Cult filmmaker David Cronenberg is still sore about Oscar winner Christoph Waltz "bailing" on his new film A Dangerous Method - because he allegedly pestered the director to cast him as Sigmund Freud in the movie.
The Austrian actor told Cronenberg his grandfather had been a pupil of the great neurologist and he desperately wanted to play the great man on film.
But shortly before filming started, Waltz quit the project.
Faced with the loss of German financing, secured around Waltz's casting, Cronenberg cast his Eastern Promises star Viggo Mortensen as Freud.
He tells The Hollywood Reporter, "Christoph pursued the project. He came to convince me to take him as Freud.
"(After) Inglorious Basterds, all the German money was built around him, and when he bailed, a lot of that money went as well."
Cronenberg admits he initially asked Mortensen to play Freud in the film, but he turned the role down.
The Lord of the Rings star says he said no to the role due to "problems with my parents' health and because I didn't picture myself playing Freud."
The film also stars Kiera Knightly and Michael Fassbender, who replaced Christian Bale in the project.