- Jennifer Tilly, Bullets Over Broadway, 1994. “I couldn’t have done it like her,” said the 90s Queen of the US independent cinema. “Jennifer was perfect.” It had been another of Woody’s famous two-second interviews. He said: “Come in.” Posey sat down, cracked her neck, the way people crack finger-joints and he was “surprised your head didn’t fall on the floor.” He did have her read. “Which was good. Hopefully, I’ll work for him some day but see, he’s casting movie stars now.”
- Janeane Garofalo, Reality Bites, 1994. Virtual unknowns – Anne Heche, Gwyneth Paltrow and Parker – were beaten to playing Vickie Miner… by a stand-up comic.
- Renée Zellweger, Jerry Maguire, 1996. “You had me at Hello…”Once Tom Hanks passed and Tom Cruise breathed a sigh of relief, auteurCameron Crowe started searching for The Girl: Dorothy Boyd. Posey,Patricia Arquette, Cameron Diaz, Bridget Fonda, Janeane Garofalo, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez, Courtney Love, Molly Ringwald, Winona Ryder, Mira Sorvino, Marisa Tomei, Uma Thurman, even Zellweger, came and went. Recommended by Edward Burns (one of the Jerry possibles), Connie Britton made a good test with Cruise and she was Dorothy – depending on Zellweger’s call back meeting with him. “We have video of that because I was filming,” Crowe told Mike Fleming Jr for Deadline Hollywood’s 20-years-later feature in 2017, “and you just see something happen when Tom sees her. He lights up… As Jerry discovers Dorothy, we discover Renée. That was a very personal thing for me and the way I feel about movies.”
- Lauren Holly, Turbulence, 1996. “People think I must be picky and choosey,” said the indies’ queen, “But I just audition for everything.” She wanted this heroine because she thought air-stewardesses were great – “waitresses in the sky.” She wore a stewardess uniform during Clockwatchers.
- Maria Pitillo, Godzilla, 1998. After 37 indie films in three years what does dear old Hollywood offer Ms Independent Film? Godzilla! “It upsets me when those executives think my career is no good because I haven’t done any of their crappy movies.” Pitillo won the Golden Raspberry award as the Worst Support Actress. A star was not born. But if Audrey Timmonds had been played by Parker, Jennifer Connelly, Sarah Jessica Parker (she wed the unlikely hero, Matthew Broderick, 19 days into the shoot), Winona Ryder or Renée Zellweger? No, the film just stank. By 2006, Posey was still into indies while stealing TV’s Boston Legal, Superman Returns – and its video game!
- Angelina Jolie, Girl, Interrupted, 1999, One Flew into the Cuckoo’s nest… Courtney Love auditioned (Parker Posey refused to) for the sociopath Lisa Rowe – in ihe true story of Susanna Kaysen after committing herself to a psychiatric institution and kept there for two years, although she was quite sane. She meets other teenage patients, headed by Jolie as Lisa. “I did npot think she was insane. he was just incredibly honest, which, I guess, made her seem crazy.” Ryder spent seven years finding the book, buying it, battling to raise interest and a budget, then producing it and playing Susan. And then the Oscars goes to… Angelina!
- Winona Ryder, Black Swan, 2009. Reminiscent (in places) of the 1947 classic, The Red Shoes, 1947, here’s an erotic study of the bleeding art that ballet can be. With Winona Ryder as an already over-the-hill star, Natalie Portman (never better – hence her Oscar and 37 other best actress trophies) as a star on the rise (being pushed by ex-ballerina mother Barbara Hershey). Director Darren Aronofsky also looked at Posey for the role, plus two of his previous leading ladies: Jennifer Connelly (Requiem for a Dream, 1999) and Rachel Weisz (The Fountain, 2005).
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 7