- Shia LaBeouf, The Battle of Shaker Heights, 2002. A teen comedy or not. Miramax was undecided. Hirsch was not. He was soon falling for The Girl Next Door, 2004, while Shia went on to be Indiana Jones’ son!
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mysterious Skin, 2003. Auditioned for Neil – JGL’s breakthrough role in the “most harrowing and, strangely, the most touching film” that Chicago critic Roger Ebert had ever seen.
- Jake Gyllenhaal, Jarhead, 2004. Also seen by UK director Sam Mendes to be Anthony Swofford, the Desert Storm grunt who wrote about never even firing his weapon: ChristianBale, Emile Hirsch, Joshua Jackson, Shane West. And buddies Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.
- Josh Brolin, Jonah Hex, 2009. Hirsch and Matthew McConaughey were seen for the DComics bounty hunter tackling an army of the undead. They were probably more keen than Brolin, who took his time falling for the black humour. And a half-beard – he could only shave one side to accommodate a scarred-face prosthetic. Director Jimmy Hayward was one of the Toy Story 1 and 2 animators – and unlucky enough to open his directing debut on the same day as Toy Story 3. Pixar sure put a hex on him. Massive flop!
- Ryan Reynolds, The Green Lantern, 2010. Being Speed Racer hadn’t led to glory in 2008, so Hirsch passed on being the titular Hal Jordan. So did Jack Black, Henry Cavill, Bradley Cooper, Michael Fassbender, Nathan Fillion, Brian Austin Green, Jared Leto, Eddie Murphy, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake, Sam Worthington… as directors change from Kevin Smith, Zack Snyder and Quentin Tarantino to 007’s Martin Campbell.
- Robert Pattinson, Water For Elephants, 2010. Just not Emile’s time… Anthony Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Andrew Garfield, Channing Tatum also auditioned for Jacob Jankowski, the teen who runs away to join a circus. Because Reese Witherspoon is there. Hmm, takes all sorts.
- Jim Sturgess, Upside Down, 2011. First choice of Carole Bouquet’s producer son, Dimitri Rassam, for his first US debut – set in a highly imaginative universe of twin planets each with its own gravity and directed by Juan Diego Solanas, Argentine film-maker son of a notable film-maker, Fernando E Solanas. Rassam produced the 2014 version of Le petit prince, voiced by Jeff Bridges, Marion Cotillard, James Franco, Ricky Gervais, Rachel McAdams.
- Aaron Paul, A Long Way Down, 2013. Hirsch was JJ. In the film of Nick Hornby’s book. And then he wasn’t. And Mr Breaking Bad was.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 8