In the '80s, "Die Hard" seemed impossible to cast, with Hollywood heavy hitters like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, Richard Gere and more passing on the role as NYPD detective John McClane.

Bruce Willis was not the team's first, even second or third option for the role — and Willis' agent, Arnold Rifkin, took full advantage of the opportunity, hiking up the actor's acting price to $5 million, according to a new book, "The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage." "All the possible action people turned it down," producer Larry Gordon said, per author Nick de Semlyen's book. "We had a good script, but we could not get anybody to play John McClane." Rifkin was aware of the trouble the "Die Hard" team was going through and told Gordon, "Take it or leave it.

If you don’t close the deal by Friday, he’s gonna go to Japan and do some commercials." Willis initially was like the others and passed on the role because of his commitment to the TV hit "Moonlighting." His co-star, Cybill Shepherd, announced her pregnancy shortly after he passed on the role, which gave him an 11-week window of availability. "They’re going to laugh you off the screen," Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator of "Moonlighting," told Willis when he was cast. "That’s a Schwarzenegger movie." Willis eventually locked in the $5 million deal and on the first day of filming, the crew needed to make sure the actor was "alive" after shooting the first stunt.

The actor was taken to the top floor of a parking garage, wearing only black pants and his skin lathered in a gel-like substance. "What’s this for?" Willis asked of the gel, de Semlyen wrote. "That’s so you don’t catch on fire," a crew member replied.

'Die Hard' star Bruce Willis nearly died during first day of filming: book

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