Renée Zellweger

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

  1. Laura Dern, Jurassic Park, 1992.
  2. Maria Pitillo, Godzilla, 1997.    Pitillo won the Golden Raspberry award as the Worst Support Actress. A star was not born.  But if Audrey Timmonds had been played by: Connelly, Sarah Jessica Parker (she wed the unlikely hero, Matthew Broderick, 19 days into the shoot), Parker Posey, Winona Ryder or Renée Zellweger?  No, the film just stank.
  3. Kelly Preston, Jack Frost, 1998. Zellweger was also see for the wife  of Michael Keaton’s jazz musician, whodies and comes back, as Frosty The Snowman,  to help out his sad son. As designed by  Jim Henson an ILM, Frosty “the most repulsive single creature in the history of special effects,” said Chicago critic Roger Ebert, “and I am not forgetting the Chucky doll or the desert intestine from Star Wars.”
  4. Helena Bonham Carter, The Flight Club, 1998. Director David Fincher looked everywhere for his Marla Singer. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Winona Ryder, Kyra Sedgewick, Renee Zellweger.  Plus two great Brits: supermodel Vanessa Angel (71 screen roles since 1985), and Anna Friel. After seeing her Wings of the Dove, Fincher wanted HBC, the suits wanted the better known Reese Witherspoon, and Reese wanted out – ‘too dark!” Courtney Love claimed the film’s star, Brad Pitt, had her dropped because she wouldn’t let him play her late husband in a Kurt Cobain biopic.  Team Pitt said “You cannot be fired for a job you didn’t get..” And, anyway, directors select actors, not actors…  although it has to be said that  Edward Norton vetoed any idea of New Jersey comic Janeane Garofalo as she “didn’t have the chops to do it.” HBC modelled Marla on the final years of Judy Garland.  Fincher even called her Judy on-set get her back in her mindset.
  5. Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge!, 1999.   “Ah,” said Courtney Love.  “The one that got away,… which I am still not completely over.”  Particularly after director Baz Luhrmnann told her she was “a great representation of tragedy.”  Then again, Baz got what he wanted. – permissions to use to use Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit in the opening. Love agreed, although rarely allowing movie use of her late husband Kurt Cobain’s music. Nicole’s other rivals for Satine had been Drew Barrymore, Sophie Ellis-Baxter, Natalie Mendoza, Sharleen Spiten Hilary Swank,  Kate Winslet, Renee Zellweger, and – opposite Heath Ledger – Catherine Zeta-Jones.“They didn’t have to be big singers,”  Baz explained,  “but they had to be able to move you emotionally. Basically, Ewan [McGregor] and Nicole were the best for the job. That’s the bottom line of it.”
  6. Lucy Liu, Charlie’s Angels, 2000.  Tele-tycoon Aaron Spelling decided to put Aaron’s angels on the big screen  (to help generate a new series on the small). His first new  trio: MTV discovery Jenny McCarthy, ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and 007’s Hong Kong martial arts superstar. Then, Drew Barrymore showed him how to do it. with the  third  of her numerous (canny) productions. Just look at the 25 girls she shuffled to find the right  angel Alex Munday: Aaliyah (“too young”), Asia Argento, Halle Berry, Lara Flynn Boyle, Helena Bonham Carter, Penélope Cruz, Kristin Davis, Jodie Foster, Angie Harmon (stuck on Law & Order),  Salma Hayek, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nia Long, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tiffani Thiessen, Uma Thurman, Liv Tyler, , Kate Winslet, Reese Witherspoon, Robin Wright, Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones… And two singers: Lauryn Hill and another  Spice Girl: Victoria Beckham.
  7. Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge, 2001.    Renée wasn’t svelte enough until 2007. “At one point all of us are up for the same role. But no one should have been on that swing but Nic.” Director Baz Luhrmann explained about his  needs: “They didn’t have to be big singers, but they had to be able to move you emotionally. Basically, Ewan [McGregor] and Nicole were the best for the job. That’s the bottom line of it.” Kidman and Zellweger later co-starred in Cold Mountain, 2003. 
  8. Angelina Jolie, Life or Something Like It, 2001.     When Fox first decided to back the rom-com in 1998, the journo was Zellweger. Fox scratched its corporate head and ordered a bigger name. Exit: Renée and (to the studio’s surprise) her director, Joel Schumacher. Jolie couldn’t save it. No one could. It was set in TVland – written by people who knew less than the average viewer about TVland.
  9. Drew Barrymore, Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, 2002.      Gwyneth Paltrow was also considered by a neophyte director, name of … George Clooney.
  10. Jenna Elfman, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, 2002.   “A pretty grim experience all around –  longest year and a half of my life.”  Director Joe Dante refusing to say anymore about how his planned tribute to his late friend, toon ikon Chuck Jones, ended up a mess. Then again, when the suits approve Elfman over Renée, Jennifer Aniston, Shannon Elizabeth, Sally Field and Rene Russo as Kate, know you’re in trouble.
  11. Jennifer Garner, 13 Going On 30, 2003.      Suddenly, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hilary Swank and Renée had to deal with a fresh rival for the 13-year-old in a 30-year-old body. Garner was then better known as action-spy Sydney Bristow in Alias, TV, 2001-2005.

