- Renée Zellweger, Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2001. “I couldn’t do it because I didn’t know how long Wild Party was going to play on Broadway.”
- 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… and the stunning Connelly. S 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.
- Renée Zellweger, Chicago, 2002.
- Julie Walters, Wah-Wah, 2004. Actor Richard E Grant turned writer-director to relate his Swaziland childhood with dysfunctional, not to say wildly inappropriate parents. He kept a diary about the shoot, freely admitting that Collette, Emmanuelle Beart, Meg Ryan, Rachel Weisz all turned him down… for roles as varied as his mother and his American airline stewardess step-mom.
- Cameron Diaz, In Her Shoes, 2005. First idea of director Curtis Hanson was Toni as Maggie Feller with Sarah Michelle Gellar as her sister Rose. SMG quit the project, Toni became Rose and Diaz took over Maggie.
- Nicole Kidman, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, 2006. Twenty years,nine directors, eight scripts, seven Dianes later, finally a film was afoot by Steven Secretary Shainberg. He grew up hearing all about the innovative 60s’ photographer – his uncle Lawrence was herclose friend.
- Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 2006. Very keen, but turned down for Mrs Lovett, making the meatiest of meat pies from the victims of a demonic Johnny Depp. So were Annette Bening, Nicole Kidman, Cyndi Lauper, Bernadette Peters, Meryl Streep plus great Brits Imelda Staunton, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet They all lacked one essential. They were not living with director Tim Burton! HBC proved it by being pregnant during the shoot… hence the continually changing size of her breasts.
- Penelope Cruz, Nine, 2009.
- Maggie Gyllenhaal, Away We Go, 2009. Schedules stopped her playing Ellen, changed to LN (!), on becoming, as Chicago critic Roger Ebert put it, one of those rigid campus feminists who banned human nature from their rule book. AO Scott was more pointu in the New York Times: “This movie does not like you.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 8