Jennifer Love Hewitt

Posted on 6 November 2023by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

Renée Humprey, Mallrats, 1995. Renée reprised Tricia in a later movie by New Jersey’s askew auteur Kevin Smith: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, 2001.
Claire Danes, Romeo + Juliet, 1996. Although born in the same year as Claire, 1979, JLH was not old or “modern enough” for Baz Luhrman. Sarah Michelle Gellar also lost and both triples later co-starred in…
Sarah Michel Gellar, I Know What You Did Last Summer, 1997. JLH auditioned for Helen – and was given Julie. V ice-versa for SMG.
Dominique Swain, Lolita, 1997. “I would just love once to be called sexy,” said JLH. “Just because it would make me something other than cute.” More than 2,500 girls tried to succeed 1961’s Sue Lyon… But UK director Adrian Lyne’s shortlist only had room for: Swain, JLH, Melissa Joan Hart, Natalie Portman (refused point blank) Christina Ricci and the unknown (then and now) Nadia Litz.
Kate Beckinsale, Brokendown Palace, 1998. So Kate’s name went on the arrest warrant next to that of Claire Danes in this Midnight Express in Thailand. as two teenage girls are arrested for smuggling drugs; that is to say, merely, stupidly,having some in their baggage.
Lena Headey, Gossip, 1999. Change of Cathy among the college students investigating gossip – from JLH and Maggie Gyllenhaal to Headey.
Reese Witherspoon, Legally Blonde, 2000. JLH, Christina Applegate, Katherine Heigl, Milla Jovovich, Gwyneth Paltrow and Charlize Theron all tried to win Elle Woods in the far from official sequel to Clueless,1994. At one point, Elle said that she gew up in Bel Air, across the street from TV producer icon, Aaron Spelling – his daughter, Tori, was also up for Elle.
Angelina Jolie, Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, 2000. For the girls, Lara Croft is their James Bond. Well, more of a sexy Indiana Jones. And 22 hopefuls wanted to bringther sassy, video-game adventurer to life. Demi More was, perhaps, the most keen, but who was simply disregarded. Christina Applegate, Drew Barrymore, Victoria Beckham, Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Nicole Eggert, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kate Hudson, Elizabeth Hurley, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Lopez, Gwneth Paltrow, Anna Nicole Smith (a joke, surely), Catherine Zeta-Jones were considered. Fairuza Balk, Natalie Cassidy, Kirsten Dunst and Milla Jovovich auditioned while Denise Richards, Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman and Liv Tyler simply refused. And Lara’s guy (who fled the sequel) was Daniel Craig – complete with a Walther PPK pistol that he would use again as 007 in Casino Royale, 2005.
Rose McGowan, Charmed, TV, 2001-2006. After auditions by the many, exec producer Aaron Spelling decided that Shannen Doherty’s replacement would be Rose as Phoebe, Piper and Pru’s half-sister (long lost, of course) Paige. And not the Party of Five, 1990-95 star.
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Scooby Doo, 2001. JHL was offered Daphne on February 10, 2000. However, director Raja Gosnell wanted a real couple as Daphne and Fred – like SMG and Freddie Prinze Jr. She had to talk him into it.
Denise Richards, Valentine, 2001. When the then-Love Hurts project was being developed by producer Dylan Sellers, the lead ladies were JLH and Tara Reid as Paige and Dorothy. Warner Bros changed all of that!
Jennifer Lopez, The Wedding Planner, 2001. One Jennifer for another. The first plan was JHL as the titular planner falling for Brendan Fraser as the groom – before he became, Matthew McConaughey.
Naomi Watts, The Ring, 2001. Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Connelly, and Gwyneth Paltrow – good screamers all – were also seen for Rachel (ex- Reiko), heroine of the Hollywood re-make of Hideo Nakata’s gigantic Japanese 1998 horror hit.
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 choice of Juliette Lewis quit. This was Hathaway’s movie debut.
Piper Perabo, The I Inside, 2003. JLH would have been wed to amnesiac Stephen Dorff until the cast changed and Piper had the struggle with Ryan Phillippe as the man who died for two minutes… and awakes with no memory of the past two years…
Nicole Kidman, Bewitched, 2004.
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 Bewitcherd 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.
Kate Bosworth, Superman Returns, 2005.
Jodie Foster, Inside Man, 2005. Had to reject Spike Lee’s offer due to her Ghost Whisperer TV schedule. As Chicago critic Roger Ebert suggested, she didn’t miss much. “Who or what is Madeleine White? I’ve seen the movie, and I don’t know. She is never convincingly explained, and what she does is not well-defined. She’s one of those characters who is all buildup and no delivery” in a thriller “that’s curiously reluctant to get to the payoff.”
Cobie Smulders, How I Met Your Mother, TV, 2005-2014. Putting the record straight, creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas revealed JLH preferred the Ghost Whisperer movie to playing Robin Scherbatsky, no less.
Katharine Heigl, Knocked Up, 2006.
Cameron Richardson, Alvin and the Chipmunks, 2006. Seven guys were up for Dave (Allvviinn!!), just four babes for his, er, babe. JLH, Drew Barrymore, Sarah Michele Gellar and Salma Hayek. But for once, the outsider won: the lively lovely from Baton Rouge became Claire Wilson.
Amy Poehler, Horton Hears A Who, 2007. Change of Sally O’Malley’s voice as Amy took over JLH’s leavings in the fourth toon from Blue Sky Studios, home of the Ice Age franchise. Jim Carrey voiced the elephant, his first toon gig. “A 15-minute picture locked in an 85-minute narrative,”complained The Guardian critic Philip French.
Jessica Alba, Good Luck Chuck, 2007. Her TV glory prevented her sharing ex-stand-up Dane Cook’s latest comedy trifle.
Agnes Bruckner, Blood and Chocolate, 2007. JHL was first choice for Vivian – a teenage werewolf. Now is that a compliment?
Anne Hathaway, Get Smart, 2008. Future Oscar-winner Hathaway was surprisingly good as Agent 99, the unforgettable creation of delicious Barbara Feldon in the 1965-1970 series. Director Peter Segal also gazed at JLH, Jessica Alba, Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk and Rachel McAdams.
Kelli Giddish, Law Order: SVU, TV, 2011-2012. With Christopher Meloni quitting and multi-Emmy award-winning Mariska Hargitay reducing her schedule, new blood was required for the 13th season of Dick Wolf’s cop-art. An obvious fan of Ghost Whisperer, 2005-10, creator-producer Wolf first thought of JHL (a 2010 SVU guest) – and her co-star David Conrad… before signing the highlight of the short-lived Chase series and ex-Cold Case cop Danny Pino. Meloni returned to the Wolf fold in the 202l spinoff, Law & Order: Organized Crime.

Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 26

WELCOME

to the films the stars did not make. The movies that never were. The most definitive collation of casting stories. Check up on all the films - of yesterday, today and tomorrow - that your favourite stars never made... A cast of thousands - 8,063 actors - to click on... More than 40 years in the making! And 2,777,633 words of spirited text.

The ultimate in movie trivia ... Better! Exactly the kind of history that Hollywood deserves. Back to front. Upside-down. Inside out. Full of flashbacks, close-ups, tracking shots (and, alas some badly edited sequences - sorry about that!) forming a fascinating, new and often bizarre flip-side perspective on your treasured movies and stars

HE SAID

“They’re doing stuff, but not with me. I’m not doing any more.” – Adam Driver on no more Kylo Ren/Ben Solo ... Or is it that there will be no more Star Wars?

“I’ve been acting for 42 years and then you make one cocktail…” – Stanley Tucci on his new fame as a TV food and cookery expert.

"The point is it's very hard work and you have to really want to do it. It has to be something that you're burning to say." – Martin Scorsese on directing at 80 and thinking “possibly only one more”.

“Whether you are a competent actor, or an artist, is incidental. The main business is: you’re product. I had a hard time steadying myself against that stuff.” – Robert Redford.

“I’ve never done the same thing twice and how many people can say that?” – Tom Hanks… forgetting his two successive Oscars.

“I was so excited when I got the script for Silent Night. There’s no dialogue in the entire movie! I thought this would be very good for me because it lets me use my gifts for telling a story visually. – John Woo on his Hollywood comeback at 77.

