Portia de Rossi

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors
  1. Diane Lane, Unfaithful, 2001.    For his passionate US update of Madame Bovary, UK director Adrian Lyne hsaw six potential husbands, three lovers… And as many as 15 cheating wives: Lane, De Rossi, Josie Davis, Kristin Davis, Jodie Foster, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jennifer Lopez, Alyssa Milano, Meg Ryan, Kyra Sedgwick, Brooke Shields, Tori Spelling, Hilary Swank, Kate Winslet.
  2. Jennifer Connelly, A Brilliant Mind, 2001.   If the choice of the right actor to  portray the schizophrenic Noble Prize-winning mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr was vital,  selecting his screen wife was even more so   – hence an Oscar for Connelly and not for Russell Crowe.  The other candidates included Julie Bowen, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Geena Davis, Kirsten Dunst, Portia De Rossi, Claire Forlani, Rachel Griffiths, Teri Hatcher, Famke Janssen, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Catherine McCormack, Mary McCormick, Mia Maestro, Rhona Mitra, Julia Ormond, Amanda Peet, Christina Ricci, Meg Ryan, Chloe Sevigny, Alicia Silverstone, Mira Sorvino, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman, Rachel Weisz.  PS Emily Watson was rejected as “too British” – while Salma Hayek was seen because Alicia Nash came from El; Salvador… which must have meant the others were too American, Australian, South African, etc. Director Ron Howard seemed to forget they were all actresses. Odd that, as he used to be one.
  3. Jennifer Garner, Daredevil, 2002.  “How did I become Action Girl?” asked Garner.  Because 22 other girls were not punching their weight in TV’s Alias every week. They were  Jessica Alba, Jolene Blalock, Neve Campbell, Penelope Cruz, Portia de Rossi, Eliza Dushku, Claire Forlani, Angie Harmon, Salma Hayek, Katie Holmes, Milla Jovovich, Nicole Kidman, Lucy Liu, Mia Maestro, Rhona Mitra, Bridget Moynahan, Natalie Portman, Kyra Sedgwick, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon.  Plus the Norwegian ballet dancer Natassia Malthe, who became Typhoid in Garner’s 2004Elektra spin-off.   Garner reportedly KOed the blind hero, Ben Affleck, in one scene – he still married her three years later!
  4. Jodie Foster, Flightplan,  2004.   Portia and Josie Davis turned down the parent losing a daughter on a plane in mid-flight.  Not the last time they would reject a role  going to Foster. Christina Ricci also passed.  Jodie’s  Kyle Pratt was first  written for Sean Penn…. who played the role intended for Jodie in The Game, 1996.
  5. Jodie Foster, The Brave One,  2006.   When Foster rushes to the rescue, her price is altering her role… After Kate Beckinsale and Portia De Rossi  passed, Neve Campbell and Jose Davis auditoned for Erica – a newspaper reporter until Jodie took over and said that  “wasn’t as compelling in terms of the narrative”  and made her…  a radio reporter.  In 2001,  when she inherited Panic Room from Nicole Kidman, Jodie changed the heroine from an icy Hitchcockian blonde to a grittier  political animal. 
  6. Jodie Foster, Nim’s Island,  2007.    Oscars count and so Jodie beat poor Portia (yet again) as the agoraphobic, fussy San Francisco author Alexandra Rover, opposite the Little Miss Sunshine child star Abigail Breslin as Nim – the kind of role Jodie would have filled in  the 70s. (With, hopefully, a better script). 

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