- Amanda Donohoe, The Lair of the White Worm, 1988. Change of the keeper of the lair – none other than the often naked Lady Sylvia Marsh. Bram Stoker wrote the book (after Dracula). Ken Russell made the film – obviously, as it is plain bonkers. “This is the sort of exercise he could film with one hand tied behind his back,” noted Chicago critic Roger Ebert, “and it looks like that was indeed more or less his approach.”
- Emma Thompson, Howards End, 1991. Join the club! Phoebe Nicholls,Joely and Miranda Richardson were also seen about being Margaret Schlegel for Indian producer Ismail Merchant and US director James Ivory. But Emma it was who collected the Oscar.
- Renée Zellweger, Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2001. Among the dozen nearly-Brendas- from outrageous ideas like Nicole Kidman, and Catherine Zeta-Jones (far too beautiiful for a dumpy dowdy)to more sensible idea of Tilda, Rachel Griffiths and Emma Thompson.
- Emma Thompson, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2003. Most UK actors seemed to be queuing up to spend a moment with Harry P. Not Swinton, She passed and Thompson pounced at the chance of delighting her daughter Gaia Wise (all of four) by playing Professor Trelawney. (Thompson’s first husband, Kenneth Branagh, was Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 2002, and her younger sister, Sophia, was Mafalda Hopkirk in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows Part I. 2019).
- Helen Bonham Carter, Terminator Salvation, 2008. “Come with me if you want to live.” Due to be a cyborg until the scenario was leaked in-line and the cyborg was respun as Skynet/Dr. Serena Kogan – first aimed at Swinton. HBC grabbed the role because her then lover, director Tim Burton, was major T-fan. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to participate, saying a cameo would be cheating the fans. “Thank God,” he said later. “It sucked!” He returned for Terminator: Genisys, 2014. No better.
- Olivia Williams, The Ghost Writer, 2009. Long before Roman Polanskifound his hero (George Clooneyand Daniel Craig were among those refusing),he has promisesfrom Pierce Brosnan and Tilda for the ex-UK Prime Minister and his wife.Tilda then (wisely?) departed the thriller that was not…
- Bill Skarsgård, It, 2016. Despite trhe flack she got the previous year for playing not only a guy but an Aasian guy, The Ancient One in Doctor Strange, It producer Barbara Muschetti wanted Tilda for Stephen King’s titular monster. “We had a slot to shoot the movie and she wasn’t available, so she didn’t even audition…” There was talk over seven years about re-hashing the mini-series of 1990 – when Stellan Skarsgård’s son/Alexander TarzanSkarsgård’s brotherwas born. Among his rivals for Pennywise, Stephen King’s shape-shifting horror clown, were the too obvious Jim Carrey, Tim Curry (no, no, he’d already done Iton TV), Willem Dafoe, Johnny Depp, Jackie Earle Haley. Plus Richard Armitage, Kirk Acevedo (of Oz), Paul Giamatti, Tom Hiddleston, Doug Jones, Ben Mendelsohn (argued over money), Will Poulter (bad scheduling), Channing Tatum, Hugo Weaving… “Bill came in and blew our socks off. Because he was doing his very own interpretation of Pennywise, very erudite… very, very familiar with the novel and with Pennywise in the novel.” “It’s beyond even a sociopath,” says Bill, “because he’s not even human. He’s not even a clown… [that’s] a manifestation of the children’s imaginations, so there’s something child-like about that.”Hence, It: Chapter Two, 2019.
- Jodie Whittaker, Doctor Who, TV, 2018-
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 8