Marisa Tomei

Posted on 6 November 2023by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

Jennifer Connelly, Labyrinth, 1985. For Muppeteer-in-Chief Jim Henson’s sequel to his Dark Crystal (and alas his final film), 14 actresses were candidates for Sarah – Yasmin Bleeth, Helena Bonham Carter, Maddie Corman, Laura Dern, Kerri Green, Jane Krakowski, Mary Stuart Masterson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mia Sara, Laura San Giacomo, Ally Sheedy, Lily Taylor and Marisa Tomei. They all lost the election to the stunning Connelly… opposite David Bowie. The wondrous names of folk in JK Rowling’s Potterverse (Moggle, Dometrious, etc) seem inspired by such Hensonversers as Ambrosius, Didymus, Hoggle, Ludo…
Jodie Foster, Five Corners, 1986. Jodie and Marisa were in the (small) mix for the role of Linda in a John Patrick’s script looking back onm growing up in New Yok and posing the question “Has anyone ever died of a bad literary device?” Jodie won. And lost. As Washjngton Post critic Hal Hinson complained: “This isn’t really the kind of role she can do much with.” The producers included George Harrison. Hence, In My Life is on the soundtrack.
Judith Hoag, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1989. For the first live-action Turtle trot, the innovative director of music videos Steve Barron saw many a potential April O’Neill: Tomei Jennifer Beals, Lorraine Bracco, Sandra Bullock, Melanie Griffith, Anna Kendrick, Nicole Kidman, Sean Young. TMNT legend states the winning Hoag lost the sequels because she had complained so much the violence – and the six-day shooting schedule.
Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman, 1989.
Annabella Sciorra, Jungle Fever, 1991. Clashed with My Cousin Vinny… which netted Marisa’s Oscar.
Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct, 1991.
Nicole Kidman, My Life, 1992. Mary-Louise Parker also tested for the role of Gail Jones – the wife about to have a child and lose hubby Michael Keaton to cancer.
Uma Thurman, Mad Dog And Glory, 1992. “I was really close…”
Geena Davis, Angie, 1994. “It just didn’t work out.” Madonna dropped out and Marisa didn’t feel like making a career of supplanting her (after Untamed Heart).
Sandra Bullock, Speed, 1993. Although sharing the heroics and the driving of the bus-bomb with Keanu Reeves, most girls saw it as The Guy’s film. An amazing 36 refused to be Annie: Marisa, Rosanna Arquette, Kim Basinger, Halle Berry, Glenn Close(!), Geena Davis, Cameron Diaz, Carrie Fisher, Bridget Fonda, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Daryl Hannah, Mariska Hargitay, Barbara Hershey, Anjelica Huston, Diane Lane, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kay Lenz, Alyssa Milano, Demi Moore, Tatum O’Neal, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Jane Seymour, Ally Sheedy, Brooke Shields, Meryl Streep(!), Emma Thompson(!), Meg Tilly, Kathleen Turner, Sigourney Weaver and Debra Winger.
Uma Thurman, Pulp Fiction, 1993.
Amanda Plummer, Pulp Fiction, 1993.
Andie McDowell,Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1993.Phoebe Cates, Melanie Griffith, Sarah Jessica Parker, Brooke Shields, Jeanne Tripplehorn… “We met 16 actresses when we went to LA,”producer Duncan Kenworthy told Deadline Hollywood 25 years later special. Triple-namers Jennifer Jason Leigh and Mary Stuart Masterson auditioned. Marisa Tomei won. “I almost did it.But my grandfather was sick at the time, and I didn’t want to leave… I’m sure it would have been fine with him, but I felt like I didn’t want to go anywhere.” Said Kenworthy: “So we had no-one. When we heard that Andie was able to meet, we found her very impressive” Her cut came to… $2m!
Bridget Fonda, It Could Happen To You, 1994. Another Madonna pass and this time Marisa said no more waitresses (also after Untamed Heart!), not even the one from the headline and original title: Cop Gives Waitress $2million Tip.
