- 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.
- Catherine Bell, Bruce Almighty, 2002. What as her agent thinking? Eva’s schedule got in the way of her becoming Susan Ortega in the tale of Jim Carrey meeting God – and he’s Morgan Freeman! Eva had too many other films to fry… Almost as busy as her intended co-star Jennifer Aniston, who was shooting Bruce, Along Came Polly and Friends at the same time.
- Nona Gaye, The Matrix Reloaded, 2003. Eva was among five potential successors to Aaliyah, killed in a 2001 plane crash. The Cuban-Amerian beauty has twice been Denzel Washington’s lover: Training Day, 2001, Out Of Time, 2003.
- Cameron Diaz, Knight and Day, 2009. As the tepid actioner went through nine writers over the years – from All New Enemies to Trouble Man to Wichita – Eva and Chris Tucker morphed into Cameron and Tom Cruise. And still flopped. Final title was, literally, senseless.
- Violante Placido, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, 2010. The magnificent Mendes passed on the very idea of reprising her Roxanne from the first film and, therefore, The Girl became a Nadya, snatched from Eva Longoria by the daughter of Italian stars, Michele Placido – and Simonetta Stefanelli – best remembered as Al Pacino’s blow- up wife in The Godfather.
- Jessica Biel, Total Recall, 2011. The hero succeeding Schwarzenegger was Colin Farrell in excellent 007-testing mode. Mendes, Eva Green, Rosario Dawson and Paula Patten were up for: his girlfriend Melina (ex-Rachel Ticotin in the 1989 version)).
- Kate Beckinsale, Total Recall, 2011. Mendes, Kate Bosworth and Diane Kruger were in the sf mix for Lori Quaid, the wife of our hero, Colin Farrell. Well, that is to say, the UFB undercover agent posing as his missus. Kate, of course, is The (real) wife of the re-make’s director, Len Wiseman. He failed in any retread’s #1 rule. Build a better movie.
- Alice Braga, Queen of the South, TV, US-Spain-Malta-Mexico, 2016-2020 Change of Mexican Drug Lord Teresa Mendoza, although Braga (Sônia’s niece) is Brazilian, not Mexican. Mendes is Miami-born American.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 7