For various reasons, actors can get canned before their movies are in the can. Don Cheadle replaced Terrence Howard in Iron Man 2 (2010). Mark Wahlberg took over for Ryan Gosling in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones (2009). And Christopher Plummer stepped in when Kevin Spacey was asked to step away from Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World (2017). The same can be said of Kel O’Neill. Although the actor was cast as Eli Sunday in Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic There Will Be Blood (2007), he was replaced by Paul Dano two weeks into the shoot. Rumors that the young actor was intimidated by star Daniel Day-Lewis (who won his second Oscar for the film) were put to rest when DDL suggested Kel was more interested in working behind the camera instead. Through the years, Mr. O’Neil proved Mr. Day-Lewis right when he directed the documentaries Beg, Borrow, Steal (2008), Playing Vietnam in America (2009), and The Ark VR (2016). Of course, we’re more interested in the filmmaker’s performances onscreen. This is especially true when it comes to Kel’s revealing role in the R-rated flick XX/XY (2002) with Mark Ruffalo. Even though it was Kel’s first film, the up-and-comer wasn’t shy about flashing his ass! Since then, Kel appeared in other films (Across the Universe, Harvest) and on TV shows (The Jury, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit). But we’ll always have a soft spot in our hearts and a hard spot in our trousers for his nude movie debut!
