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Meg Ryan, Innerspace, 1986. The very title comes from dialogue in the film that inspired this spoof: Fantastic Voyage, 1965. Hero Dennis Quaid is miniaturised into a capsule and injected into Martin Short’s butt. (Never that funny). For the secondary rôle of Quaid‘s girl, 22 actresses were seen, auditioned and/or tested: Karen Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Beverly d’Angelo, Jodie Foster, Linda Hamilton, Anjelica Huston, Amy Irving (being wed to exec producer Steven Spielberg didn’t help!), Amy Madigan, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald Julia Roberts, Rene Russo, Ally Sheedy, Elisabeth Shue, Madeleine Stowe, Sigourney Weaver, Claudia Wells, Sean Young. And, of course, Meg – and Quaid married her during 1991-2001.
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Valeria Golina, Rain Man, 1988. Among the many Susannas interviewed by director Barry Levinson.
- Sofia Coppola, The Godfather: Part III, 1989.
- Jodie Foster, The Silence of the Lambs, 1989.
- Meg Tilly, The Two Jakes, 1990. Part of the ’85 line-up… Jack Nicholson and Chinatown scenarist Robert Towne hadtalked up a sequel for 13 years. ButTwo Jakes became a battle of Two Bobs as Towne found Robert Evans (the original producer) just stank as Jake II. Evans hadn’t acted since 1959. Jack stuck by the wrong pal and everything was shuttered until Nicholson directed… a flop.
- Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct, 1991.
- Mercedes Ruehl, The Fisher King, 1991. One of three great scripts she saw that year. “Michelle [Pfeiffer] and a couple of other people see them before I do, OK?” She got the third: Closet Land, a two-hander with Alan Rickman.
- Holly Hunter, The Piano, Australia-France-New Zealand, 1992. Kiwio director Jane Campion shuffled several actresses for her Ada: Stowe, Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert, Angelica Huston, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sigourney Weaver and Sean Young. “Americans are more pugnacious about auditioning,” said Huppert. “I regret not fighting more for the part.” (She simply posed for some period pix and said Campion should look at her films!). Holly was able to perform most of the piano sequences, herself – earning the Oscar and Cannes Festival best actress double whammy. And ten years later, Huppert was… La Pianiste!
- Julianne Moore, Short Cuts, 1993. Topless, yes. Bottomless, no. The sequence where a bottomless wife admits indiscretions to her husband was “irresistible” to director Robert Altman And he was honest about it: “For about five minutes you have to stand naked from the waist down, it’s mandatory.”“I can’t do that,” said Madeleine. Julianne took a pause before saying: “I can.” Stowechanged her mind (too late), thenplayed the sisterof the painter Moore (and posed naked for her).“It’s my most vulnerable, poignant and distracting scene,” said Altman. “People don’t like to say they’re distracted… but they are because it’s something you’re not used to seeing. And Julianne stands out because, well, she’s a redhead.”
- Diane Verona, Heat, 1995. Good director, bad timing. Even though they’d worked together on The Last of the Mohicans, Stowe turned down Michael Mann’s offer. She was foresaking Hollywood glamour for motherhood and ranching in Texas.
- Uma Thurman, The Avengers, 1998. The film was such a half-baked mess that London critic Christopher Tookey dubbedit “an insult to cinema.”Even more so to television!
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 11