- Bridget Fonda, Scandal, 1989. “I didn’t really want Emily Lloyd, to be honest,” UK director Michael Caton Jones told me about making the film of the Christine Keeler affair. “She was named (credits non-contractual!) when they were selling the film. Suddenly, after Wish You Were Here [1987], America threw money at her. That didn’t upset me. I’d spoken to Emily but didn’t know whether she was right or not as Mandy Rice Davis. I was very, very pleased with Bridget – she brought a complete contrast to it.”
- Winona Ryder, Mermaids, 1990. “One minute I was told I was playing the lead role,” recalled Lloyd. “That all changed when I met Cher. She was such a diva. She just waltzed in… stared and stared at me through her ridiculous shades for ages and then finally screeched: You don’t look genetically like me.’ I looked at her and said: ‘Well you don’t look genetically like you.” Enter (rapidly, stage left) Winona. Meanwhile, Emily went to court, suing Orion Pictures and Mermaid Productions or $5m.. On July 30, 1991, the second day of trial, she received $435,000 and 2.5% of the film’s net profits. And the end of her career.
- Juliette Lewis, Husbands and Wives, 1991. With his Chaplinesque eye for young flesh, Woody Allen settled upon the Brit from Wish You Were Here, 1986, to be the Rain on his parade – and body – while he taught creative writing at Columbia U. After the usual first week, she was gone substituted by Lewis – sole delight of Martin Scorsese’s clunky Cape Fear re-tread.
- Lori Petty, Tank Girl, 1994. “We were well, well into prep with her,” director Rachel Talalay told the Den of Geek website, “and then she wouldn’t shave her head. To me it was just so simple: if you can’t shave your head, you can’t be Tank Girl. If you can’t get to that point… We tried bald-caps, wig things; they just looked crappy. Rehearsals went well. But I felt like we’d hit a wall. And it was disturbing her so much. So we just agreed that it was better to part company than to get to the point where she just couldn’t function…. Lori was completely gutsy and un-frightened of whatever we asked her to do.” Emily made a further 18 screen roles despite battling her Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, mild schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder and chronic insomnia. “I’m fighting this. I want to get better, I want to work again. I do believe we are architects of our destinies, but with me somewhere along the line something came loose.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 4