Jennifer Connelly – Crawley's Casting Calls

Drew Barrymore, Firestarter, 1983. First there was the telekinetic Carrie White. Now comes Charlene McGee, a much younger (eight!) pyrokinetic! Yes, we’re back jn Stephen King country. With the 12th of his staggering 313 screen credits(!). The youngster auditioning for Charlie included the 1982 Savannah Smiles star, Bridgette Andersen… Jennifer Connelly, about to breakthrough jn Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America… Taylor Neff, an ice-rink champ on and off the screen…and poor Heather O’Rourke, dead at 12 five years later. It had also been Barrymore v O’Rourke for Poltergeist, 1981; Drew made ET, instead. Well, of course, she did. she is Spielberg’s god-daughter.
Christine Marsillach, Opera, Italy, 1987. Director Dario Argento’s first choice for Betty but he did not want any comparisons to his and her previous film, Phenomena (US: Creepers), 1985. Christine really became known in director Martin Scorsese’s black-white Armani commercial in 1986.
Winona Ryder, Beetlejuice, 1987. Finding Betelgeuse was easier for directorTim Burton than unearthing a Lydia. He saw Connelly, Justine Bateman, Diane Lane, Juliette Lewis, Lori Loughlin, Sarah Jessica Parker, Molly Ringwald, Brooke Shields. He fell for Winona. Didn’t we all. She was sweet 17 at the time.
Jodie Foster, The Accused, 1988.
Awful thing to say. Except it is true. Jodie Foster would never have won her (first) Oscar for this trenchant drama – if actress Kelly McGillis had not been raped in 1982… At first, the role of the rape victim Sarah Tobias was written for Andie MacDowell. She passed. The Paramount suits then saw 34 other young actresses for the (real life) victim. Or, for their own rape bait fantasies – including 16-year-old Alyssa Milano! Foster was refused a test because she was “not sexy enough”! And, anyway, the studio had decided upon McGillis, a high flyer in Paramount’s Witness and Top Gun. And, naturally, she refused point-blank! She knew what it was to be brutally raped and Kelly had no wish to revisit the horror and agony of her own assault six years earlier. The suits were annoyed. They needed her. She was hot at the box-office, their box-office. They had made her a star!! Eventually, McGillis agreed to play Sarah’s defence attorney – on condition that unsexy Jodie played Sarah! The suits caved, tested Foster and the rest is Oscar history… So is the huge list of talent also seen for Sarah. Starting with the Fatal Attractions also-rans: Rosanna Arquette, Ellen Barkin, Kim Basinger, Jennifer Beals, Jennifer Grey, Melanie Griffith, Linda Hamilton, Darryl Hannah, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Diane Keaton, Demi Moore, Kelly Preston, Meg Ryan, Jane Seymour, Sharon Stone, Meryl Streep, Debra Winger. And moving on to the younger Connelly, the Prairie mould), Melissa Sue Anderson (trying to bust out of her Little House on the Prairie mould), Justine Bateman, Valerie Bertinelli, Phoebe Cates, Joan Cusack, Judy Davis, Kristin Davis, Bridget Fonda, Annabeth Gish, Mariel Hemingway, Virginia Madsen, Brigitte Nielsen, Tatum O’Neal, Molly Ringwald, Mia Sara, Ally Sheedy, Brooke Shields, Uma Thurman. Oh, and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, said the suits, was “too nice.” Rape victims shouldn’t be nice? Oh, Hollywood!
Ione Skye, Say Anything…, 1988. Jennifer and Elisabeth Shue were also in the mix for Diane in auteur Cameron Crowe’s marvellous debut about a great girl and her father and her boyfriend and, above all else, honesty. Chicago critic Roger Ebert helped save the film from flopping by hailing it as one of the best of 1989. “A film that is really about something, that cares deeply about the issues it contains – and yet it also works wonderfully as a funny, warmhearted romantic comedy.”
Winona Ryder, Heathers, 1989. Written for her. Apparently not well enough.
Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman, 1989.
Sharon Stoner, Basic Instinct, 1991.
Juliette Lewis, Cape Fear, 1991. Among the many – the very many – Christina Applegate, Drew Barrymore, , Shannen Doherty, Nicole Eggeret, Bridget Fonda, Jodie Foster, Helen Hunt, Nicole Kidman, Diane Lane, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alyssa Milano, Demi Moore, Sarah Jessica Parker, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Brooke Shields, Tiffani Thiessen, Reese Witherspoon – considered by Steven Spielberg and, later, Martin Scorsese for the teen daughter of Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange: Danielle Bowden. (Nancy in the 1962 original). Some found it too sexy and, indeed, few could have equalled the on-heat musk of Juliette’s totally improvised – and one take – seduction scene with Robert De Niro.
