Alicia Silverstone

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors
  1. Katherine Heigl, My Father The Hero, 1993.   “I was a little bit too heavy compared to the girl who did get it,” confessed the latest US teenage princess on losing the (re-make) role of Gérard Depardieu’s daughter to a genuine 14-year-old. “But that was a blessing because the girl runs around in a bathing suit throughout the… worst movie I’ve ever seen.  And the girl was really bad.” The Irish-German “Hi guhl” would lose various TV leads but wo nGérard Depardieu’s hot daughter. “Hot? I was 14, for God’s sake!” Ironically, Silverstone did a genuine French film instead, Le Nouveau Monde, for a Depardieu director, Alain Corneau… with a certain James Gandolfini.
  2. Tiffani Thiesen, Beverly Hills 90210, TV, 1994-2000.  Drew Barrymore was producer Aaron Spelling’s replacement plan when Shannen Doherty quit after four years as Brenda Walsh. But Drew was more keen on movies. Silverstone, who also  turned down as a red swimsuited lifeguard  babe on  Baywatch, TV, 1989-2001. Alyssa Milano was also considered for the new girl, Valerie Malone, before Thiessen signed on      A year later, Drew and   her First Kiss company won a $10m deal with   Columbia.
  3. Claire Danes, My So-Called Life, TV, 1994-95       Had been in consideration for Angela Chase, the role that made Claire a star   – and so quickly that her film schedule helped cancel the series.
  4. Claire Danes, Little Women, 1994.  “Fetch some vinegar water and rags! We’ll draw the fever down from her head!”  The Columbia suits veteoed Silverstone (too old) and Anna Paquin (too young)  for thethe ailing Beth in the Gillian Armstrong take on the Louisa May Alcott classic – the Danes debut.
  5. Dominique Swain, Lolita, 1995.    Obvious idea when Clueless struck gold. An increasing amount of pedophilia on the world’s front pages kept Adrian Lyne’s re-make out of UScinemas for three years. It was finally premiered on the Showtime pay-tv channel in the summer of ’98.
  6. Neve Campbell, The Craft, 1996.      Three high school girls dabble with magic – and the studio kept asking writer-director Andrew Fleming: “Could you get Alicia?”
  7. Claire Danes, Romeo and Juliet, 1996.      Or how TV’s Angela   beat Ms Clueless. You may remember that she thought Clueless  was very deep.   “It was deep in the way that it was very light. I think lightness has to come from a very deep place if it is true lightness.” That won her The 2000 Plain English Campaign annual Foot in Mouth Award.
  8. Monica Keena, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, 1997.   Liliana Hoffman (aka Snow White) was written for AlIcia.
  9. Katie Holmes, Teaching Mrs Tingle, 1998.  Change of Leigh Ann Watson.who would do anything to be her  class valedictorian – including killing  her thoroughly nasty history teacher Helen Mirren. Or, at least, holding her  prisoner…
  10. AJ Cook, The Virgin Suicides, 1998.     In her eternal widsom (d’oh!), Silverstone passed on the offer from debutante director Sofia Coppola.

  11. Anna Faris, Scary Movie, 1999.    Passed on Cindy Campbell in the raucous horror satire partly based on the Wayans brothers’ all-embracing  1998 script… Last Summer I Screamed Because Halloween Fell On Friday The 13th.  
  12. Emily Mortimer, Scream 3, 1999.    More Ghostface murders begin during the shooting of Stab 3… the horror flick inside the horror flick!  Alicia Silverstone refused to be Angelina Tyler, so director Wes Craven voted Mortimer (daughter of the UK playwright Sir John Mortimer) after seeing Clark, Claire Danes, Alyson Hannigan and Kelli Martin.
  13. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Heartbreakers, 2000.      Back in the old days – 1997! – Silverstone was to be Page aka Wendy aka Jane opposite Cher (or Angelica Huston) as her mother Angela aka Max aka Ulga. Yes, they were a scam team, seducing and fleecing old men.Like Gene Hackman.
  14. Jennifer Connelly, A Brilliant Mind, 2001.   If the choice of the right actor to  portray the schizophrenic Noble Prize-winning mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr was vital,  selecting his screen wife was even more so   – hence an Oscar for Connelly and not for Russell Crowe.  The other candidates included Julie Bowen, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Geena Davis, Kirsten Dunst, Portia De Rossi, Claire Forlani, Rachel Griffiths, Teri Hatcher, Famke Janssen, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Catherine McCormack, Mary McCormick, Mia Maestro, Rhona Mitra, Julia Ormond, Amanda Peet, Christina Ricci, Meg Ryan, Chloe Sevigny, Alicia Silverstone, Mira Sorvino, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman, Rachel Weisz.  PS Emily Watson was rejected as “too British” – while Salma Hayek was seen because  Alicia Nash came from El; Salvador… which must have meant the others were too American, Australian,  South African, etc. Director Ron Howard seemed to forget they were all actresses. Odd that, as he used to be one. 
  15. Anne Hathaway, The Princess Diaries, 2001.     Among 22 youngstars (Jessica Alba to Reese Witherspoon) rejecting the awkward San Francisco teenager being groomed (by Julie Andrews!) to inherit the Genovia throne – after director Garry Marshall’s (rather surprising) first choiceof Juliette Lewis quit. And so, Hathaway made her first movie.
  16. Renée Zellweger, Chicago, 2001.
  17. Rosamund Pike, Die Another  Day, 2002.

