Yeah if the choice were going to be an ‘unknown’ actor as someone above suggested- then there would simply be no other choice than Spud.. i was acquainted with Spud years ago but haven’t seen him in a long time, and it was my understanding that there was talk of making the movie with him circa 25 yrs ago,, but the very thing that was suggested above- using an unknown- was the reason the movie never got made.. nobody outside of La knew who Spud was, so he obviously wasn’t going to put ***es in movie theater seats nationally and internationally like a John Goodman wouldve.