Nancy Travis

  1. 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, Greta Scacchi, Annabella Sciorra, Kyra Sedgwick, Tori Spelling, Catherine Mary Stewart, Brenda Strong, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Uma Thurman, Meg Tilly, Charlene Tilton, Amy Yasbeck, Sean Young.
  2. Juliette Binoche, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1988. Being fired from her debut after three weeks was, “ultimately, a tremendous lesson. It made me examine how I work, how much you have to give of yourself as an actress. You can learn to act but no one teaches you how much to trust a director, how much to trust anybody in Hollywood.” She soon found directors who believed in her for: Eight Men Out, Married to the Mob, Internal Affairs…
  3. Lolita Davidovich, Blaze, 1989.  Producer Dale Pollock claimed more than 400 girls were seen for Blaze Starr…the stripper having an affair with Paul Newman as the real life, licentious Louisiana governor Huey Long falling from power in the late 50s. Newman relished such lines as ”Ah goptta weakness for tough-minded, iron-willed, independent women with big titties.”  But he almost backed out when he realising he had a daughter around the same age as Blaze… Gene Hackman was immediately contacted, Then Newman woke up: “Screw it. I’ll do it!” Opposite Davidovich, beating Travis and Melanie Griffith.  “She just blew him away,” said director Ron Shelton, making up for his worst possible choice of words by adding: “She got in his face and was funny and brave and guiless and when she left, he looked at me and said: What was that?!”
  4.  Demi Moore, A Few Good Men, 1992. Michelle Pfeiffer was “too beautiful,” so director Rob Reiner shuffled a pack of gals until Demi’s don’t-even-flirt-with-me attitude conquered all, according to casting wiz Jane Jenkins. 
  5. Rachel Biulson, Hart of Dixie, TV, 2011. In the pilots season that’s what actors do. Make pilots. One, two or more. Whatever comes their way. They don’t expect them all to go to series. Nancy Travis, however, scored a double when two of her test-shots were OK’d for series. Fox’s Last Man Standing and the CW’s medical drama, Hart of Dixie. What to do, what to do? While some actors appear in two shows simultaneously, Fox kept Nancy for Tim Allen’s comeback. Rachel had to whistle “Dixie.

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