Rosie O’Donnell

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors
  1. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Seinfeld, TV, 1990-1998.   
  2. Kathy Bates, Misery, 1990.   “Nobody knows you’re here. And you better hope nothing happens to me. Because if I die… you die.”  The vengeful fan Annie Wilkes was the full throttle woman’s role that scared A List guys off the 32nd of Stephen King’s staggering 313 screen credits.  His Stand By Me director Rob Reiner considered Anjelica Huston, Jessica Lange, comics Roseanne Barr, Vicki Lawrence, Mary Tyler Moore Rosie O’Donnell, and singers Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand… until scenarist William Goldman picked Bates.  And she won the best actress Oscar on March 25, 1991. As if that wasn’t enough, King later wrote Dolores Claibourne and rewrote Ray as Rae in The Stand, for Kathy.
  3. Aida Turturro, Jersey Girl, 1991.   Angie was among the various changes made by New Jersey auteur Kevin Smith. For tre first time he was not also acting in  one of his films, despite it being based on  how he  learned to stop worrying and love fatherhood.
  4. Kathy Najimy, Hocus Pocus, 1992.      This was the witch pitch… Three centuries after execution, three witches return to Salem, Massachusetts on Halloween. Not O’Donnell. She rejected Mary. Because Mary was scary. D’oh!
  5. Samantha Morton, Sweet and Lowdown, 1998.      Rosie stalked out because of Woody Allen entering into a relationship with Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. The script was supposed to have been Woody’s first UA film in 1969. UA balked, insisting upon a comedy – he knocked out Take The Money And Run and put the fake bio of Django-esque jazz guitarist Emmet Ray in his bottom drawer.
  6. Anjelica Huston, Agnes Browne, 1999.      A last minute mind-switch by the talk-show queen had everyone rushing to Meryl Streep, already being Irish in Dancing At Lughnasa. Then, Huston agreed to star as well as direct the tale of the mother of seven kids – without ever having an “organism.”
  7. Julie Walters, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 2000  (etc!).   Rosie offered to play Molly Weasley for free. (Likewise, Robin Williamas for  Hagrid). Chris Columbu,had to refuse.  “You’re not a Brit!”  And by “casting” Robbie Coltrane, Alan Rickman and Dame Maggie Smith, Harry’s creator, Dame JK Rowling had made it clear that the cast must be 100% British. Or nearly. Richard Harris and Fiona Shaw were Irish, Zoe Wannamaker was a UK-born British citizen and Verne Troyer hailed from Michigan – ah, but he was dubbed by Warwick Davis!   JKR turned herself down as Lily Potter in the Mirror of Erised scene. Good news for Geraldine Somerville.
  8. Renée Zellweger, Chicago, 2001.
  9. Christine Baranski, Chicago, 2001.
  10. Queen Latifah, Chicago, 2001.
  11. Aida Turturro, Jersey Girl, 1991.   Angie was among the various changes made by New Jersey auteur Kevin Smith. For tre first time he was not also acting in  one of his films, despite it being based on  how he  learned to stop worrying and love fatherhood.

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  11