- Kate Mulgrew, Star Trek: Voyager, TV, 1995-2001. Taking exams to be Captain Kathryn Janeway, first female skipper in star fleet history, circa 2371, were… Well, a few others had something to say about that… McCormack, Karen Austin, Nicola Bryant, Lynda Carter, Joanna Cassidy, Lindsay Crouse, Patty Duke, Chelsea Field, Susan Gibney, Erin Gray, Linda Hamilton, Kate Jackson, Patsy Kensit, Tracy Scoggins, Helen Shaver, Lindsay Wagner, Mary Woronov.Plus three guys – Californian Gary Graham, posh Londoner Nigel Havers intense San Antonian Rene Rivera- if Paramount suits turned too macho about about having a dame having a dame messing with their space toys.Kate, the ex-Mrs Columbo, TV, 1979, ran a tight ship for six seasons.
- Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth, 1998. At Cannes, the year before, Catherine wasin talks for the title role. She fared no better with Kathryn Bigelow’s Company of Angels, sideswiped by Luc Besson’s version of Joan of Arc.
- Renée Zellweger, Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2000. At least she was British (but not lumpy/dumpy) unlike such diarist ideas as the Arquette sisters, Julie Benz, Selma Blair, Nicollette Sheridan, etc.
- 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. PS 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.
- Meg Ryan, In The Cut, 2003. A highly sexual role in a Jane Campion film, produced by – and at first, due to star – the inexplicablybusy Nicole Kidman.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 5