- Angelina Jolie, Hackers, 1995. Had to back out as she was under contract to Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. Her replacement wed her co-star Jonny Lee Miller. For three years.
- Keri Russell, Felicity, TV, 1998- 2002. The Irish-German “Hi guhl” tested to be Felicity Porterbefore creator-producer JJ Abrams fell heavily forKeri Russell.
- Shiri Appleby, Rosewall, TV, 1999-2002. A triple audition. Heigl tested for all three female leads. And finally relocated to the infamous New Mexico town of Roswell as Isabel – also the name of her character in Wuthering Heights, TV, 2003. And her breakthrough role in Grey’s Anatomy, 2005-09, was another – Dr Isobel-with-an-O Stevens.
- Malandra Delfino, Roswell, TV, 1999-2002. And Maria Deluca went to Delfino.
- Reese Witherspoon, Legally Blonde, 2000. Heigl, Christina Applegate, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Milla Jovovich, Gwyneth Paltrow and Charlize Theron all tried to win Elle Woods in the far from official sequel to Clueless,1994. At one point, Elle said that she gew up in Bel Air, across the street from TV producer icon, Aaron Spelling – his daughter, Tori, was also up for Elle.
- Kate Hudson, Almost Famous, 2000. Looking for his Penny Lane groupie in his semi-autobiographical look back to his Rolling Stone reporter daze, auteur Cameron Crowe saw 48 of LA’s bright young things… Christina Applegate, Selma Blair, Lara Flynn Boyle, Neve Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Claire Danes, Cameron Diaz, Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jenna Elfman, Jennie Garth, Maggie Gyllenhal, Alyson Hannigan, Angie Harmon, Anne Heche, Katherine Heigl, Jordan Ladd, Kimberly McCullough (busier as a TV director these days, High School Musical: The Musical – The Series, etc), Rose McGowan, Bridget Moynahan, Brittany Murphy, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laura Prepon, Lindsay Price, Christina Ricci, Rebecca Romijn, Winona Ryder, Chloë Sevigny, Marley Shelton, Tori Spelling, Mena Suvari, Uma Thurman, Liv Tyler, Lark Voorhies. Plus the English Saffron Burrows, Anna Friel, Thandiwe Newton and Rachel Weisz, Madrid’s Penélope Cruz, the French Charlotte Gainsbourg, Canada’s Natasha Henstridge, Ukrainian Milla Jovovich, Scottish Kelly Macdonald, Israeli Natalie Portman, German Franka Potente, Australian Peta Wilson and Welsh Catherine Zeta-Jones. And the winner, Canada’s Sarah Polley, simply split. (Silly girl). Crowe then chose Kate (previously booked for Anita) because “she seemed more like a free spirit.” But, but, but… Chloë was the freest spirit in all Hollywood. As she proved two years later in The Brown Bunny… in a way the others would never have dared.
- Jennifer Garner, Alias, TV, 2001-2006. Now a double audition. To be Sydney Bristow….
- Melissa George, Alias, TV, 2001-2006. … or Lauren Reed. Or neither.
- Kate Hudson, The Killer Inside Me, 2010. As directors changed from Andrew Dominik and Marc Rocco to Michael Winterbottom, so did the favourites to play Amy Stanton, girlfriend of the mild-spoken, intellectual psychopath. From Katherine to Sienna Miller, Natalie Portman, Michelle Williamsand, finally, Kate.
- Katie Holmes, Logan Lucky, 2016. For his first movie since retiring wigth Behind the Candelabra,2013, director Steven Soderberg had to change Bobby Jo Chapman in his “anti-glam version of an Ocean’s movie”- when Heigl proved pregnant with her son, Joshua Bishop Kelley.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 10