With all the news today about “Baby Fae,” the California baby who was given the world’s first baboon heart transplant in 1984 and lived 21 days, Speakeasy’s memory was jogged into thinking about the film “Untamed Heart.” We have a soft spot for the 1993 romantic drama, which starred Christian Slater as a sensitive busboy with, yes, a baboon’s heart, because it was the first PG-13 movie we ever paid good allowance money for. The film co-starred a pre-”My Cousin Vinny” Marisa Tomei as Caroline, a waitress who falls for Slater’s character after he rescues her from an attempted rape by a couple of thugs.
Speakeasy tracked down “Untamed Heart” screenwriter Tom Sierchio to talk to him about his inspiration for the film.
As for Adam, the part that went to Slater, Sierchio says he met “quite a few times” with Woody Harrelson about the part (who would later do a popular sketch on “Saturday Night Live” with Dana Carvey that featured the line: “The sun feels good on my baboon heart!”) and that Brad Pitt was “dying” to do the movie. But, says Sierchio, Slater’s 1992 film “Kuffs” had just come out and had a $10 million weekend, so MGM “didn’t have the foresight and went with the sure thing with Christian.” (Reps for Madonna, Harrelson and Pitt couldn’t be reached for comment.)
Thanks intothegrinder.