Nicole Kidman, To Die For, 1994. “You aren’t anybody in America if you’re not on TV…” Most young sparks agreed this was a role to die for… the girl who would do anything (murder included) to get on TV, and stay there. They included Connelly, Patricia Arquette, Joan Cusack, Bridget Fonda, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Darryl Hannah, Holly Hunter, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tatum O’Neal, Mary-Louise Parker, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan (passing up $5m), Brooke Shields, Uma Thurman. However, Debra Winger simply refused… and Kidman persuaded director Gus Van Sant that she was his destiny.
Kate Winslet, Titanic, 1996.
Bonnie Hunt, Jerry Maguire, 1996. Once Tom Hanks passed and Tom Cruise breathed a sigh of relief, auteur Cameron Crowe started searching for the girls: Dorothy Boyd (“You had me at Hello…”) and her older sister. The Avery candidates included Connelly, Diane Lane, Alyssa Milano, Meg Ryan and – oh, no! – Tori Spelling!! Fortunately, she was tied up with her (well, her father Aaron Spelling’s) series, Beverly Hills 90210, 1990-2000. Hunt said the hardest part of the role was being someone who did not like Tom Cruise… even after he admitted he had no memory of her being in Rain Man with him!
Maria Pitillo, Godzilla, 1997. Pitillo won the Golden Raspberry award as the Worst Support Actress. A star was not born. But what if Audrey Timmonds had been played by Connelly, Sarah Jessica Parker (she wed the unlikely hero, Matthew Broderick, 19 days into the shoot), Parker Posey, Winona Ryder or Renée Zellweger? No, the film just stank.
Robin Wright (Penn), Unbreakable, 2000. Julianne Moore also passed Bruce Willis’ wife to Wright because of her TV series, The $treet – brutally executed by Fox after 12 great episodes.
Kelly Rutherford, Scream 3, 2000. Lost Christine to a Vegas-born Vegas dancer who said (of course, she did): “You can take the girl out of Vegas, but you can’t take Vegas out of the girl.” Also in the mix were: Charisma Carpenter, Shannen Doherty, Kate Hudson, Alyssa Milano, Denise Richards, Keri Russell, Rachel True, Liv Tyler and Kate Winslet.
Kate Hudson, Almost Famous, 2000. Looking for his Penny Lane groupie in his semi-autobiographical look back to his Rolling Stone reporter daze, auteur Cameron Crowe saw 48 of LA’s bright young things… Christina Applegate, Selma Blair, Lara Flynn Boyle, Neve Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Claire Danes, Cameron Diaz, Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jenna Elfman, Jennie Garth, Maggie Gyllenhal, Alyson Hannigan, Angie Harmon, Anne Heche, Katherine Heigl, Jordan Ladd, Kimberly McCullough (busier as a TV director these days, High School Musical: The Musical – The Series, etc), Rose McGowan, Bridget Moynahan, Brittany Murphy, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laura Prepon, Lindsay Price, Christina Ricci, Rebecca Romijn, Winona Ryder, Chloë Sevigny, Marley Shelton Tori Spelling, Mena Suvari, Uma Thurman, Liv Tyler, Lark Voorhies. Plus the English Saffron Burrows, Anna Friel, Thandiwe Newton and Rachel Weisz, Madrid’s Penélope Cruz, the French Charlotte Gainsbourg, Canada’s Natasha Henstridge, Ukrainian Milla Jovovich, Scottish Kelly Macdonald, Israeli Natalie Portman, German Franka Potente, Australian Peta Wilson and Welsh Catherine Zeta-Jones. And the winner, Canada’s Sarah Polley, simply split. (Silly girl). Crowe then chose Kate (previously booked for Anita) because “she seemed more like a free spirit.” But, but, but… Chloë was the freest spirit in all Hollywood. As she proved two years later in The Brown Bunny… in a way the others would never have dared.
Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man, 2001.
