- AJ Langer, Escape From LA, 1996. Kate turned down playing the rebellious daughter of US president Cliff Robertson because the hero was Snake Plissken aka Dad, aka Kurt Russell. “I didn’t want to be professionally associated with my dad. I just wanted to see if I could do the audition.” Russell’s son, Wyatt, did not mind – he was given a walk-on with Pa.
- Mena Suvari, American Beauty, 1998. Welcome to Hollywood…! For his first LA movie – for a producer called Spielberg! – UK stage director Sam Mendes saw all the current young Hollywood babes for Kevin Spacey’s Lolita-esque infatuation (she was even called… not Haze, but Hayes). And he was turned down by Hudson, Kirsten Dunst, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Katie Holmes, Brittany Murphy, Leelee Soboeski – and Tiffani Thiessen lost her audition. That’s not Mena on the poster, though; the hand and stomach belong to actress-model Chloe Hunter.
- Jennifer Aniston, Office Space, 1998. Auteur Mike Judge didn’t want stars – so bye-bye Matt Damon. But Fox,having ordered Car Wash in an office, wanted at least one recognisable being. Kate was seen but Jennifer became Joanna (her own middle name). As she also starred in Horrible Bosses, 2010, she could be the called the midwife of both office satires.
- Kelly Rutherford, Scream 3, 1999 Hudson won Christine Hamilton – and then lost it to a 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: Jennifer Connelly, Shannen Doherty, Alyssa Milano, Denise Richards, Keri Russell, Rachel True, Liv Tyler and Kate Winslet.
- Brittany Murphy, Girl, Interrupted, 1999. One Flew into the Cuckoo’s nest… stems from Susanna Kaysen’s memoir. She committed herself to a psychiatric institution and was kept there for two years, although she was quite sane. Chicago critic Roger Ebert said Winona Ryder) (also exec producer) and the support Oscar-winning Angelina Jolie – as Susanna and the sociopath Lisa – were the reasons to see the film, although “their work here deserves a movie with more reason for existing.” Most other patients were teenage girls, played by rising young Hollywood actresses in their 20s – Angela Bettie and Jillian Armenante even played 22 at age 31. Why? Because, said Rose McGowan, “It’s the only decent thing out there that doesn’t involve taking your clothes off.”
- Zooey Deschanel, Almost Famous, 2000. During her Christmas college break, Zooey read for the casting director, got a call-back, did an improv with writer-director Cameron Crowev and… zilch. Hudson won Anita, the hero’s sister. Then, Sarth Polley dropped out and Hudson ) persuaded Crowe that she, too, could be the “Band Aide” called Penny Lane. “They were frantically trying to find Anita. Cameron went back through his tapes…. called me back in…. didn’t even know that Kate Hudson and I went to high school together. She was a year older than me. We had a couple of classes together.’
- Angelina Jolie, Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, 2000.For the girls, Lara Croft is their James Bond. Well, more of a sexy Indiana Jones. And 22 hopefuls wanted to bringther sassy, video-game adventurer to life. Demi More was, perhaps, the most keen, but who was simply disregarded. Christina Applegate, Drew Barrymore, Victoria Beckham, Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Nicole Eggert, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kate Hudson (!), Elizabeth Hurley, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Lopez, Gwneth Paltrow, Anna Nicole Smith (a joke, surely), Catherine Zeta-Jones were considered. Fairuza Balk, Natalie Cassidy, Kirsten Dunst and Milla Jovovich auditioned while Denise Richards, Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman and Liv Tyler simply refused. And Lara’s guy (who fled the sequel) was Daniel Craig – complete with a Walther PPK pistolthat he would use again as 007 in Casino Royale, 2005.
- Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man, 2001.
- Anne Hathaway, The Princess Diaries, 2001. Among 22 youngstars (Jessica Alba to Reese Witherspoon) rejecting the awkward San Francisco teenager being groomed (by Julie Andrews!) to inherit the Genovia throne – after director Garry Marshall’s (rather surprising) first choice of Juliette Lewis quit. And so, Hathaway made her first movie.
