Looks wise, it feels like Bowie could have played either role. I actually would have liked to see him more in the Salieri role, not that F. Murray Abraham didn't kill that role and totally deserved the Oscar.
It's fun to imagine what the Bowie film projects that didn't happen would have been like. Another was him playing the lead in Derek Jarman's biopic of Akhenaten.
Tom Hulce had to strike such a delicate balance with that role. He had to be so irritating that you could see why Salieri hated him, without being so obnoxious that the audience turned against him too
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Kismet!
In today's world, one would have been supporting... Which one though?
My bet would be in today's world F. Murray Abraham would have gotten the supporting nomination.... And he actually won Best Actor.