- Julia Stiles, The Prince and Me, 2003. Tamblyn read for the farmer’s daughter falling for Danish prince Edvard – Eddie! – at a Wisconsin university. As the film opened, the real heir to the Danish throne, Kronprins Frederik wed Australian commoner Mary Donaldson – making her Kronprinsesse Mary.
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Black Christmas, 2006. Given the choice of two horror re-treads, Amber chose The Grudge 2 instead of what The Guardian critic Philip French called “a remake of a better acted and better-scripted 1974 film” – aka Silent Night, Evil Night.
- Olivia Thirlby, What Goes Up, 2008. Nine other actors were in (and out) during the much delayed and budget-slashed mess about a New York journo involved with the youth population of the small home of town of “the first teacher in space”Christa McAuliffe – when she dies in the 1986 Challenger Shuttle explosion.
- Emma Stone, Zombieland, 2008. The heroes were called Columbus and Tallhassee but Tamblyn passed on being Wichita. Stone had first been cast as the less geographic 406 in the funny road movie full of zombies. No getting around it, said critic Roger Ebert, “zombies are funny.”
- Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight, 2014. In a snit when his script wes leaked, this is the Tarantino film that nearly wasn’t. And isn’t. A movie, that is. It’s a single-set stage play with enough speechifyin’ for a UN climate congress. Never mind, Quentin loved his second Western (third if you count Reservoir Dogs). Or was it just the search for his Daisy Domergue among Tamblyn (excellent, if too young, during the public April script reading at LA’s United Artists theatre), Geena Davis, Jennifer Lawrence, Demi Moore, Katiee Sackhoff, Hilary Swank, Michelle Williams, Evan Rachel Wood, Robin Wright No, he was “crazy, gaga, eyes popping out of my head happy with this film.” Good for him. Not for us. He was punching below his weight.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 5