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Sigourney Weaver, Working Girl, 1988. “If you ever want to make money, do Cinderella,” said Mike Nichols. Even better if he’s directing – despite a coke-head star. (He made Melanie Griffith pay $80,000 from her salary for having to close down shooting one night due to her wasted condition). He saw Anne Archer, Cher, Geena Davis, Shelley Long, Natasha Richardson, Kathleen Turner, Debra Winger for her boss. Plus Michelle Pfeiffer and Meryl Streep for Tess or the wicked witch of Wall Street.
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Debra Winger, The Sheltering Sky, 1990. Not all letters from actresses to directors work… like Ingrid Bergman to Italian Roberto Rossellini in 1948 or Julianne Moore to Irish Neil Jordan in 1998… Natasha (Vanessa Redgrave’s other daughter, Joely’s sister) wrote Bernardo Bertolucci “a long, heartfelt letter about why I felt I understood this person in a special way.” On meeting the Italian director, she realised her mistake. “If he wants to see me so many times, he wants to see something different. And I didn’t need to be different.”
- Meg Ryan, Sleepless In Seattle, 1993. “I have to go after parts, like everybody else, because somebody’s not convinced that I’m a good actress.” Richardson was the surprise Brit up for… When Harry Met Sally Meets When Sam Met Suzy. Same writer, Nora Ephron. Same Sally – Meg Ryan in the second of three ephemeral movies with Tom Hanks. Also forgetting that romcoms are rarely plausible: Kim Basinger, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nicole Kidman, Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Julia Roberts.
- Michelle Pfeiffer, The Age of Innocence, 1993. “Truth is, I’ve rarely gotten things for which I’ve read.”
- Bridget Fonda, Touch, 1997. When her father, UK stage and screen director Tony Richardson, was due to make the Elmore Leonard thriller.
- Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man, 2001.
- Allison Janney, Strangers With Candy, 2005. Alice was always for Natasha, except she was abroad when the call came and The West Winger moved into the David Letterman production.
- Elizabeth Olsen, Therese, 2012. Back in 1995, the Neesons – Natasha and Liam – were tapped as the adulterous lovers of Emile Zola’s 1867 classic, Thérèse Raquin. The collapse of the project led actor and stage director Charlie Stratton to spend decades preparing his verion as a film directing debut. His Therese was Olsen, younger sister of the once infamous Olsen TV twins.
Birth year: 1963Death year: 2009Other name: Casting Calls: 8