Kristen Scott Thomas, Richard III, 1995. Backed out at the last minutefromIan McKellan’s modernised Shakespeare that was never ready to roll – to join to a Gérard Depardieuproject in no such danger (as he was producing), Unhook The Stars, 1996.
Cameron Diaz, Feeling Minnesota, 1996. Too expensive for the girl between (mismatched) brothersKeanu Reeves and Vincent D’Onofrio.
Renée Zellweger, Jerry Maguire, 1996. “You had me at Hello…”Once Tom Hanks passed and Tom Cruise breathed a sigh of relief, auteur Cameron Crowe started searching for The Girl: Dorothy Boyd. Tomei, Patricia Arquette, Cameron Diaz, Bridget Fonda, Janeane Garofalo, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez, Courtney Love, Parker Posey, Molly Ringwald, Winona Ryder, Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman, even Zellweger, came and went. Recommended by Edward Burns (one of the Jerry possibles), Connie Britton made a good test with Cruise and she was Dorothy – depending on Zellweger’s call back meeting with him. “We have video of that because I was filming,”Crowe told Mike Fleming Jr for Deadline Hollywood’s 20-years-later feature in 2017, “and you just see something happen when Tom sees her. He lights up… As Jerry discovers Dorothy, we discover Renee. That was a very personal thing for me and the way I feel about movies.”
Julianne Moore, Boogie Nights, 1997. Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s exploration of the 70s porno biz as a family unit needed a mother figure. Porno film director Burt Reynolds was Pop, and his Seka-like star, Amber Waves, was Mom. First choice Tomei passed and Moore’s matched the PTA film. Perfection. Her husband was played by real porno stud Johnny Dough; the cast already included a John Doe in his honour.
Patricia Arquette, Human Nature, 2001. Director Steven Soderbergh’s casting for Lila Jute. His version would have been a far superior movie but he was sidetracked by Out of Sight, changing his and George Clooney’s careers forever.
Salma Hayek, Frida, 2002. Like Madonna (again!) and Laura San Giacomo, Marisa had been in the running for one of the various projects on the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo – when the most determined took off. And collected two Oscars.
Renée Zellweger, Chicago, 2002.
Carrie Fisher, The Women, 2007. After 15 years trying to make her version of MGM’s 1938 magic, the fizz had left the bubbly for the TV Murphy Brown creator Diane English. Few among her cast(s) could match Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell.
Emily Mortimer, More As This Story Develops, TV, 2011. The Oscar-winner had several meetings with scenarist-creator Aaron Sorkin about his new HBO series – he also saw her off-Broadway play Marie and Bruce. The role of a news show exec producer was her’s. Or so it seemed. Then, Sorkin met with the Brit.
Paula Patton, 2 Guns, 2012. Tomei and Ellen Pompeo were in the frame for Debs. But would they have agreed with Patton’s decision to be topless in a bed scene with Denzel Washington. She told Icelandic director Baltasar Kormáku: “I can’t believe they would get dressed so soon after making love.”
Emily Mortimer, The Newsroom, TV, 2012-2014. The TV news producer making Jeff Daniels the moral compass of his ACN team moved to the UK’s feisty Mortimer when negotiations collapsed with Tomei. Winning the support actress Oscar for My Cousin Vinny on March 29 1993 never helped her career at all.
Halle Berry, John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, 2018. Still in need of a haircut and a real beard, Wick III kicks off when his his dog is klilled (“It wasn’t just a puppy”) and the Latiin title explodes: “If you want peace, prepare for war.” Not much room then for a girl alongside Keanu Reeves. Shortlisted for Sofia were Tomei, Jennifer Beals, Marion Cotilliard, Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Eva Longoria, Uma Thurman. Halle had the edge. She’d worked with James Bond… played Catwoman… and won an Oscar!

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.