Alex Pettyfer

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

  1. Ed Spelerers, Eragon, 2005.      The rising British hunk  backed away as he detests flying and the most suitable locations for Christopher Paolini’s fantasy novel were in Budapest.
  2. Charlie Cox, Stardust, 2006.      Paramount wanted a star as Tristam Thorn: Orlando Bloom, for example. Director Matthew Vaughn wanted a newcomer  – Cox or Pettyfer. The studio agreed after Vaughn obtained  Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Sienna Miller,  Michelle Pfeiffer for  the fantasy kingdom of Stormhold.  in Neil Gaiman’ser…  Lord of the Things. It was even narrated by Gandalf McKellen.
  3. Ben Barnes, The Seventh Son, 2012.      After Pettyfer changed his mind, Russian director Sergey Bodrov tested Sam Claflin, Shiloh Fernandez, James Frecheville, Caleb Landry Jones for the apprentice to the seventh son of a seventh son protecting the 1770s from witches, boggarts, ghouls, etc.
  4. Jeremy Irvine, Great Expectations, TV, 2011.    Hoping one of his numerous Hollywood auditions might click, he passed on Phillip ‘Pip’ Pirrip  in the umpteenth BBC version… for Charles Dickens 200th birthday year. The winner was the latest Steven Spielberg discovery – for War Horse, 2011. He had something that Alex lacked –   younger brother, Toby, to play… the younger Pip.  In all, Pettyfer had three 2011 releases, none made him the  star he and his handlers expected him  to be
  5. Jeremy Renner, The Bourne Legacy, 2011.  Three was enough for Matt Damon. (Until 2015…!)  The studio did not agree and kept the franchise alive by rebooting Jason Bourne as Aaron Cross – “There Was Never Just One.” But who to play him from 20 hopefuls- Erryn Arkin, Adam Brody, Dominic  Cooper, Paul Dano, Luke Evans, Michael Fassbender, Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Hartnett, Garrett Hedlund, Oscar Isaac (he was made an Outcome super-agent), Taylor Kitsch, Shia LaBeouf, Kellan Lutz, Logan Marshall-Green, Alex Pettyfer, Michael Pitt and Benjamin Walker. Plus Joel Edgerton and Tobey Maguire, who were Great Gatsbying down-under. Renner, Hollywood’s new white hope sinceThe Hurt Locker, 2009, was suggested  for the Mission: Impossible franchise,  if ever Tom Cruise retired.    
  6. Armie Hammer, The Brothers Grimm: Snow White, 2011.     As Hollywood inexplicably started re-puss-in-booting fairy tales, he tested for Prince Andrew Alcott. So did Jams McAvoy and Robert Pattinson. His Royal Highness became the 6’5” actor who was the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network, 2010, but didn’t break-out until the rapturous Call Me By Your Name in 2016.
  7. Josh Hutcherson, The Hunger Games, 2011
  8. Zac Efron, The Paper Boy, 2011.      And so it came to pass that it was Zac and not Alex who was peed upon by a slutty Nicole Kidman when he was stung by jellyfish in 1969 Florida. The pee was real, the sting was not. One producer said of Pettyfer: “Pick your words: ambitious, hungry, cocky, very ahead of himself. But if he delivers, he’ll be worth it.”
  9. Armie Hammer, Mirror Mirror, 2011. True Brits Pettyfer and James McAvoy were also in the mix for Snow Whiite’s Prince Andrew.
  10. Jamie Campbell Bower, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, 2012.   Screen Gems bossClint Culpepper was apoplectic when the newest hunk in town (and his team) wanted $10m for the supporting role. “Pick your words: ambitious, hungry, cocky, very ahead of himself,” said one producer about Alex. “But if he delivers, he’ll be worth it.” If!

  11. Nicholas Hoult, Jack The Giant Killer, 2012.      Well, he was losing, passing or plain unwanted for everything else, so why not director Bryan Singer’s respite from X-Men, as well. Also out: Aneurin Barnard, Jamie Campbell Bower (broken ankle!), Aaron Johnson.
  12. Theo James, Divergent, 2013.     The handsome hunk was the inevitable choice for the new Hunger Games – the first book in Veronica Roth’s trilogy of dystopian Chicago. But he didn’t want the RPatz teen idol rubbish that would go along with being Tobias “Four” Eaton. (Besides, he’d already made a 2010 movie called… I Am Number Four…!). Director and Yale graduate Neil Burger then saw all the newer guys: Luke Bracey, Jeremy Irvine, Alexander Ludwig, Jack Reynor, Miles Teller (who became Paul), Brenton Thwaites and Lucas Till.
  13. Brady Corbet, While We’re Young, 2014.   The Brit passed when New York auteur Noah Baumbach asked him to join his party about an uptight documentary filmmaker and a free-spirited couple.
  14. Ben Barnes, Seventh Son, 2014.     When Pettyfer passed, Sam Claflin, Shiloh Fernandez, James Frecheville, Caleb Landry Jones tested for the possible successor to  Master John Gregory (Jeff Bridges, always The Dude!), a seventh son of a seventh son and the local spook, fending off witches, boggarts, ghouls and… maybe even film critics.
  15. Freddie Thorp, Overdrive, 2016.   Cast and curious… The car-stealing brothers went from Matthew Goode and Alex Pettyfer to Karl Urban and Ben Barnes to Karl Urban and Sam Claflin to, finally, Scott Eastwood and Freddie Thorp. If only as much timee had been spent on changing the script, a cut-and-paste copy-cat giving B-movies a bad name.

 

 

 

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  15