  18. Nicole Kidman, Bewitched, 2005.  
    For inexplicable reasons, Hollywood kept trying to make a movie out of the  1968-1972 ABC sitcom about a good-looking witch and a Dagwood husband.  In 1993, Penny Marshall was going to direct Meryl Streep as Samantha, then passed the reins to Ted Bissell and he died in 1996 when his Richard Curtis script was planned as Melanie Griffths’ comeback.  Nora Ephron co-wrote and directed this lumbering version about an ego-driven actor trying to save his career with a Bewitched re-hash, but with the emphasis on him (of course) as Darrin, rather than the unknown he chose for Samatha because she can wiggle her nose…  (You didn’t need a nose to know it stank).  Over the years, 37 other ladies were on the Samantha wish-list.   Take a deep breath… Kate Beckinsale, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Connelly, Cameron Diaz, Heather Graham, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, Julianne Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Brooke Shields, Charlize Theron, Naomi Watts, Renee Zellweger.  Plus seven Oscar-winners:  Kim Basinger, Tatum O’Neal, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon… twoFriends: Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow…eleven other TV stars: Christina Applegate, Patricia Arquette, Kristin Davis, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Helen Hunt, Jenny McCarthy, Alyssa Milano, Brittany Murphy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alicia Silverstone… even  Drew Barrymore and Uma Thurman, who had already re-kindled Charlie’s Angels and The Avengers.

  19. Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada, 2005.   Sixteen other women  were up for Vogue editor Anna Wintour (er, Miranda Priestley!) in the delightful look at the real fashion world, based on the  tell-all  by Lauren Weisberger,  who used to work for Wintour (but claimed it wasn’t  about her!  Seven only had the wherewithall to match Meryl Streep:  Jennifer Aniston, Glenn Close (fed up of villains), Angelina Jolie, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helen Mirren, Julia Roberts and Hilary Swank. “Sinfully funny, deliciously glossy,” said Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers. “Streep knocks every laugh out of the park More remarkably, she humanises a character who was little more than a bitch… on the page.” The  remaining what-were-they-thinking candidates had been Kim Basinger, Cameron  Diaz, Heather Graham, Lisa Kudrow, Tatum O’Neal, Gwyneth Paltrow, Meg Ryan, Alicia Silverstone and  Naomi Watts.
  20. Oksana Akinshina, Moscow Zero, 2006.   She was attached  (like Val Kilmer, Vincent Gallo) and then she was not.

  21. Sarah Chalk,  How I Met Your Mother, TV, 2008-2014.    When  the news broke about  Britney Spears be playing her receptionist, Team Silverstone  pulled Alicia out of playing Stella Rivers… because Team Spears would milk all the media publicity.  Oh really! Britney had two episodes. Silverstone was due for a round dozen. During 1993-2019, Spears  had close to 100  screen roles – 90% of the time as herself. Or, among Corporate Animals,  2019, as her own ghost!
  22. Emily Blunt, Mary Poppins Returns, 2017.   When Walt Disney made the first Poppins, he mused over Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury or Mary Martin for Mary but by 1963, he had only one star in mind. Julie Andrews. For this reboot, Disney suits went through no less than 37 contenders… Two Desperate Housewives: Kristin Davis, Teri Hatcher. Two Friends: Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow. Two Brat Packers: Molly Ringwald, Winona Ryder.  Two of the three authors of The Penis Song: Christina Aplegate, Cameron Diaz. Three sirens: Kim Basinger, Heather Graham Uma Thurman. Four ex-child stars: Drew Barrymore, Alyssa Milano, Tatum O’Neal, Brooke Shields. Ten Oscar-winners: Sandra Bullock, Helen Hunt, Angelina Jolie, Julianne Moore, Tatum O‘Neal, Julia Roberts, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Renée Zellweger. Plus: Patricia Arquette, Melanie Griffith, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Peiffer, Meg Ryan, Alicia Silverstone, Naomi Watts. But just two Brits: Kate Beckinsale  – and the winning Emily.

 

 

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