Sally Potter explains why Chris Rock was completely cut from her new film The Roads Not Taken

Filmmaker Sally Potter has revealed why she was forced to remove Chris Rock from her new movie, The Roads Not Taken.

The film follows a day in the life of Leo (Javier Bardem) and his daughter, Molly (Elle Fanning), as he explores all the different lives he could have lived.

In one of the paths Leo goes down, he is a drummer who is in a relationship with an artistic director played by Rock. The film’s original scenes saw Rock and Bardem’s characters rehearsing with dancer Savion Glover – but this whole sequence was completely cut out of the final edit because test screening audiences were “confused” by the premise of one person living so many lives.

Potter spent weeks re-editing and finally realised that Rock and Glover’s scene felt too disjointed from the rest of the film, so reluctantly took it out.

“The fault was with my structure,” she told The Guardian, emphasising that Rock and Glover both gave brilliant performances.

She added: “It was heartbreaking, because I loved what we did.”

Potter also said she wrote to Rock and Glover explaining her decision. When asked whether a correspondence followed, she said: “A small one.”

The Roads Not Taken is released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 11 September.

Potter’s other films include the Oscar-nominated movie Orlando (1992) and The Party (2017).