  12. Nicole Kidman, Bewitched, 2004.    
    For inexplicable reasons, Hollywood kept trying to make a movie out of the  1968-1972 ABC sitcom about a good-looking witch and a Dagwood husband.  In 1993, Penny Marshall was going to direct Meryl Streep as Samantha, then passed the reins to Ted Bissell and he died in 1996 when his Richard Curtis script was planned as Melanie Griffths’ comeback.  Nora Ephron co-wrote and directed this lumbering version about an ego-driven actor trying to save his career with a Bewitched re-hash, but with the emphasis on him (of course) as Darrin, rather than the unknown he chose for Samatha because she can wiggle her nose…  (You didn’t need a nose to know it stank).  Over the years, 37 other ladies were on the Samantha wish-list. Take a deep breath… Kate Beckinsale, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Connelly, Cameron Diaz, Heather Graham, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, Julianne Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Brooke Shields, Charlize Theron, Naomi Watts, Renee Zellweger.  Plus seven Oscar-winners:  Kim Basinger, Tatum O’Neal, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon… twoFriends: Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow…eleven other TV stars: Christina Applegate, Patricia Arquette, Kristin Davis, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Helen Hunt, Jenny McCarthy, Alyssa Milano, Brittany Murphy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alicia Silverstone… even  Drew Barrymore and Uma Thurman, who had already re-kindled Charlie’s Angels and The Avengers.

  13. Jessica Alba, Fantastic Four, 2004.      Renee was up for Susan Storm, aka Invisible Woman. Elizabeth Banks, Kate Bosworth, Scarlett Johansson, Ali Larter, Rachel  McAdams, Meg Ryan, KaDee Strickland, Renee Zellweger were also lucky to lose this mess – second of four flop versions of the comic. One day, Marvel will doubtless regain all rights and fit the Four into its triumphant Cinematic Universe.
  14. Katherine Heigl, Knocked Up, 2006.
  15. Jessica Alba, The Eye, 2007.       First up for Sydney Welles in the re-make of the Jian Gui by Hong Kong’s Pang brothers’ 2002 hit.
  16. Penelope Cruz, Nine, 2009.
  17. Juliette Lewis, August: Osage County, 2012.    Karen was aimed at   Zellweger or Andrea Riseborough.  The Brit won but her agenda didn’t agree. Likewise, Renee’s  and  Juliette joined the star-packed account of the Weston brood: Chris Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ewan McGregor, Julia Roberts, Sam Shepard, Meryl Streep.
  18. Emily Blunt, Mary Poppins Returns, 2017.   When Walt Disney made the first Poppins, he mused over Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury or Mary Martin for Mary but by 1963, he had only one star in mind. Julie Andrews.  For this reboot, Disney suits went through no less than 37 contenders… Two Desperate Housewives:Kristin Davis, Teri Hatcher. Two Friends:Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow. Two Brat Packers: Molly Ringwald, Winona Ryder.  Two of the three authors of The Penis Song: Christina Aplegate, Cameron Diaz. Three sirens: Kim Basinger, Heather Graham Uma Thurman. Four ex-child stars: Drew Barrymore, Alyssa Milano, Tatum O’Neal, Brooke Shields. Ten Oscar-winners: Sandra Bullock, Helen Hunt, Angelina Jolie, Julianne Moore, Tatum O‘Neal, Julia Roberts, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, RenéeZellweger. Plus: Patricia Arquette, Melanie Griffith, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Peiffer, Meg Ryan, Alicia Silverstone, Naomi Watts. But just two Brits: Kate Beckinsale  – and the winning Emily.
  19. Juliette Lewis, August: Osage County, 2012.  Oklahoma playwright (and actor) Tracy Letts wanted the Steppenwolf cast of his 2008 Pulitzer Prize winning play to be in the film.  He was downright furious  when Brits  (plus an Aussie) were seen for the dysfunctional Westons. “They must be all-Americans!” Therefore, poor Andrea was dropped and Juliette beat Renée ZelJlweger to the role of Karen.

 

 

 

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  18