Naomi Watts, The Ring, 2001. Jennifer wanted some script changes, so Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Gwyneth Paltrow – good screamers all – were also seen for the heroine of the Hollywood re-make of Hideo Nakata’s gigantic 1998 Japanese horror hit when Rachel was called Reiko
Rachel Weisz, Runaway Jury, 2002. Two years earlier, UK director Mike Newell asked Jennifer to join Will Smith in the John Grisham courtroom thriller. Gary Fleder made the final film with Rachel and John Cusack.
Nicole Kidman, Bewitched, 2004.
For inexplicable reasons, Hollywood kept trying to make a movie out of the 1968-1972 ABC sitcom about a good-looking witch and a Dagwood husband. In 1993, Penny Marshall was going to direct Meryl Streep as Samantha, then passed the reins to Ted Bissell and he died in 1996 when his Richard Curtis script was planned as Melanie Griffths’ comeback. Nora Ephron co-wrote and directed this lumbering version about an ego-driven actor trying to save his career with a Bewitched re-hash, but with the emphasis on him (of course) as Darrin, rather than the unknown he chose for Samatha because she can wiggle her nose… (You didn’t need a nose to know it stank). Over the years, 37 other ladies were on the Samantha wish-list. Take a deep breath… Kate Beckinsale, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Connelly, Cameron Diaz, Heather Graham, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, Julianne Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Brooke Shields, Charlize Theron, Naomi Watts, Renee Zellweger. Plus seven Oscar-winners: Kim Basinger, Tatum O’Neal, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon… two Friends: Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow…eleven other TV stars: Christina Applegate, Patricia Arquette, Kristin Davis, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Helen Hunt, Jenny McCarthy, Alyssa Milano, Brittany Murphy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alicia Silverstone… even Drew Barrymore and Uma Thurman, who had already re-kindled Charlie’s Angels and The Avengers.
Rachel McAdams, Red Eye, 2004. Horrorsmith Wes Craven also saw Neve Campbell, Claire Danes, Amanda Peet, Rachel Weisz, Robin Wright – and made the right choice. Chicago critic Roger Ebert praised McAdams. Highly. “When she’s stalking a terrorist with a hockey stick, she seems like a real woman stalking a real terrorist with a real hockey stick. It’s not as easy as it sounds.”
Uma Thurman, Be Cool, 2004. Second stanza of John Travolta as Elmore Leonard’s Chilli Palmer is a music biz satire with heaps of songs, shylocks and gangsters (both kinds) but no bite. Connelly, Halle Berry (Travolta’s partner in Swordfish, 2000), Charlize Theron and Naomi Watts were up for Edie, aided by Chilli after her husband is rubbed out by the Russian mob. John wanted more magic with his Pulp Fiction co-star. And not, apparently, with his 2000 Swordfish partner.
Paris Hilton, House of Wax, 2005. Both Jennifer and Kate Winslet turned down the remake of the 1953 horror classic. Jennfier preferred “things that intimidate me.”
Jodie Foster, Inside Man, 2005. She rejected Spike Lee’s invite to be Madeleine White. With good reason. She’d read the script, Chicago critic Rogert Ebert never understood who or what Madeleine was. “She is never convincingly explained, and what she does is not well-defined. She’s one of those characters who is all buildup and no delivery” in a a thriller “that’s curiously reluctant to get to the payoff.”
Eva Green, Casino Royale, 2005.
Uma Thurman, Be Cool, 2005. Jennifer, Halle Berry, Charlize Theron and Naomi Watts were all in the mix for Edie Athens, but but John Travolta (as Elmore Leonard’s Chilli Palmer, himself) wanted more magic with his Pulp Fiction co-star.
Kate Bosworth, Superman Returns, 2005.
Katherine Heigl, Knocked Up, 2006.
Salli Richardson, I Am Legend, 2007. Somewhere along the 30-year history of Warners and the Richard Matheson sf novel (two films – one Italian – ten directors), Connelly was up for Zoe Neville, the wife of the last man on earth.
Hayley Atwell, Brideshead Revisited, 2007. Before leaving to helm Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, David Yates had chosen Paul Bettany and his wife Jennifer Connelly as Charles Ryder and Julia Flyte, plus Jude Law for Sebastian Flyte. New director Julian Jarrold chose Mathew Goode, Hayley Atwell and Ben Wishaw. Oh and Emma Thompson who threatened to quit if (the dreaded) producer Harvey Weinstein didn’t stop chastising Hayley about her weight. He once told her at lunch: “You look like a fat pig on screen. Stop eating so much.” And him, so slim!