“I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies, because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage. What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down? Stan Lee is my surrealistic father.” – Nic Cage.

“The man who invented mornings was no Christian.” – Peter O’Toole.

“The moustache did the acting.” – Anthony Hopkins on Howards End.

“It’s very difficult to get 100 million people to watch anything,” – writer-director Joe Russo.

“I gave him a little part in Looper, where he got to be shot in the face by Bruce Willis. He was just so overjoyed… like a little kid.” – director Rian Johnson on his father.

“I'm not an actor - and I've got 64 films to prove it!” – Victor Mature.

“If you cast it right, you don’t have to tell the actors what to do.” – John Huston.

CCC CLIPS

>> Name Game. James Spader really started something with his Blacklist series. He played – remember? – Reddington. And now we have Austin Butler and, Emma Stone are in making Eddington… and newbie Glenn Powell is Huntingdon, his tenth gig since Top Gun: Maverick. Perhaps it’s time to re-issue Carrington… with, among others, Steven Waddington!

>> Christopher Nolan says “No, sadly no – no truth to those rumours.” About making the next Bond. So, no Cillian Murphy as Jimbo, then?

>> Rolling Stone. Those Poor Things, Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, are – naturally – in the next release of their Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. It’s Emma’s third Yorgos collaboration. Most likely she’ll be in his next one, too, a re-make of the South Korean hit, Save the Green Planet. That was a comedy. But one can never categorise a Lanthimos experience. After all this one was first titled… And.

>> Taylor Swift’s guy, US football superstar Travis Kelce, is making moves on movies. To be as famous as Dwayne Johnson. Although people are now beginning to ask: Dwyane Whosis?

>>Brandon Routh was Superman back in the day. Today he’s in…Ick.

>> A star sure was born! Lady Gaga now getting $10million for Joker 2…

>> Sean Ono Lennon says Emma Stone should play his dad. Now there’s a thought. After all, Cate Blanchett played Bob Dylan…

>> Sly Stallone has come this far without bothering with serial killers but that’s what he’s chasing in The Epiphany. He plays a retiring cop - what else at 78?

>> Thirty years after the first, Neve Campbell returns in Scream 7. She refused #6 over a money row…

>> Beatles director Sam Mendes made Skyfall and Spectre and another actor who has played John Lennon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, might yet be the next 007…

>> Ryan Gosling tipped to be join the Marvelverse. (They need him more than he them). Henry Cavill may follow – so definitely no Bond then. Not after Argylle. If anyone witnessed that accident, could they call the appropriate authorities.

>> Will Smith comes back (or so he hopes) in an almost suicide squad blasting drug dealers in Sugar Bandits… while Colin Farrell settles for just Sugar – back to his usual smoothie looks after The Penguin…

>> White Lotus 3 resurrects Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Charlotte Le Bon, Scott Glenn and introduces Patrick Schwarzenegger. But which one is going to flash…something?

CHAMPION'S LEAGUE

The battle for the top spot between Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson has – I think – come to an end. Recently, we‘ve seen Marlon leading Jack by one or two movies – and then, almost immediately, vice-versa. The gap is much wider now between the former Mulholland Drive neighbours. Latest research dug up more titles for Jack - Mr Mom, A Christmas Story, Striptease, The Bicentennial Man, Expend4bles – so that he is now safe (?) at the top of league with 177 films he chose not to make compared to Brando’s 172. But you know - you never know…

(The full list of their huge lists of bypassed films are not on their pages for now - one of the hassles being tackled in our - yes, very slow! – restructuring).

Marlon Brando – 177
Jack Nicholson – 172
Paul Newman – 160
Cary Grant – 150
Robert De Niro – 140
Tom Cruise – 135
Dustin Hoffman – 126
Mel Gibson – 118
Sean Connery, Al Pacino – 117

Highest Brit remains, as always, Sir Sean at 117… followed by Laurence OIivier, 93; Richard Burton, 87; Peter O’Toole, 79; Elizabeth Taylor, 73; Peter Sellers, 72; Dirk Bogarde and James Mason, 68; Olivia De Havilland, 58; Vivien Leigh and Gary Oldman, 57.

