Sean Young Wanted To Boycott Blade Runner 2049 If She Wasn’t In It
While it seemed that some Blade Runner fans would definitely be on board with the sequel, because that’s what fandom is all about, others will stay away, not wanting to witness a potential insult to a beloved sci-fi classic.
Actress Sean Young, however, said she would be avoiding the film for an altogether different reason. She told Entertainment Weekly at the time of the Blade Runner 2049 announcement that if she didn’t make it into the sequel, everyone should boycott it.
Given this was a written interview rather than a video one, it isn’t clear just how far into her cheek her tongue is. But she sounds like she means it.
When asked if she was involved, Sean Young said, “Alcon — they’re the ones that own it and apparently they have Ridley to direct it — and when I met with them they didn’t make any offer/plans to include me. And when I called Ridley Scott’s office, he doesn’t call me back. So I guess they’re going to go, like, prequel, or…I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
At the time, some speculated Blade Runner 2049 would be a prequel, and it would have a sense that Sean Young wouldn’t be able to reprise her role as the cigarette-smoking replicant Rachael.
But because it was indeed a sequel that should have allowed for the original actors to come back. Heck, Harrison Ford did, after all. Then why not include Sean Young? She wanted everyone to leave this movie behind if she wasn’t involved.
“But my official opinion is that, if they don’t include me in it, everybody should boycott it,” Sean Young told EW. “Because it’s stupid not to have me in it. It’s really stupid. That’s my opinion! I mean, you try to tell people something sensible in Hollywood and sometimes they just don’t listen, you know. And they usually pay the price, too, because everybody’s an expert.”
In the end, Blade Runner 2049 did not include Sean Young, be she didn’t boycott the movie either. The original quote might have just been emotion getting in the way of reality. Such is the way in Hollywood (and real life) sometimes.
