 Originally, director Jonathan Demme (qv) was going to cast a  comedic actor in role of Joe Miller as he felt it would be a good  counter balance for Tom Hanks (qv) who had already been cast and  to give an audience the "its OK" to watch a film about a gay man  dying of AIDS. Demme had considered casting either  Bill Murray (I) (qv) or Robin Williams (I) (qv) but when  Denzel Washington (qv) showed interested in the part, he gave the  role to him instead because Demme had wanted to work with Washington  for the past few years.