Christopher Plummer nearly retired before landing the John Paul Getty role in 'All The Money In The World'.

Christopher Plummer

Christopher Plummer

The 88-year-old Hollywood legend replaced Kevin Spacey in the Sir Ridley Scott biopic after the 'Seven' actor was accused of a number of sexual assault allegations, but Plummer admitted he was contemplating ending his career before he got the call.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, Plummer said: "I want to keep working in my fifth act, until I drop dead. You know, things were coming to an end, and I thought 'I suppose I've got to retire now', even though I didn't want to. Then Ridley called me. When I read it, it was clear to me that it was a classic role. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it."

Unlike Spacey, Plummer revealed he didn't have to wear any prosthetics for the role but because Getty was a "mysterious recluse" the actor had to use his imagination.

He said: "He was such a mysterious recluse, there's very little on him. So even if I'd had all the time in the world, I wouldn't have picked up anything much. There's very little of it to be heard - just some poor recordings in a monotone. So I had to use my imagination.

"But I think we ended up getting a pretty close approximation of the character - without wearing ridiculous prosthetics, or anything like that."

The film follows the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer) and the desperate attempt by his devoted mother Gail (Michelle Williams) to convince his billionaire grandfather (Plummer) to pay the ransom.

Recently Williams and Mark Wahlberg, who stars as advisor and CIA operative Fletcher Chase, revealed they agreed to reshoot the scenes without being paid.