- Scarlett Johansson, Girl With A Pearl Earring, 2003. “She pursued us for this,” said producer and Brit director Mike Newell chose her opposite Ralph Fiennes’ Vermeer. They both followed when Mike had to quit the project. Scarlett was painted by Colin Firth.
- Bryce Dallas Howard, The Village, 2003. When Kirsten Dunst split to Cameron Crowe’s (weak) Elizabethtown, auteur M Night Shymalan started a revised Ivy wish-list: BDH, Hudson, Jessica Biel. And when Ashton Kutcher quit being Noah due to an overcrowded diary, auteur M Night Shymalan started a revised wish-list: Brody, Christensen, Aaron Eckhart, Thomas Jane. Brody had something the others didn’t. An Oscar. (Plus a tendency to over-act).
- Christina Ricci, Monster, 2003. Rejected a cracking role – lesbian lover of Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning transformation as Daytona Beach hooker-cum-serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
- Kate Bosworth, Superman Returns, 2005.
- Jodie Foster, Inside Man, 2005. Kate rejected Spike Lee’s invite with good reason. She’d read the script, Chicago critic Rogert Ebert saw the film and still didn’t know 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.”
- Jacinda Barrett, The Namesake, 2006. Both Kate and Natalie Portman were talked about to join Bollywoodienne Tabu – by India’s sole international film-maker, Mira Nair.
- Amanda Seyfried, Mamma Mia! 2008. Goldie Hawn’s daughter tried out to be Meryl Streep’s… Oh, Hollywood!
- Olivia Wilde, Butter, 2010. Hudson suddenly preferred Something Borrowed, and Wilde took over as hooker Brooke Swinkowski in a dark comedy about, of all topics,… butter sculpting. No, really
- Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn, 2010. Obviously the toughest casting of this memoir about the making of The Prince and the Showgirl in London, 1956, was not Laurence Olivier (like Kenneth Branagh,who else?) but the mythical Marilyn. Candidates included Hudson, Amy Adams, British Laura Haddock, Tennesse’s Elaine Hendrix and Scarlett Johansson.Williams was Oscar-nominated superb! But for Kate, what came after MM. You’ll be surprised…
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Amanda Seyfried, Lovelace , 2011. Now they wanted Goldie Hawn’s daughter as Linda Lovelace!!! But no, Kate proved pregnant – and Olivia Wilde (who had earlier subbed Kate in Butter) proved doubtful about the biopic of the star of Deep Throat, the surprise 1972 porno-chic phenomenon attracting millions to screenings – including Hollywood gentry Warren Beatty, Johnny Carson, Sammy Davis Jr, Jack Nicholson, etc. Film centered on Linda (ex-Borman) and her abusive “manager”-husband, Chuck Traynor who, she maintained, forced her into porn – at gunpoint. On divorcing him, she became an ardent anti-porn crusader. Throat cost peanuts and made a global $600m-plus, probably the most profitable movie ever produced. Seyfried and Peter Sarsgaard played the couple – killing off a rival biopic, Inferno, planned for Malin Akerman and Matt Dillon. Seyfried dutifully watched Deep Throat for research. “What surprised me was the amount of pubic hair!”
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Nicole Kidman, Grace of Monaco, 2012. From Marilyn and Linda to Grace Kelly… now there”s a stretch! Also in the frame for Hollywood’s serene princess were: Hudson, Amy Adams, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain, January Jones, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rosamund Pike, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon. But not Christina Applegate, the young Grace on TV in 1983 when Cheryl Ladd was the older. None of them resembled Her Serene Highness, but then nor did Tim Roth look like Prince Rainier.
- Amy Adams, Big Eyes, 2013. The true tale of the US painter Margaret Keane and the husband who claimed credit for all her work (Colette’s husband Willy did the same about her books) was first aimed at Kate Hudson-Thomas Haden Church, then Reese Witherspoon-Ryan Reynolds and, finally, Amy Adams and the German double-Oscar winner, Christoph Waltz. Their director, Tim, Burton, was a Keane art collector and commissioned portraias from her of his lovers, Helena Bonham Carter and Lisa-Marie.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 21