Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct by numerous men and it looked like the scandal might derail the project but Scott soon decided to recast Spacey with Christopher Plummer and reshoot the scenes even though the filming was complete on the movie.
Plummer has since become a Golden Globe Awards nominee in the best supporting actor category for the film.
"If you forget as the director your one priority is to put bums on seats and you better entertain," Scott told Entertainment Weekly.
Plummer plays J Paul Getty, the real-life oil magnate whose 16-year-old grandson was kidnapped for ransom in the '70s. Getty, one of the richest men in American, famously negotiated the ransom money.
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"The script can be about goddamn shoelaces. It (depends) on the vision, what's at play what have you got to say.
"And so this had a story which would be not my kind of thing. In a funny kinda way, it can easily be seen as a history lesson, a docu, but there's far more to the character and far more to the engine that made it really, you know, 'I wanna make this'," the director said.
Based on the book by John Pearson and written for the screen by David Scarpa, "All the Money in the World" opens in theatres on December 25.