- Mandy Moore, Saved! 2003. As funding fell away, Anne had to leave for her next movie: Ella Enchanted. She was replaced by Mandy, whose 2005 Havoc role went Hathaway.
- Emmy Rossum, The Phantom of the Opera, 2003. Director Joel Schumacher chose Anne, actress and soprano, to be Christine Daaé but her Disney contract meant she had to make her breakthrough’s sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. Charlotte Church, Katie Holmes, Keira Knightley and Kate Winslet were also on the list for tyo replace her. Eight years later, Anne finally won another Broadway musical adaptation: Les Misérables… and the best support actress Oscar!
- Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain, 2004. Hollywood was not keen on Annie Prouix’s 1977 short story – two gay shepherds in Wyoming, get outa here! But then more directors than actors – Ang Lee, Joel Schumacher and Gus Van Sant – queued to make it. Hathaway was booked to audition as Alma (Heath Ledger’s wife) but preferred Lureen (Jake Gylllenhal’s spouse) – and won it while testing during her lunch-break from shooting The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, still wearing her royal ball-gown and wig! Ledger was persuaded by his lover, Naomi Watts to make the film – and he immediately fell for Williams Their daughter, Matilda, was born before the oremiere. Matilda’s Godfather is, but of course, Gyllenhaal.
- Clare Danes, Stardust, 2006. Jessica Alba, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Scarlett Johansson also rejected Yvaine in Neil Gaiman’s fantasy kingdom of Stormhold – inhabited by Robert De Niro, Sienna Miller, Michelle Pfeiffer. Also passing: Jessica Alba, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Scarlett Johnson.
- Katherine Heigl, Knocked Up, 2006.
- Jayne Wisener, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 2006. Almost selected as Johanna except director Tim Burton preferred a complete unknown. Three years later, he went Hathaway for his White Queen in Alice In Wonderland.
- Isla Fisher, Confessions of a Shopaholic, 2008. For once, the prerequisite outsider won as Disney chose an unknown (cheaper, sure, but hilarious) after seeing everyone from the Jessicas (Alba and Biel) to Hathaway and Lindsay Lohan (!) and ReeseWitherspoon, who rightly felt Rebecca Bloomwood was too close to her Elle Woods creation in the two Legally Blonde films. Also in the mix: Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Kirsten Dunst, Katie Holmes, Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried.
- Nicole Kidman, Nine, 2009.
- Kate Hudson, Nine, 2009.
- Mia Wasikowska, Alice In Wonderland, 2009. Long before Tim Burton returnedto Disney (he’d quit as an animator in the 80s), Hathaway was part of the Disney deal. She later decided it was too similar to her other roles (oh really!). Burton brought her back as the White Queen based, or so he said, on scrumptious UK TV cook Nigella Lawson .“There’s this glint in her eye and when you see it you go: Oh, whoa, she’s like really… nuts! I mean in a good way. Well, maybe…”
- Jessica Alba, The Killer Inside Me, 2010. As directors changed from Andrew Dominik and Marc Rocco to Michael Winterbottom, so did the favourites to play the much beaten hooker Joyce Lakeland. From Anne to Emily Blunt, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried and, finally,Jessica.
- Taylor Schilling, Atlas Shrugged: Part 1, 2010.
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Rooney Mara, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, 2010.
- Malin Akerman, Rock of Ages, 2011. The two possibles for Constance were tied to the new superhero movie biz. Hathaway was Selina opposite Batman in The Dark Knight Rises while Amy Adams was Man of Steel’s Lois Lane. And where else did Akerman come from but… Watchmen, 2008. Who noticed? All eyes were on Tom Cruise’s staggering rock star Stacee Jaxx – aka Jim Morrison meets Axel Rose,.Alec Baldwin called it a horrible movie. “I only did it to work with Tom.” Well, the audition worked – they stayed together for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, 2014.
- Carey Mulligan, The Great Gatsby, 2011. Australian director Baz Luhrmann’s hunt for Daisy in the fourth Gatsby movie since 1926 matched all the season’s other major auditions. As if the only actresses left on planet earth were: Hathaway, Jessica Alba, Abbie Cornish, Eva Green, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Keira Knightley, Blake Lively, Rachel McAdams, Natalie Portman, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde, Michelle Williams. And Mulligan… soon sobbing on a red carpet, after being handed a phone. “It was Baz: Hello Daisy!” (Except, sadly, she wasn’t).
- Eva Green, Dark Shadows, 2011. The fast rising Jennifer Lawrence and fast imploding Lindsay Lohan also auditioned for Angelique, which Green called a mix of Bette Davis and Janis Joplin. That’s some cocktail!
