Michelle Monaghan

  1. Keri Russell, Mission Impossible III, 2005.      Rather than battle Star Wars III, Tom Cruise postponed his third mission, made Spielberg’s War of the Worlds instead, losing his planned M:I III leading lady, Scarlett Johansson, to consecutive Woody Allen films. Lindsay Lohan and Tom’s young mistress, Katie Holmes,were also in the race to play Cruise’s love interest. Tom madeKatie his third wifein November 2006.
  2. Lynn Collins, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 2008.   Too scheduled to be Wolverine’s lover, Kayla Silverfox. Collins later starred in True Blood, TV, 2008, and John Carter of Mars, 2010.
  3. Rachel Weisz, The Bourne Legacy, 2011.  Three was enough for Matt Damon. (Until 2015…!)  The studio did not agree and kept the franchise alive by rebooting Jason Bourne as Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner)  – another victim of US secret service’s  Program.  Weisz won Dr Marta Shearing from a dozen other hopefuls: Eliza Dushku, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Milla Jovovich Kristin Kreuk, Diane Kruger, Jennifer Lawrence, Blake Lively, Michelle Monaghan, Elizabeth Olsen and three Kates: Beckinsale, Bosworth and Mara.  Why? Because as Chicago critic Roger Ebert pointed out she spends more time on-screen than is usual for women in actioners, is not just around for sex and “her performance stands up strongly beside Renner’s.” Bravo!
  4. Olivia Wilde, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, 2012.    Jessica Biel, Riki Lindhome, Winona Ryder and Sarah Silverman were also seen for the rose between two thorny magicians in their  old-fashioned Vegas act.
  5. Lake Bell, No Escape, 2015.    When the movie was delayed, the first Mrs Owen Wilson got pregnant and Bell became the second….Caught in a coup on a South East Asia island, they are rescued by James Bond… er, that is to say (an oddly accented) Pierce Brosnan.
  6. Lynn Collins, X-Men: Apocalypse, 2015.   Director Bryan Singer saw Michelle  Monaghan and Maggie Q before inviting  Lynn Collins to be his Kayla Silverfox/Silver Fox…. in his “kinda conclusion of six X-Men films, yet a potential rebirth of younger, newer characters.”

 

 

 

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  6