- Jennifer Lawrence, The Silver Linings Playbook, 2012. “If you really want to go back and do an archeological dig,” laughed director David O Russell, “I wrote it for Vince Vaughn. And Zooey Deschanel.” Then, Jennifer did a reading on Skype with “an enormous amount of confidence that was beyond her years… toughness and a sweetness and charisma… I hadn’t seen anything like that.” JLaw won the Oscar . Her rivals – Riseborough, Elizabeth Banks, Kirsten Dunst, Rachel McAdams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde – had been well and truly Skyped!
- Michelle Dockery, Anna Karenina, 2011. Change of Princess Myagkaya in in the 25th screen version of Chekov – adapted here by playwright Tom Stoppard for director Joe Wright.
- Juliette Lewis, August: Osage Country, 2012. There were nearly two Mrs Thatchers in the Weston family… Riseborough, who played the young Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk To Finchley, TV, 2008, was cast as Karen opposite Meryl Streep, the Oscar-winning older Maggie in The Iron Lady, 2011. However, schedules shut Andrea’s(and Renée Zellweger‘s )window and opened Juliette’s..
- Ruth Wilson, The Lone Ranger, 2012. Jessica Chastain, Abbie Cornish, Sarah Gadon were also run up the flagpole to be Rebecca Reid opposite the lone Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp’s Tonto. Not to mention the horse: Hi Ho Silver!
- Isla Fisher, Now You See Me, 2012. And now you don’t… There was no woman in the initial draft about The Horsemen group of here’s a first – illusionist bank robbers! By the time Henley was created, everybody wanted in… including Riseborough, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde and Isla – whose husband, Sacha Baron Cohen, didn’t make the cut when the order rang out: Go younger!
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 5