In all the years that I’ve produced Variety ‘s Actors on Actors conversations, I’ve resisted the temptation to divulge how exactly the sausage gets made. When fans gripe on social media, for instance, about how our magazine didn’t pair two obviously compatible actors together, I haven’t taken to X to explain that we really tried, but one (or both!) of the actors turned down what seemed like an undeniable idea. Sometimes, the reasons a pairing didn’t work out are scandalous. In other cases, they’