- Robin Wright (Penn), The Princess Bride, 1986. Director Rob Reiner thumbed through a veritable little black book of Hollywood’s new young hotties! Suzy Amis, Valerie Bertinelli, Yasmine Bleeth, Phoebe Cates, Courteney Cox, Kim Delaney, Rebecca de Mornay, Cathryn de Prume, Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey, Anne Heche, Marg Helgenberger, Lauren Holly, Patsy Kensit, Juliette Lewis, Carey Lowell, Kelly Lynch, Virginia Madsen, Mary Stuart Masterson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alexandra Paul, Amanda Pays, Meg Ryan, Mia Sara, Annabella Sciorra, Kyra Sedgwick, Tori Spelling, Catherine Mary Stewart, Brenda Strong, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Uma Thurman, Meg Tilly, Charlene Tilton, Nancy Travis, Amy Yasbeck, Sean Young.
- Jane Seymour, The French Revolution, France, 1989. Hollywood called away Indian producer Ismail Merchant’s “mixture of Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman,”so their Marie-Antoinette became the TV mini-series queen who needed a good film. This (pair) was not it.
- Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct, 1991. Even the boys have to do it.”
- Annabella Sciorra, Sessions, 1992. A pregnant shrink just wouldn’t work – particularly in the opening sex-dream scene. Sexy Scacchi’s later roles included, Lady Macbeth and Margaret Thatcher (same woman, no?) Working with all her passports in UK, Australian, Italian, Germany and, of course Hollywood films – nearly all her work landed up competing in the Cannes festival.
- Lisa Vachon, Rumour Has It…, 2004. When auteur Ted Griffiin was dumped from his own project after a few “incredibly slow” days, new helmer, Rob Reiner scratched as s many as four actors from the Griffin line-up. Including Scacchi as the younger version of Shirley MacLaine’s inspiration for Mrs Robinson in The Graduate book and film.
- Amira Casar, Call Me By Your Name, 2016. A year earlier, producer-director James Ivory announced his adaptation of André Aciman’s novel would star Shia LaBelouf and Greta Scacchi as the mother of his teenage boy lover. Finally, Ivory produced with Sicilian Luca Guadagnino directing Hammer and Amira Casar as Timothée Chalamet’s mother. Result: a record ten-miniute ovation at the New York festival (for Guadagnino and 2017’s finest acting ensemble) plus rapturous reviews. The New York Times critic Manohla Darghius, called it a ravishment of the senses. Ivory (who directed Scacchi in Heat and Dust, 1982, and Jefferson in Paris, 1994) became the oldest (competitive) Oscar-winner (for his co-adapted script) in 2018 – at age 89, a year older than previous champ, composer Ennio Morricone. Ivory remained annoyed about no full-frontals of the lads in the film.
- Matilda De Angelis, Across the River and Into the Trees, 2020.
It took almost 50 years to cross the river… and film the Ernest Hemjngway novel. His great pal, John Huston, scripted it in 1976 for another mate, Robert Mitchum, and Maria Schneider. Then, directors as diverse as Robert Altman, Martin Campbell, Joseph Losey and Valerio Zurlini promised us… Pierce Brosnan, Burt Lancaster or Roy Sheider as the veteran soldier suffering from two world wars… Audrey Hepburn, Greta Scacchi, Maria Valverde as his teenage inamorata, Renata (it means reborn)… and Julie Christie or Isabella Rossellini as her mother, the Contessa Contanini. It took a woman, Spanish director Paula Ortiz, to finally get the job done – with Josh Hutcherson and The Undoing’sMatilda De Angelis. (And, to complete the circle, Danny Huston, John’s son, is Captain O’Neil). Based on his unconsummated infatuation for an 18-year-old, this was the first Hemingway novel to be derided by critics for repeating his usual themes: love, war, youth, age and facing death. Some called it Death in Venice II. Tennessee Williams championed it as “the saddest novel in the world about the saddest city… the best and most honest work that Hemingway has done.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 7