- Noomi Rapace, Prometheus, 2011. Among the season’s usual testees chasing Ridley Scott’s (is it?/it isn’t/oh yes, it is) Alien prequel – Gemma Arterton, Abbie Cornish, Carey Mulligan, Natalie Portman, Olivia Wilde. The initially cast Charlize Theron switched to Meredith Vickers, instead.
- Amy Adams, Man of Steel, 2011.
- Amy Adams, The Muppets, 2011. Amy won the battle for Mary, to partner Jason Segel as the Judy ’n’ Mickey of the fight to raise $10m to save the famous Muppet Theatre from the oil-hungry mitts of a dastardly villain called, of course, Richman.
- Jennifer Lawrence, The Silver Linings Playbook, 2012. “If you really want to go back and do an archeological dig,” laughed director David O Russell, “I wrote it for Vince Vaughn. And Zooey Deschanel.” Then, Jennifer dida reading on Skype with “an enormous amount of confidence that was beyond her years…toughness and a sweetness and charisma… I hadn’t seen anything like that.” Sorivals Hathaway, Elizabeth Banks, Kirsten Dunst, Rachel McAdams, Rooney Mara, Andrea Riseborough, Olivia Wilde were well and truly Skyped! JLaw won an Oscar in 2013for the film – likewise Hathaway for Les Miserables support.(She had co-hosted the Oscars the previous year.) (Badly).
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Keira Knightley, Laggies, 2013. For Annika in her sixth feature, director (and actress) Lynn Shelton also saw Rebecca Hall. She quit for the wrong reason: Transcendence, Johnny Depp’s fifth successive flop in three years.
- Keira Knightley, Laggies, 2013. For Annika in her sixth feature, director (and actress) Lynn Shelton also saw Rebecca Hall. She quit for the wrong reason: Transcendence, Johnny Depp’s fifth successive flop in three years.
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Eva Green, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, 2013. Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Salma Hayek, Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose McGowan, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams were all up for the dame in question. Ava. Variety critic Justin Chang was unmoved by the movie.. “Rare indeed is the movie that features this many bared breasts, pummeled crotches and severed noggins and still leaves you checking your watch every 10 minutes.”.
- Lily James, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, 2014. Natalie Portman was set for the revisionist Elizabeth Bennet until delays clashed with her schedule. Portman remained on board as one of seven producers while Hathaway, Lily Collins, Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, Blake Lively, Rooney Mara, Emma Stone and Mia Wasikowska were rung up Jane Austen flagpoles. But the winner was Downton Abbey’s Lady Rose and the screen’s latest Cinderella!
- Dakota Johnson, Black Mass, 2014. Lindsey Cyr was the doting lover of the infamous Whitey Bulger, the South Boston crime boss with a US Senator brother – and FBI help in avoiding jail and tackling the Italian Mafia muscling in on his territory. Also up for Lindsey in the damn near black-comedy were Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, Felicity Jones, Anna Kendrick, the too busy Jennifer Lawrence, Blake Lively and Margot Robbie.
- Alicia Vikander, Tomb Raider, 2017. Lara Croft is the girls’ James Bond. Many tried to succeed Angelina Jolie from her 2000 version – she won it from 20 candidates. Two dozen lost to the Swedish Vikander, on a roll with her 2016 Danish Girl Oscar and Ex Machinarobot…The Franchise Brigade was represented by two from the Percy Jackson flicks (Alexandra Daddario, Rosario Dawson), two Terminators (Emilia Clarke, Summer Glau), two Underworlders (Kate Beckinsale, Rhona Mitra) and three Twilighters (Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed and Kristen Stewart who simply refused). Plus 007’s Gemma Arterton, Harry Potter’s Emma Watson, Marvel’s Wanda Maximioff (Elizabeth Olsen), Star Wars’Daisy Ridley, Transformers’ Megan Fox, TRON’s Olivia Wilde, X Men’s Jennifer Lawrence, Other also-rans were: Jessica Biel (as perfect as Dawson), Emily Blunt, Emily Browning, Cara Delevingne (Vikander’s co-star in Tulip Fever ,2017), Nina Dobrev, Anne Hathaway, Sienna Miller (too mild, surely), Saoirse Ronan and Moon’s Kaya Scodelario.
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Lady Gaga, House of Gucci, 2021. Ridley Scott’s Succession, Italian Style, had been on many shelves over the years. In one nearly done deal, Maurizio Gucci and his wife, Patrizia Reggiani, were set for Leonardo DiCaprio and Angelina Jolie. Other potentials Patrizias (who ordered his murder) were Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Margot Robbie, plus two of Scott’s previous leading ladies: Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz. But Gaga had the winning improvisation when making the sign of the cross, saying: “Father, Son and House of Gucci.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 26