- Emma Stone,The Amazing Spider-Man, 2010.
- Rooney Mara, Side Effects, 2012. “My last film,” said Steven Soderbergh. Hardly surprising when he wasn’t allowed to select his own leading lady! Despite his track record, his producers refused his Blake Lively choice – like Lindsay Lohan before her. He searched on through Poots, Emily Blunt, Alice Eve, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde and Michelle Williams before the suits agreed on Rooney. She quit Zero Dark Thirty, 2011, to take over as Emily. Happily, Soderbergh returned to directing for the cinema with Logan Lucky, 2017.
- Emily Van Camp, Captain America:The Winter Soldier, 2013. For Captain Steve Rogers’ sequel, announced one year before 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, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. (Olsen was Wanda Maximoff, aka, Scarlet Witch, in a mid-credits scene to set up Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2014).
- Alicia Vikander, The Seventh Son, 2013. When Jennifer Lawrence proved too busy, Russian director Sergey Bodrov tested Poots, Dianna Agron and Felicity Jones. But the gorgeous Swede won.
- Elizabeth Olsen, Godzilla, 2013. Happy 60th Godz’! Imogen, Emilia Clarke, Hilary Duff, Jennifer Lawrence, Aly Michalka, Margot Robbie, Emmy Rossum were up for Elle Brody ((a nod to Roy Scheider’s Jaws sheriff?). But UK director Gareth Edwards said he got all his first choices for his second feature. It won him his third, the superb Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, 2015.
- Dakota Johnson, Fifty Shades of Grey, 2013. Social networks were full of kinky ideas for the porn novel’s BDSM heroine, Anastasia Steele – from Jennifer Lawrence to Emma Watson. Few suggestions led to talks, auditions or tests. Emily Browning, Lucy Hale, Felicity Jones, Elisabeth Olsen, Margot Robbie, Alicia Vikander, London model Suki Waterhouse, Shailene Woodley. They were all lucky to escape the turgid, totally un-erotic enterprise. Only 14 minutes and 17 seconds of sex, no orgasms – and pubes added digitally to actors’ genital patches!
- Lily James, Cinderella, 2014. On the pumpkin list for Disney’s live-action version were Poots, Bella Heathcote, Margot Robbie (surely too much for one prince!), Saoirse Ronan, Alicia Vikander, Emma Watson, Gabrielle Wilde. (Amanda Seyfried’s previous role obviously counted against her at Disney – Linda Lovelace!). And the slipper went to… Lily James, Downton Abbey’s bright young Lady Rose and Natasha Rostova in the BBC’s 2016 War and Peace. And Juliet opposite her Prince Charming, Richard Madden, as her Romeo.
- 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: Poots, Alison Brie, Emily Browning, Lily Collins, Zooey Deschanel, Rooney Mara, Sara Paxton, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Thirlby, Emma Watson, Olivia Wilde, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 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.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 8