- Crystal Bernard, Wings, TV, 1990-1997. Moore, Marcia Cross, Lisa Darr, Gina Gershon, Peri Gilpin, Marcia Gay Harden, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Megan Mullally, Rita Wilson also auditioned for Helen… who finally wed Tim Daly’s Joe at the end of the sixth season and 172 episodes.
- Laura Dern, Jurassic Park, 1992.
- Cindy Crawford, Fair Game, 1995. Surprise A true actress was first being sought for, virtually, a re-hash of Sylvester Stallone’s Cobra – made in 1986, with his then wife, Danish pin-up Brigitte Nielsen.
- Anne Heche, Psycho, 1997.
So who should be knocked off real early in the shower? Except why should anyone play Marion Crane again? It’s been done. It’s a classic. And by The Master. Why re-make Hitchcock? Ah, beg pardon, Gus Van Sant called it a reproduction. A bizarre (lazy!) notion of copying – the Psycho script, word for word, action for action, move for move, shock for shock (except the shocks were too famous to shock anymore). “Just shoot it in color and have, for instance, Jack Nicholson play the detective and Timothy Hutton play Norman Bates,” he suggested. “Universal wanted to rope me in, and I said: “Here’s the idea: don’t change anything! It’s never been done before. Isn’t that a great reason to try it?” Not really! What had he said about re-makes? “The essence is missing. You might as well make an original movie.” Right! Drew Barrymore, Claire Danes and Winona Ryder (too young; “I wanted to preserve the integrity of the characters”), Nicole Kidman (too busy), Laura Linney (she preferred The Truman Show, which was new) and Julianne Moor (finished up as Marion’s sister) were in the mix, before Anne Heche won the one sequence that was not the same as in 1959 – the shower. “it’s more grotesque. It’s more disgusting… Hitchcock - Robin Wright (Penn), Unbreakable, 2000. Moore fast-exited M Night Shyamalan’s first film after his enormous Sixth Sense triumph when asked to replace another swift exit – by Jodie Foster from her Clarice Starling role in The Silence of the Lambs sequel, Hannibal. Right choice.Frances O’Connor, AI: Artificial Intelligence, 2001. The Australian is one of the few actors whose career did not greatly benefit from working with Steven Spielberg.
- Frances O’Connor, AI: Artificial Intelligence, 2001. The Australian is one of the few actors whose career did not greatly benefit from working with Steven Spielberg.
- 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 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. - Cate Blanchett, The Life Acquatic with Steve Zissou, 2004. After Gwyneth Paltrow, then Nicole Kidman had to quit, Julianne nearly had it in her grasp – then Blanchett proved free (and pregnant).
- Annette Bening, Running With Scissors, 2005. First set for the wannabe poet who abandoned her son and was abandoned by him in return – but for the fact that Bening had cornered the market on neurotic women: American Beauty, Being Juilia, Mrs Harris.
- Hope Davis, The Special Relationship, 2009. As soon as the Oscar-nominated scenarist Peter Morgan quit his writer-directing debut, Moore also left – too busy with The Kids Are All Right. Davis, an HBO star due to In Treatment, took over as First Lady Hillary Clinton… in Morgan’s third script for Michael Sheen as UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Dennis Quaid was POTUS Bill Clinton. It opened with Oscar Wilde’s line: True friends stab you in the front!
- Diane Lane, Man of Steel, 2011.
- Robin Wright, Adore, France-Australia, 2012. Always up to date with the latest books, plays, ideas, etc, it was Jeanne Moreu who told casting icon-turned-producteur Dominique Besnehard about the Doris Lessing book, The Grandmothers. He immediately thought of (who else?) Nathalie Baye opposite, say, Ardant or Nicole Garcia – with old pals Jacques Doillon or François Ozon directing. Instead, it became the first English language film drected by the former actress Anne Fontaine (put up by Besnahard in his casting days, for Isabelle Adjani’s role in L’Eté meurtrier, 1982). Her husband, Philippe Carcassonne, produced with Besnahard’s Mon Voisin Productions among the of five co-producing entities. As proved in his 2014 autobiography, adore is Besnehard’s favourite word.
- Jennifer Connelly, Noah, 2013. There was talk of Mooreas the titular Russell Crowe’s wife. Finally, auteur Darren Aronofsky looked no further than Crowe’s 2001 Oscar-winning missus in A Beautiful Mindfor the variously named (by differing religions) Amzurah, Anhuraita, Barthenos, Emzara, Esther, Gaw Bo-lu-en, Haykêl, Mama Noah, Mubiyna, Naama, Nemzar, Nhuraitha, Norea, Noyanzar, Noyemzar, Nuraita, Percoba, Phiapphara, Puarphara, Titea Magna, Tytea, Vesta. Waala, Waila… And Naameh in the film, as per Jewish Rabbinic literature.
- Annette Bening, Imagine, 2013. Budgetry delays led to Benning and comeback-trailer Bobby Cannavale replacing Moore and Jeremy Renner – opposite Al Pacino’s ageing rocker. The second time Bening substituted Moore – they were also 2009 co-stars as a Lesbian couple raising two Kids Are All Right.
- Annette Bening, Danny Collins, 2015. The pet project of director Dan Fogelman, writer of top toons Cars, Bolt and Tangled, was inspired by how singer Steve Tilston, learned of a (life-changing) letter written to him 34 years earlier by John Lennon. Hence the title was Imagine when planned at Warner with Steve Carell, Moore and Jeremy Renner. They became Al Pacino, Bening and Bobby Cannavale (Pacino’s sole condition… for his son).
- Jennifer Jason Leigh, Annihalation, 2016. Director Alex Garland was thinking of McDormand or Julianne Moore for Dr Ventress when JJL loomed upon his horizon. He faced much criticism for choosing Natalie Portman and McDormand for roles described in the books as Asian and half-Native American. No, said Garland, in the second book. He’d only read the first and ethnicity wasn’t mentioned until the final chapters of Jeff Vander Meer’s Southern Reach Trilogy.
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Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me? 2017.
At the time, the usual get-out-of-jaiI-card was used: creatve differences. But when someone called her while appearing on Andy Cohen ‘s late night Bravo show in 2019, Moore said: “I didn’t leave that movie, I was fired. Nicole fired me.” Nicole Holofcener, that was, who wrote the script and was directing until Marielle Heller took over. “I think she didn’t like what I was doing,” Moore explained. (Apparently she wanted a false nose and a fat-suit) “I think that her idea of where the character was, was different than where my idea of where the character was, and so she fired me.” Moore still hadn’t seen the film at the time – “too painful.” What was painful is that McCarthy won an Oscar nomination “I love Melissa McCarthy, I worship her. I think she’s fantastic. So I’m sure she’s great.” Moore added that the only other time she’d been fired was when working at a frozen yogurt stand… at 15. -
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, RenéeZellweger. 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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Maribel Verdú, The Flash, 2019. Anthony Muscheitti, the It franchise director, thinks big. His wish list for the scarlet speedster’s mother (his father was accused of her murder) was very short: Julianne Moore or Julia Roberts. When both were booked elsewhere, he turned to the award-winning Spanish actress Maribel, known – of course! – for Y tu mamá también (And Your Mother, Too), 2000, akin to a Mexican take of the French hit, Les valseuses. 1973.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 17