According to a 1994 Entertainment Weekly profile of Ron Vawter by
Stephen Schaefer,
Filadelfia (1993) director
Jonathan Demme had to convince TriStar Pictures to hire Vawter to play Bob Seidman.
TriStar wanted Demme to hire someone else because Vawter was
HIV-positive, and the insurance company covering the film refused to
extend coverage to him. Demme managed to convince TriStar to allow the
hiring of Vawter anyway, both because Vawter was the actor that Demme
wanted and because refusing to hire an actor because of his
HIV-positive status would have been particularly ironic in the context
of a movie that is premised on the injustice of a lawyer being fired
because he is HIV-positive.
