- Scarlett Johansson, We Bought A Zoo, 2010. Mary Elizabeth (a distant cousin of Ava Gardner), Amy Adams and Rachel McAdams were also in the Cameron Crowe mix for the wife of Matt Damon… running a UK zoo. Then, Scarlett won a top role – finally! – after losing out in a hectic casting season… The Great Gatsby, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Gravity, Pride, Prejudice and Zombies.
- Emma Stone, The Amazing Spider-Man, 2010.
- Zoe Kazan, What if, 2010. Can guys ‘n’ girls be just… friends? Things changed between the drawing board and the set. Such as cousins MEW and Casey Affleck and turning into Kazan and Adam Driver. In his first non-Harry appearence, Daniel Radcliffe outshone them all. Also seen for Chantry were Rose Byrne, Rebecca Hall and Deborah Ann Woll.
- Cobie Smulders, The Avengers, 2011. Morena Baccarin, Lindsay Lohan and Cloverfield’s Jessica Lucas were also seen for SHIELD Agent Hill Disney’s first summit meeting of the Marvel superheroes. No matter, later that year, the ubiquitous MEW won The Thing prequel and married Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
- Amy Adams, Man of Steel, 2011.
- Rose Byrne, The Place Beyond The Pines, 2011. Gerwig’s diary was suddenly packed. Winstead and Ginnifer Goodwin also auditioned the Ryan Gosling bank-robbery caper.
- Olga Kurylenko, Oblivion, 2012. For once, Disney realised it knew diddly-squat about science fiction and let director Joseph Kosinski and his (expensive) scenario go. Well, he made made their Tron: Legacy flopperoo... Also losing Julia were: Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara, Brit Marling, Noomi Rapace. Olivia Wilde).
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Scarlett Johansson, Hitchcock, 2012. Thirty-two years after his death, Alfred Hitchcock’s back in business! With two films headlined by UK actors (Anthony Hopkins, Toby Jones) in bad impressions and fat suits. This is the first before the cameras – Hopkins making Psycho. And telling Scarlett’s Janet Leigh: “You can call me Hitch. Hold the cock.” As Janet Leigh was just two years older than the dowdier Vera Miles (played by Jessica Biel), most actresses were up for either role…
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Jessica Biel, Hitchcock, 2012. …the candidates included Dianna Agron, Camilla Belle, Abbie Cornish, Emilie de Ravin, Natalie Dormer, Sarah Gadon, Ashley Greene, Kate Mara, Brit Marling, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chloe Sevigny, Mary Elizabeth Winstead., Reese Witherspoon, Evan Rachel Wood… plus Jessica Biel (chosen for Vera Miles) and January Jones, who was also up for the role of Tippi Hedren in the Hitch-making-The Birds TV drama, The Girl, seen first in October 2012. (Timothy Spall was booked as her Hitchcock, finally portrayed by Toby Jones opposite Sienna Miller).
- Zoe Kazan, The F Word, 2012. Rose Byrne, Rebecca Hall and Deborah Ann Woll were also up for the Canadian friendship v romance movie inherited by Daniel Radcliffe from Casey Affleck.
- Emily VanCamp, Captain America:The Winter Soldier, 2013. For Captain Steve Rogers’ sequel, announced one yearbefore the first film came out, Agent 13 was also aimed at: Alison Brie, Emilia Clarke, Jessica Brown Findlay, Felicity Jones, Anna Kendrick, Elizabeth Olsen, Teresa Palmer and Imogen Poots. (Olsen was Wanda Maximoff, aka, Scarlet Witch, in a mid-credits scene to set up Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2014).
- Rose Byrne, This Is Where I Leave You, 2013. Like directors, the actresses kept changing. Only Kathryn Hahn survived the shuffling… to discover if there’s anything worse than your father dying, it’s going home for the funeral – a whole week with an over-sharing mother, siblings, spouses, exes and assorted wannabes.
- Evangeline Lilly, Ant-Man, 2014. The micro-superhero had been rolling around Hollywood ever since New World’s 1988 plan was tossed because Disney was into Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. Well, nowDisney was Marvel and had Lilly set for Hope van Dyne, daughter of the first Ant-Man (Michael Douglas, no less), and eventually due (as per the post-credits teaser) to be Wasp Woman. Having been picked by (the first director Edgar Wright, Lilly considered quitting when he was fired (for being Edgar Wright!).” Until meeting his successor Peyton Reed and examining the new scenario. “Marvel had just pulled the script into their world… and what Edgar was creating was much more in the Edgar Wright camp. Very different. If [Marvel] had created Edgar’s incredible vision – which would have been, like, classic comic book – it would have been such a riot to film [and] so much fun to watch. [But] it wouldn’t have fit in the Marvel Universe.”
- Margot Robbie, Suicide Squad,2015. Warners first offered DC’s Harley Quinn to Emma Roberts – more keen on heading TV’s Scream Queens. Big mistake. Also up for three hours a day in make-up for Quinn: MEW, Alison Brie, Emily Browning, Lily Collins, Zooey Deschanel, Rooney Mara, Sara Paxton, Imogen Poots, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Thirlby, Emma Watson, Olivia Wilde, Evan Rachel Wood.“There’s always two characters: Harleen Quinzel and Harley Quinn,” explained Robbie. “Where Harleen takes over, she can be rational; then Harley takes over, and that’s the more erratic.She loves causing mayhem and destruction. She’s incredibly devoted to the Joker. They have a dysfunctional relationship, but she loves him anyway. She used to be a gymnast – that’s her skill set when fighting.”
- Gal Gadot, Justice League, 2017. For ten years, Warner Bros exercised extreme cowardice, until Marvel showed them how to make superhero summits with Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. In October 2007, Mad Max’s dad, George Miller, had found his Bat/Supermans, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aqua Man, Green Lantern, even the Martian Manhunter J’onn J’onzz, after auditioning about 40 youngsters in synch for a franchise… such as MEW for WW. Four months later, everything was “tabled.” Dumped! By 2010, Miller had gone and who could blame him. Besides, he wanted to go to the Max again.
- Zazie Beetz, Deadpool 2, 2017. A hunt for a new director and for the girl known as Domino was happening sumultaneously. David Leitch won the chair (after his Deadpool short, No Good Deed) and the Berlin-born trilingual American stunner known as Zazie won the girl. From: MEW, Sofia Boutella (of Star Trek Beyond), Lizzy Caplan, Canadian Mackenzie Davis, The Knick’s Eve Hewson, fhe Dutch Sylvia Hoeks (who made Blade Runner 2049, instead), Sienna Miller, Kansas City singer Janelle Monáe, Kelly Baywatch Rohrbach, Ruby Rose (from Orange Is The New Black), Kerry Washington.. Plus Spectre’s Bond Girls: Dutch Sylvia Hoeks and Mexican Stephanie Sigman.Beetz was so great, she deserved her own movie… and not just joining the guys again in X Force.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 16