Rosamund Pike, Creation, 2008. It was ex-Bond girl Rosamund (“definitely a Darwinist”) who revealed to the world that she and Joseph Fiennes were playing Emma and Charles Darwin in Jon Amiel’s bicentennial biopic – and not the Bettanys.
Malin Åkerman, Watchmen, 2008. Not so much “Who watches the watchmen?” as Aristotle asked, but who them playeth? As Alan Moore’s forcibly retired superheroes were called back to duty in an alternate 1985 America – Connelly, Jessica Alba, Hilary Duff, Milla Jovovich, Hilary Swank were up for Laurie Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre II. Cast included actors playing Brezhnev, Castro, JFK and Jackie, Kissinger, Nixon, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol…
Winona Ryder, Black Swan, 2009. Reminiscent (in places) of the 1947 classic, The Red Shoes, 1947, here’s an erotic study of the bleeding art that ballet can be. With Winona Ryder as an already over-the-hill star, Natalie Portman (never better – hence her Oscar and 37 other best actress trophies)) as a star on the rise (being pushed by ex-ballerina mother Barbara Hershey). Director Darren Aronofsky also looked at Posey for the role, plus two of his previous leading ladies: Jennifer Connelly (Requiem for a Dream, 1999) and Rachel Weisz (The Fountain, 2005).
Gwyneth Paltrow, Contagion, 2010. A black screen. The sound of a harsh cough… Director Steven Soderbergh thought of Connelly for the cougher… She’s returning home from Hong Kong. She coughs some more. She’s a spreader. Her son dies. Then, she dies… Steven Soderbergh’s drama played out for real, step by fatal step, at the start of 2020 with the Coronavirius-Covid 19 pandemic.
Angie Harmon, Rizzoli & Isles, TV, 2010-2016. Connelly was seen for both rolea for the latest in the tele- tradition of women cop duos – the US Cagney & Lacey, BBC’s Scott & Bailey and the tres chic French Astrid et Raphaëlle. Also on Warner’s Wanted list for Detective Jane Rizzioli were Harmon, Carla Gugino, Ashley Judd, Melina Kanakaredes, Alyssa Milano, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Nia Vardalos.
Sasha Alexander, Rizzoli & Isles, TV, 2010-2016. Alexander, Elizabeth Berkley, Rose McGowan, Sarah Paulson, Winona Ryder were LAO on Warner’s Wanted list for Chief Medical Examiner Dr Maura Isles teamed with Detective Jane for 105 cases in Boston. Creator Janet Tamaro’s original choices were Ashley Judd and Winona Ryder.
Adrianne Palicki. Wonder Woman, TV, 2011. The DC comicbook heroine had not been seen on screens since Lynda Carter ended her four year reign on ABC in 1979. Time then, said Warner, for a new movie. DC’s testosterone duo, Batman and Superman, had cleaned up, now it up to the beautiful superhuman Amazon warrior Princess Diana of Themysacira, her Lasso of Truth, her indestructible bracelets and (honest) her invisible plane. With who…? Across a decade of plans by producers as diverse as Joel Silver (so wrong) and Joss Whedon (so right), 24 beauties were in the frame: from Madonna to Whedon’s favourite, Cobie Smulders. Then, the film morphed into an updated TV series by David E Kelley – that, too, was dead after the rushed pilot. Palicki was the sole actress considered for TV – she was previously seen by George Miller for WW in his aborted Justice League, in 2008.
Emily Blunt, Mary Poppins Returns,2017. When Walt Disney made the first Poppins, he mused over Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury or Mary Martin for Mary but by 1963, he had only one star in mind. Julie Andrews. For this reboot, Disney suits went through no less than 37 contenders… Two Desperate Housewives:Kristin Davis, Teri Hatcher. Two Friends:Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow. Two Brat Packers: Molly Ringwald, Winona Ryder. Two of the three authors of The Penis Song: Christina Aplegate, Cameron Diaz. Three sirens: Kim Basinger, Heather Graham Uma Thurman. Four ex-child stars: Drew Barrymore, Alyssa Milano, Tatum O’Neal, Brooke Shields. Ten Oscar-winners: Sandra Bullock, Helen Hunt, Angelina Jolie, Julianne Moore, Tatum O‘Neal, Julia Roberts, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, RenéeZellweger. Plus: Patricia Arquette, Melanie Griffith, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Peiffer, Meg Ryan, Alicia Silverstone, Naomi Watts. But just two Brits: Kate Beckinsale – and the winning Emily.

Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 38