- Chris Evans, Captain America: The First Avenger, 2010.
The first screen version of the WWII propaganda comicbook hero – Defender of the Defenceless – since Republic’s 1944 serial (with Dick Purcell), two 1979 tele-quickies (Rep Brown) and the 1989 movie (Matt Salinger, son of the monumental JD, no less). A 1981 Universal plan for Jeff Bridges never flew. Nor did Cannon’s 1984 take which UK director Michael Winner never got around to casting (well, not out loud). In 2010. Disney’s TRON Legacyherowas a good idea for America’s super-serumed symbol of liberty (from WW II to Obama), part of Marvel’s superhero team, The Avengers. Also missing the nine-picture deal for Cap Am sequels, Avengers movies and cross-overs were…Jensen Ackles, Wilson Bethel, Michael Cassidy, Dane Cook, Chacd Crawford, Kellan Lutz, Ryan, McPartlin, Johnny Pacar, Ryan Phillippe, Scott Porter, Alexander Skarsgård, Will Smith, Sebastian Stan (chosen for Bucky Barnes), Channing Tatum (in last three), Mike Vogel, Sam Worthington. Plus two of the Jonas brothers band (Joe and Kevin), three of the TV-Marvelverse: Wilson Bethel (Daredevil), Chad Michael Murray (Agent Carter), Derek Theler (New Warriors). And John Krasinski. “This is stupid,” he yelled during his costumed test,“I’m not Captain America!” And he wasn’t. But he was Amazon’s TV’s surprise Jack Ryan in 2018. - Ryan Reynolds, Safe House,2011. All the other new guys – Zac Efron, Jake Gyllenhaall, Chris Hemsworth, Taylor Kitsch, Shia LaBeouf, James McAvoy, Chris Pine, Channing Tatum, Sam Worthington – also angled to be the freshman CIA babysitterhaving to rescue Denzel Washington from an attacked safe house in theHollywood debut of Swedish director Daniel Espinosa.
- Aaron Johnson, Savages, 2011. Oliver Stone considered Hedlund for one of the two pals growing such great pot that Mexican drug lords threaten to kill their girl unless they work for the cartel. Leonardo DiCaprio, James Franco and Tom Hardy also had to pass.
- Jeremy Renner, The Bourne Legacy, 2011. Three was enough for Matt Damon. (Until 2015…!) The studio did not agree and kept the franchise alive by rebooting Jason Bourne as Aaron Cross – “There Was Never Just One.” But who to play him from 20 hopefuls- Erryn Arkin, Adam Brody, Dominic Cooper, Paul Dano, Luke Evans, Michael Fassbender, Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Hartnett, Garrett Hedlund, Oscar Isaac (he was made an Outcome super-agent), Taylor Kitsch, Shia LaBeouf, Kellan Lutz, Logan Marshall-Green, Alex Pettyfer, Michael Pitt and Benjamin Walker. Plus Joel Edgerton and Tobey Maguire, who were Great Gatsbying down-under. Renner, Hollywood’s new white hope since The Hurt Locker, 2009, was suggested for the Mission: Impossible.. if ever Tom Cruise retired.
- Casey Affleck, Out of the Furnace, 2012. Max Irons, Taylor Kitsch, Canning Tatum were also in the mix for the mysteriously disappeared, younger sibling of Christian Bale – who takes over the search when the police lose interest. Casey’s real brother, Ben, succeeded Bale as Batman in 2013.
- Sam Claflin, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 2013.
- Colin Farrell, Winter’s Tale, 2013. Auteur Akiva Goldman didn’t stray far fom the fantasy brigade for his reincarnation romance. Up for the Manhattan burglar falling for the heiress who dies in his arms were Hemsworth from Hunger Games, Luke Evans (Bard in The Hobbit), Garrett Tron Hedlund, Tim Hiddldston (Loki in Thor), Aaron Kick-Ass Taylor-Johnson and Benjamin Walker aka Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Long before all those, even Farrell had been Bullseye in Daredevil, circa 2002.
- Chris Pratt,Guardians of the Galaxy, 2013. The most Lucasian of the Marvel films… The bulked-up Parks and Recreation TV star won Marvel’s Peter Quill aka Star Lord chief of the alien superheroes from… Joel Edgerton, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jack Huston, John Krasinski, Zachary Levi, James Marsden, Lee Pace, Eddie Redmayne, Michael Rosenbaum, Sullivan Stapleton, Jim Sturgess. All in all, asurprising Disney choice given that in his last far-from-family-film, Movie 43 (“the Citizen Kane of awful” – Chicago Sun-Times), the tragically-named Pratt defecated on his real wife, Anna Faris, during sex.
- Jamie Dornan, Fifty Shades of Grey, 2013. Mark Wahlberg tried to buy the porno novel, fans pestered the social network with ideas for the BDSM mentor Christian Grey. Few of the suggestions (from Robert Pattinson to Matt Smith, the 11th Doctor Who) led to talks, auditions or tests. Because the suits had eyes only for Ryan Gosling. No? OK, Hedlund? But no, he “couldn’t connect” with the guy. Patrick J Adams, Stephen Amell, François Arnaud, Luke Bracey, Christian Cook, Dominic Cooper, Scott Eastwood, David Gandy Charlie Hunnam, Theo James, Billy Magnussen, Ryan Paevey, Eddie Redmayne, Alexander Skarsgård were also lucky to escape the turgid, totally un-erotic enterprise. Only 14 minutes and 17 seconds of sex, no orgasms – and pubes added digitally to actors’ genital patches! And poor Dornan was a zero without his beard.
- Jai Courtney, Terminator: Genesis, 2014. Terminator starts over… During November 2013, Hedlund and Nicholas Hoult passed on testing to be Kyle Reese. The suits simply switched to lesser egoes… and looked over Courtney, Wilson Bethel, Boyd Holbrook, Taylor Kitsch, Sam Reid.
- Colin Farrell, True Detective, 2015. The second season could never match the impact and huge viewership – averaging 11.9m – of the first HBO season. They were both written by the, exec producer Nic Pizzolatti and even if the second show was better, no one would say so as the first had long since entered the pantheon alongside The Sopranos, Oz, The Wire, Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Last time, two cop guys; this time, guy and gal. They were considered a flop. The locale changed from Southern to West Coast noir, still owing everything to Elmore Leonard. Hedlund, Christian Bale, Michael Fassbender were in the frame for the burned out Vinci PD detective (and mob enforcer) Ray Velcoro involved with Rachel McAdams as Detective Sergeant Ani Bezzerides who has family, boozing, gambling and fidelity issues.
- Alexander Skarsgård, War on Everyone, 2015. When Hedlund quit three weeks before shooting started, director John Michael McDonaugh was handed a paper listing six actors he could choose from. He threw three away in seconds, then voted Skarsgård. Why? Because he’d seen him on You Tube – pissed at a soccer game and trying to turn the crowd onto the game they were watching too sedately!
- Paul Sparks, Castle Rock, TV, 2018-2019. Hedlund was selected for John ‘Ace’ Merrill, changed his mind and Sparks inherited the ten-episode role in the JJ Abrams-Stephen Kling anthology series feeding upon the denizens, endroits and many actors (Melanie Lynskey, Tim Robbins, Bill Skarsgård, Sissy Spacek, etc) from King films. For the record, this was the 275th of King’s staggering 313 screen credits.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 13