- Tuesday Knight, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, 1988. Pulled out of reprising Elm Street 3’s Kristen Parker on becoming pregnant. Director Renny Harlin didn’t believe a word of it. He maintained it was all about money. Her first son was born in January 1989. Elm Street started shooting early in ’88. If pregnant at all, it was a matter of weeks… and she managed to make Far North without any trouble.
- Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman, 1989.
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Jennifer Jason Leigh, Last Exit To Brooklyn, 1988.
Arquette won the lead role of Tralala (opposite her brother – later, sister – Alexis) in Uli Edel’s flm of the controversial Hubert J Selby Jr novel. Until she proved pregnant… On the Fresh Air with Terry Gross TV show in 2015, she explained all. “I thought: I don’t want to emotionally go through this woman’s journey that’s very violent at certain points with a baby inside me.” The producers thought she could hack it. “Well, let me just walk around the block. And I came back and I said: I can’t do this movie ’cos I don’t know how that will be for my baby.” She quit without knowing if she’d be judged difficult and never get another movie. Indeed, she didn’t after Enzo arrived. She even applied for a waitress job on Sunset Boulevard. “Look, I’m smart. I don’t have a lot of experience. I’m nice to people, I learn fast and I have a baby to feed.” She got the job, starting Wednesday. “That Monday, I got my first movie after my son.” JJL once got a boyfriend to get Hubert Selby Jr. to sign her copy of his novel. She rushed to New York to tell Edel she was prepared to dye her hair, bare her breasts more times than he could count and endure the gang-bang scene. And she did. -
Lisa Zane, Bad Influence, 1990. Although broke with an infant son to raise, she bowed out when director Curtis Hanson would not detail what he meant by nudity. “I don’t think women should be punished for their sexuality.”
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Meg Ryan, The Doors, 1991. The auditions of about 60 actresses are a legend. “Pure porno,” said the rumours, “with Oliver Stone asking girls to give him blowjobs.” Totally untrue, insisted casting director Risa Bramon Garcia. She was always in the room. “All that happened was the girl had to say, ‘My cunt is yours’ and kinda bend over. Big deal!”She felt that Stone should have used Arquette. “She was amazing. She rolled around on the floor.”
- Uma Thurman, Pulp Fiction, 1993.
- Amanda Plummer, Pulp Fiction, 1993.
- Rosanna Arquette, Pulp Fiction, 1993.
- Nicole Kidman, To Die For, 1994. “You aren’t anybody in America if you’re not on TV.” Director Gus Van Sant wanted her in his first studio movie – as the girl who would do anything to get on TV, and stay there. She found it too close to True Romance – and went Beyond Rangoon, replacing Meg Ryan who, momentarily, interested Van Sant. (She said No to $5m). Other candidates had been Jennifer Connelly, Joan Cusack, Bridget Fonda, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Darryl Hannah, Holly Hunter, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tatum O’Neal, Mary-Louise Parker, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brooke Shields, Uma Thurman – and Debra Winger simply refused. Finally, Kidman persuaded director Gus Van Sant that she was his destiny.
- Courtney Love, The People vs Larry Flynt, 1996. The subject was the porno king behind America’s Hustler magazine – a more gynecological version of Playboy. Tobe played by Woody Harrelson. But who should be his wife, a bizexual stripper named Althea Leasure? Patricia Arquette, Elizabeth Berkley, Georgina Cates, Cameron Diaz, Rachel Griffiths, Ashley Judd , Mirta Sorvino (too busy playing Marilyn) – and Kimberly Williams-Paisley, who refused all nudity. Finally, Czech director Milos Forman chose c the Hole singer and Kurt Cobain’s widow as Mrs Flynt, , Courtney Love. Well, she had once been a stripper, herself. Because… ‘I’m not a woman, I’m a force of nature.”
- Renée Zellweger, Jerry Maguire, 1996. “You had me at Hello…” Once Tom Hanks passed and Tom Cruise breathed a sigh of relief, auteur Cameron Crowe started searching for The Girl: Dorothy Boyd. 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), Connie Britton made a good test with Cruise and she was Dorothy – depending on Zellweger’s call back meeting with him. “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.”
- Melora Walters, Boogie Nights, 1997. Director Paul Thomas Anderson wanted Walters as porno queen Jessie St Vincent. The suits wanted A Name. OK, he said, I’ll called Patricia Arquette, knowing full well she’d refuse his porno-“family” movie. And she did. So Walters kept the gig, based on hard-core star Jessie St James and porn producer Julia St Vincent… and also made PTA’s next film, Magnolia, 1999.
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Renée Zellweger, Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2000. Both Arquette sisters – Patricia and Rosanna – were among some 21 considerations for the lumpy, dumpy London office worker and diarist.
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Renée Zellweger, Chicago, 2001.
- Nicole Kidman, Bewitched, 2004.
For inexplicable reasons, Hollywood kept trying to make a movie out of the 1968-1972 ABC sitcom about a good-looking witch and a Dagwood husband. In 1993, Penny Marshall was going to direct Meryl Streep as Samantha, then passed the reins to Ted Bissell and he died in 1996 when his Richard Curtis script was planned as Melanie Griffths’ comeback. Nora Ephron co-wrote and directed this lumbering version about an ego-driven actor trying to save his career with a Bewitched re-hash, but with the emphasis on him (of course) as Darrin, rather than the unknown he chose for Samatha because she can wriggle her nose… (You didn’t need a nose to know it stank). Over the years, 37 other ladies were on the Samantha wish-list. Take a deep breath… Kate Beckinsale, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Connelly, Cameron Diaz, Heather Graham, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, Julianne Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Brooke Shields, Charlize Theron, Naomi Watts, Renee Zellweger. Plus seven Oscar-winners: Kim Basinger, Tatum O’Neal, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon… two Friends: Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow…eleven other TV stars: Christina Applegate, Patricia Arquette, Kristin Davis, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Helen Hunt, Jenny McCarthy, Alyssa Milano, Brittany Murphy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alicia Silverstone… even Drew Barrymore and Uma Thurman, who had already re-kindled Charlie’s Angels and The Avengers. - Vera Famiga, The Departed, 2006. Also considered for the role of Madolyn: Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kyra Sedgwick.
- Emily Blunt, Mary Poppins Returns, 2017. When Walt Disney made the first Poppins, he mused over Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury or Mary Martin for Mary but by 1963, he had only one star in mind. Julie Andrews. For this reboot, Disney suits went through no less than 37 contenders… Two Desperate Housewives:Kristin Davis, Teri Hatcher. Two Friends:Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow. Two Brat Packers: Molly Ringwald, Winona Ryder. Two of the three authors of The Penis Song: Christina Aplegate, Cameron Diaz. Three sirens: Kim Basinger, Heather Graham Uma Thurman. Four ex-child stars: Drew Barrymore, Alyssa Milano, Tatum O’Neal, Brooke Shields. Ten Oscar-winners: Sandra Bullock, Helen Hunt, Angelina Jolie, Julianne Moore, Tatum O‘Neal, Julia Roberts, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, RenéeZellweger. Plus: Patricia Arquette, Melanie Griffith, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Peiffer, Meg Ryan, Alicia Silverstone, Naomi Watts. But just two Brits: Kate Beckinsale – and the winning Emily.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 17