- Alicia Silverstone, Clueless, 1994. Fountain Valley’s Russell, Zooey Deschanel, Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Keri Russell, Tiffani Thiessen, Reese Witherspoon and Alicia Witt were up for teen queen Cher in director Amy Heckerling’s Beverly Hills flip-side of her Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Cher says she and best pal Dionne “were both named after great singers of the past that now do infomercials.” Said Chicago critic Roger Ebert: “A smart and funny movie, and the characters are in on the joke.”
- Kelly Rutherford, Scream 3, 2000. Lost Christine to a Vegas-born Vegas dancer who said (of course, she did): “You can take the girl out of Vegas, but you can’t take Vegas out of the girl.” Also in the mix were: Russell, Charisma Carpenter, Jennifer Connelly, Shannen Doherty, Kate Hudson, Alyssa Milano, Denise Richards, Rachel True, Liv Tyler and Kate Winslet.
- Kate Bosworth, Superman Returns, 2006.
- Jennifer Morrison, Star Trek, 2008. Rebooter-in-chief JJ Abrams called up his TV Felicity, 1998-2002, to read for Winona Kirk, mother of James Tiberius Kirk and George Samuel Kirk.
- Hayden Panettiere, Alpha and Omega,2009. Change of voices for the young lovers, a pair of wolves called Humphrey and Kate (after Bogart and Hepburn in The African Queen, though this more like Blue Lagoon). Justin Long was Humph, instead of Jason Segel. Unfortunately, USA Today crtitic Scott Bowles called it “one of those rarities in the modern era of Hollywood animation: bad.”
- Blake Lively, Green Lantern, 2010. As directors changed from Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Zack Snyder and Greg Berlanti (the film’s producer and co-scenarist) to, ultimately, 007’s Martin Campbell, so did the candidates for Lantern’s light, his girl Carol Ferris, vp of Ferris Aircraft… Keri, Jennifer Garner, Eva Green, Diane Kruger. Carol, who eventually becomes the villainous Star Sapphire, was originally based – by John Broome and Gil Kane in 1959 – on Elizabeth Taylor.
- Abbie Cornish, RoboCop, 2013. Jessica Alba, Kata Mara also auditioned and Rebecca Hall passed on being the Mrs Robo-reboot who, as Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers put it, intuits that her husband’s heart is still in the right place.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 6