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Olivia Hussey, Romeo and Juliet, UK-Italy, 1967. The first version where the stars were close to the ages of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers. Leonard Whiting and Olivia were 17 and 15. At MGM, circa 1935, Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer were, ridiculously, 43 and 35! Italian director Franco Zeffirelli saw 500 hopeful Juliets, including Hollywood’s Kim Darby, Anjelica Huston and Bernadette Peters and the UK’s Jenny Agutter, Angela Cartwright, (Sarah Douglas, Pamela Franklin, Susan George, singer Lulu (Phil Collins and Paul McCartney had been seen for Romeo!), Jane Seymour, Madeline Smith, Sally Thomsett and the model Twiggy. He then fell (literally) for the Argentine-born Hussey: “the unrequited love of my life.” Zeffirelli had to obtain permission for the scene as Olivia was 15. “But in Europe a lot of the films had nudity,” she said. “It wasn’t that big a deal. Leonard wasn’t shy at all! and I just completely forgot I didn’t have clothes on.” And yet, (a) she found herself legally banned from seeing her own nudity in the London premiere as she was under 18 and (b) by 2023, Hussey and Whiting (in their 70s) were suing Paramount for having their “child abuse” nude scenes and causing them suffering all their lives!!! . Olivia grew up to join the Stars Wars, play the mothers of Jesus and Norman Bates and the life of Mother Teresa.
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Barbara Harris, Nashville, 1974. The runaway wife called Albuquerque was first offered to to Bette Midler and Peters in what Chicago critic Roger Ebert called Robert Altman’s “microcosm of who we were and what we were up to in the 1970s.”
- Sissy Spacek, Carrie, 1976.
- Carrie Fisher, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, 1976.
- Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 2006. Peters, Annette Bening, Toni Collette, Nicole Kidman, Cyndi Lauper, Meryl Streep plus great Brits Staunton, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet were seen for Mrs Lovett, making the meatiest of meat pies (from the victims of a demonic Johnny Depp). They all lacked one essential. They were not living with director Tim Burton! HBC was and proved it by being pregnant during the shoot.
- Allison Janney, Mr Peabody & Sherman, 2013. Peters, Lanie Kazan, RosieO’Donnell and Octavia Spencer were heard for voicing a bigot named Edwina Grunion in the toon about Mr P, the most amazing dog in history: inventor, scientist, Noble laureate, gourmet chef, business tycoon, double Olympic gold medalist. With its own time machine. Plus an adopted human son!
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 6