Highest lady is Bette Davis, 97; Jodie Foster, 84; Michelle Pfeiffer, 81; Katharine Hepburn, 79; Julie Christie, 76; Meryl Streep, 75; Elizabeth Taylor, 73; Nicole Kidman, 72: Jane Fonda, 70; Julia Roberts, 68.

Younger Brigade: Johnny Depp 108; Leo, 75; Jim Carrey, 70; Madonna, 62; Natalie Portman, 57; Aishawarya Rai Bachchan, 40; Bridget Fonda, 36: Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Uma Thurman, 35; Jake Gyllenhall, 33: Ben Affleck, 31.

(You'll find the full list at Champions in the Main Menu)

A BOND MISS

Is Léa Seydoux now a spy…or, to be more polite, a talent scout for Eon Productions? 007’s girl in both Spectre and No Time to Die appears to assisting the (rather quiet) search for the next Jimbo. In La bête (The Beast), one of her many new French films, Léa co-stars with Hammersmith’s George MacKay - Sam Mendes’ find for 1917. He learned French for the film, so this may not be his last Paris booking.

As Gabrielle and Louis, they work extremely well together as star-crossed lovers in three time-lines: 1904, 1914 and 2044. And he looks the business in his retro tuxedo. ‘Twould be fascinating to cast an eye over her report for Barbara Broccoli’s eyes only. On verra as Léa (and now even George) would say. We’ll see.

SHE SAID

“You need your parents to set boundaries and hold you accountable and keep you away from, like, weird people.” – Scarlett Johansson on surviving as a child actor.

“I was so deeply in love with Bella, it terrified me not to live up to her as a character. I felt like I was failing her in the first week, and failing Yorgos [Lanthimos]. ). It was just difficult. I could talk to him about it, but I couldn’t talk to her about it. “ – Emma Stone on making Poor Things, leading to her second Oscar.

“Everything was so beautiful up on that screen. That make-believe world was much more pleasant than anything I was experiencing. I didn’t like reality. I wanted to be in the movies, even though I knew I didn’t look like the other women on the screen. My mother said, ‘you better learn to type,’ but I didn’t listen. Somehow, some way, thank you God, it all came true.” – Barbra Streisand, receiving lifetime achievement honour from the Screen Actors Guild.

“If I arrive at a moment in the history of cinema where I am legally obliged to have some kind of police on my set telling me what I’m allowed to do, I would rather stop filming sex scenes completely.” – French director Mia Hansen-Løve.

“I’m not one to sit around doin’ nothin’, I would never retire, I’ll just hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song onstage, someday, hopefully one I’ve written.” – Dolly Parton.

“Playing it safe doesn’t necessarily get you anywhere. You have to take chances. especially if you’re a black woman. You have no choice.” – Halle Berry.

“The more famous an actress becomes, the less she's allowed to eat.” – Lana Turner.

“I don’t do T&A very well because I haven’t got much of either.” – Tea Leoni.

“I was an idiot in terms of career-building, but I had a great time.” – Sally Kellerman.

“As you get older, you realise your parents aren't these superheroes. They're actually people.” – Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

“Everybody thought I was crazy. And by the way, I thought I was crazy.” – Jennifer Lopez on spending $20m of her own money on making This Is Me … Now: A Love Story.

“It’s dangerous to repeat performances. It becomes the sole thing on your gravestone.” – Helen Mirren on playing The Queen in The Queen and on stage in The Audience.

“I think I was offered every Marilyn Monroe script ever. I was like: Is this the end of the road creatively?’” – Scarlett Johansson on surviving as a star.

WAIT & SEE...

This is such a busy year for movies that various releases have been postponed until 2025… Captain America: Brave New World, Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, Games of Thrones spin-off The Hedge Knight (not about a gardener), Ke Huy Quan’s actioner With Love, John Wick’s spin-off, Ballerina, Fast X :part 2, Avatar 3, Jurassic World 4, Black Mirror 7, Mission: Impossible 8, Fantastic Four, Superman and the dreaded Michael bio – more like horror film, surely. Oh and no The Batman 2 or Harry P TV series until 2026.