- Renee Zellweger, Jerry Maguire, 1995. “I’ve had three lovers in the past four years, and they all ran a distant second to a good book and a warm bath.” Once Tom Hanks passed and Tom Cruise breathed a sigh of relief, auteurCameron Crowe started searching for The Girl: Dorothy Boyd. Patricia Arquette, Cameron Diaz, Bridget Fonda, Janeane Garofalo, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez, Courtney Love, Parker Posey, Molly Ringwald, Winona Ryder, Mira Sorvino, Marisa Tomei, Uma Thurman, even Zellweger, came and went. Recommended by Edward Burns (one of the Jerry possibles), Britton made a good test with Cruise and she was Dorothy – depending on Zellweger’s call back meeting with him. “You had me at Hello…”“We have video of that because I was filming,” Crowe told Mike Fleming Jr for Deadline Hollywood’s 20-years-later feature in 2017, “and you just see something happen when Tom sees her. He lights up … As Jerry discovers Dorothy, we discover Renée. That was a very personal thing for me and the way I feel about movies. Renée fit that piece of the puzzle perfectly.” Exactly the way Shirley MacLaine slid into his idol Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, 1959.
- Carrie-Ann Moss, Knife Fight, 2011. Another cruel lesson for Connie… Changes can happen between “It s a deal” and shooting. Connie, Rebecca Mader and Titus Welliver suddenly became Moss, Brooke Newton and Richard Schiff.
- Kerry Washington, Scandal, TV, 2012-2018. The ABC suits’ choices were all white. “It’s just perfect for Connie Britton!” (from The West Wing, etc). “It would be,” said creator Shonda Rhimes, “except Olivia Pope is black.” She was inspired by Washington fixer Judy Smith; Monica Lewinsky was among her clients. Boston Legal’s Washington and Taraji P Henson, Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls), Jill Scott (The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency) and Gabrielle Union (Bad Boys II) were wheeled in for a rare black headliner. That was Kerry as soon as casting director Linda Lowy introduced her to Rhimes. Then, as Hollywood Reporter’s Lesley Godlberg revealed, the suits fretted about Pope’s affair with President Tony Goldwyn. Rhimes put ‘em straight. “This woman is going to have sex with the president. In the Oval Office. On the desk. So if everyone can’t get behind that, then we shouldn’t make this show.” And even Kerry said: “Great role for Connie Britton!”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 3