The Daily Beast has published an interview with Cary Elwes, star of the classic movie “The Princess Bride.” During the interview, Elwes revealed Arnold Schwarzenegger was tapped to play Andre The Giant’s role in the film at one point. Elwes, also discussed Andre’s drinking during filming of the movie, and recalled a time when Andre was found passed out in the middle of a hotel lobby after the first table read of the script:

“They decided that there was no shifting him. There’s no shifting a 550-pound, 7-foot-4 giant, so they had a choice: either call the authorities, and they didn’t want that kind of publicity, or wait for him to wake up, which was the wiser decision. It should be pointed out that Andre didn’t drink for the sake of drinking—Andre was in a lot of pain, God bless him. His back was injured from carrying all that weight around, and from having other wrestlers breaking chairs over his back. He was due to have an operation right after the shoot, and his doctor didn’t know what kind of pain medication to give him because of his size, so the only way that he could deal with the pain was to drink alcohol. And it didn’t affect him at all. He didn’t flub a line or miss a day. The guy could handle his liquor, let me tell ya.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/17/cary-elwes-aka-westley-shares-inconceivable-tales-from-the-making-of-the-princess-bride.html