words, with the combination of the physicality of Plummer, it makes it, I think, even more powerful," he said.
"I wouldn't know what I'd say to him. I'd be speechless for the first time in my life," he added.
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