- Laura Dern, Jurassic Park, 1992. Some 25 ladies voted against Dr Ellie Sattler- not the finest woman’s role in a Spielberg movie. They included survivors of the Fatal Attraction/Basic Instinct campaigns… Jamie Lee Curtis, Geena Davis, Bridget Fonda, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Grey, Linda Hamilton,Daryl Hannah, Helen Hunt, Kelly McGillis, Michelle Pfieffer, Julia Roberts, Ally Sheedy, Sigourney Weaver, Debra Winger, Robin Wright .And among newer contestants: Linney, Juliette Binoche, Sandra Bullock, Joan Cusack, Sherilyn Fenn,Teri Hatcher, Helen Hunt, Elizabeth Hurley, Kelly McGillis, Julianne Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sarah Jessica Parker. Poor Laura got the next Michael Chrichton movie: Congo. As a punishment.
- Anne Heche, Psycho, 1997. So who should be knocked off real early in the shower? Except why should anyone play Marion Crane again? It’s been done. It’s a classic. And by The Master. Why re-make Hitchcock? Ah, beg pardon, Gus Van Sant called it a reproduction. A bizarre (lazy!) notion of copying – the Psycho script, word for word, action for action, move for move, shock for shock (except the shocks were too famous to shock anymore). “Just shoot it in color and have, for instance, Jack Nicholson play the detective and Timothy Hutton play Norman Bates,” he suggested. “Universal wanted to rope me in, and I said: “Here’s the idea: don’t change anything! It’s never been done before. Isn’t that a great reason to try it?” Not really! What had he said about re-makes? “The essence is missing. You might as well make an original movie.” Right! Drew Barrymore, Claiure Danes nd Winona Ryder (too young; “I wanted to preserve the integrity of the characters”), Nicole Kidman (too busy), Laura Linney (she preferred The Truman Show, which was new) and Julianne Moor (finished up as Marion’s sister) were in the mix, before Anne Heche won the one sequence that was not the same as in 1959 – the shower. “it’s more grotesque. It’s more disgusting… Hitchcock was holding back, I’ll bet.” Yet it worked much better. First is always best.
- Minnie Driver, Tarzan, 1998. He – Tarzan. Me – Jane said Linney. And then, Driver!
- Julia Stiles, The Omen, 2006. For Damien’s mom in the unnecessary (and badly made) re-hash of the 1976 chiller.
- Emma Thompson, Beauty and the Beast,2016. LL had worked a lot with director Bill Condon. This time, he felt Thompsopn was the more perfect voice for Mrs Potts., an animation teapot – Angela Lansbury in the 1990 toon
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 5