- Kirsten Dunst, Interview With The Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, 1994.
- Lauren German, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2003. Seen about playing the teenage hitch-hiker committing suicide at the start of this unnecessary – indeed, “contemptible, vile, ugly and brutal,” said Chicago critic Roger Ebert – re-make of the 1974 chiller.
- Lindsay Lohan, Mean Girls, 2003. ERW refused “the nice girl” Cady Heron as shooting chased with her playing the lead of Pretty Persuasion… with a slightlty similar plot of, well, beware of high school girls. Mean is the first movie script by Tina Fey, based on the lessons of Rosalind Wiseman’s non-fiction hit (wait for it): Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence.
- Hilary Duff, Raise Your Voice, 2004. Everything changed – every thing!The director (James Hayman into Sean McNamara), the performing arts school kids (Wood and Jonathan Jackson into Duff and Oliver James), Mom Annie Potts into Rita Wilson,New York into LA and… right, it was first titled Christian Music Project.
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Kirsten Dunst,Elizabethtown, 2004. Ten years on and she lost again to Dunst… Auteur Cameron Crowe’s second misstep in six films (after Vanilla Sky, 2001)was never finding a Tom Cruise-Renée Zellweger Mk II. Orlando Bloom was committed to Kingdom of Heavenand Dunst was into The Village. Crowe looked at other guys for Drew (Chris Evans, James Franco, Colin Hanks, etc) – and Claires like ERW (too young), Jessica Biel and Scarlett Johansson. Bloom and Dunst had zero chemistry, while Evans and Biel, his then lover, would have burnt up the screen. Chicago critic Rogert Ebert called Claire “the kind of person who would alphabetise alphabet soup.”
- Camille Bell, When A Stranger Calls, 2005. ERW fled from Jill in the re-hash of the 1979 cult item (Halloween revisisted!).So, indeed, did Bell until director Simon West went into his less-horror-more-psychological-thriller speech. Why didn’t he use that on ERW. Because he preferred Bells’s “darker look.” In the Philippinnes, the film was called… Bell Ringer!
- Rachel Bilson, Jumper, 2007. One Rachel for another… New York director Doug Liman first wanted ERW for Millie in his teleportation thriller. She passed to Teeresa Palmer who started filming and was then replaced by Bilson… who got engaged to co-star Hayden Christensen in an on-off affair over ten years. Sounds like they’ve got a movie there.
- Emma Stone, Zombieland, 2008. The heroes were called Columbus and Tallhassee but ERW passed on being Wichita. Stone had first been cast as the less geographic 406 in the funny road movie full of zombies. But there was no getting around it, said critic Roger Ebert, “zombies are funny.”
- Ellen Page, Inception, 2009. She was UK director Christopher Nolan’s first choice, yet she turned him – and Ariadne – down. The surprised Nolan then considered Emily Blunt, Rachel McAdams, Carey Mulligan,Emma Roberts, Jessy Schram and Taylor Swift before settling on a fifth scar nominee for the thriller… within the architecture of the mind.
- Jena Malone, Sucker Punch, 2010. Her True Blood series schedules (or the script?) stopped her being Rocket, mental asylum inmate, dancer and hooker… (It’s that kinda movie). Auteur Zack Synder’s “swords-and-corsets fantasy” (Washington Post) follows Emily Browning’s Baby Doll in three differing worlds , er, levels of consciousness. Yeah, that kinda movie. No matter. CUT to seven years later and Wood’s star is totally reborn as Dolores Abernathy in the HBO take on Westworld.
- Rooney Mara, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, 2010.
- Kristen Stewart, The Runaways, 2010. Considered for Joan Jett but…
- Joanna Vanderham, What Maisie Knew, 2011. Change of the Tribeca nanny (and indeed mistress) for Steve Coogan in a clever updating of Henry James’ novel highlighting the effects of divorce on children – written in 1897!
- Samantha Barks, Les Misérables, 2012. Many others were also called – Lucy Hale, Scarlett Johansson, Lea Michele, Hayden Panettiere, Taylor Swift and Emma Watson (also up for Cosette) – before producer Cameron Mackintosh went on the Manchester stage of her Oliver! gig to announce Samantha had won the roleof Eponine. “Most incredible moment of my life!!!!”
- 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….
- Jessica Biel, Hitchcock, 2012. .. .the candidates included Dianna Agron, Camilla Belle, Abby 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 Bie (chosen for Vera Miiles) 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).
- Emily Browning, Plush, 2012. ERW was set as Hayley, a married singer-songwriter involved with bisexual guitarist Zavier Samuel. Not sure anyone noticed the difference…
- Leighton Meester, Life Partners, 2013. Battle of the bulges… Kristen Bell was attached to Sasha when she proved pregnant. ERW took over and – preggers, as well!
- Lily Collins, Rules Don’t Apply, 2014. ERW, Lily Collins and Rooney Mara turned down the new kid in the mid-50s Hollwyood. Jones was snapped up for the first stand-alone Star Wars film, Rogue One– while her potential co-star in director Warren Beatty’s Howard Hughes movie that was not a Howard Hughes movie but a love story treatise on American sexual puritanism. (Oh, really!?) Beatty also said the film is Titanic – well, it certainly sank – and Hughes was the iceberg! What we have here is a cinematic Spruce Goose. It takes off but never really flies. By the time it finally opened in 2016, ERW was ruling HBO in the astonishing WestWorld series.
- 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: ERW, Alison Brie, Emily Browning, Lily Collins, Zooey Deschanel, Rooney Mara, Sara Paxton, Imogen Poots, Amanda Seyfried. Olivia Thirlby, Emma Watson, Olivia Wilde, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, “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: 19