Rachel McAdams

 

  1. Lindsay Lohan, Mean Girls, 2003.    Musical chairs…  She McAuditioned for Cady, before taking Regina from Amanda Seyfried, who was given Karden, instead.And later beat McAdams to Mamma Mia.  (They both failed to win in The Great Gatsby’s Daisy in 2011).
  2. Jessica Alba, Fantastic Four, 2004.   The stunning Canadian was seen for Susan Storm, aka Invisible Girl. As were Elizabeth Banks, Kate Bosworth, Scarlett Johansson, Ali Larter, Denise Richards, Meg Ryan, Julia Stiles, KaDee Strickland, Renee Zellweger. This mess was the second of four flop versions of the comic. One day, Marvel will doubtless regain all rights and fit the Four into its triumphant Cinematic Universe.
  3. Kate Hudson, You, Me and Dupree, 2005.    First idea from the directing brothers, Anthony and Joe Russo, for Molly and Carl were two Macs: Rachel and Ewan McGregor.
  4. Michelle Monaghan, Mission: Impossible III, 2005.    Production delays meant McAdams had to leave and so Monaghan joined Keri Russell as Tom Cruise’s co-stars – both were born March 23, 1976.
  5. Eva Green, Casino Royale, 2005.
  6. Jacinda Barrett, The Last Kiss, 2006.    Rache was in, then  out. Lucky her. The US version of  Rome auteur Gabriele Muccino’s Italian hit never caught fire. 
  7. Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Dark Knight, 2007.
  8. Anne Hathaway, Get Smart, 2007.    Jessica Alba and Jennifer Love Hewitt also tested for the first cinema appearance of Maxwell Smart or Agent 86’s espionage partner, Agent 99…. made memorable on TV in 1995by Barbara Feldon.
  9. Amanda Seyfried, Mamma Mia, 2008.  McAdams, Amanda Bynes, Keira Knightley, Mandy Moore, Emmy Rossum were in the Abba musical mix for Sophie. Meryl Streep was Mama but who was Daddy, that was the question. Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth or Stellan Skarsgård? Hey, hadn’t the plot (of a mother not knowing which of three lovers fathered her daughter) already been spun for Gina Lollobrigida in Buona Sera Mrs Campbell… 40 years earlier!
  10. Gwyneth Paltrow, Iron Man, 2007.     Rachel passed on director Jon Favreau’s kind invite. After all, who wanted to play… Pepper Potts?! For his rôle, Robert Downey Jr did weeks of weight training and martial arts while Gwyneth read the comics and brushed up on 40s. McAdams later became Irene Adler in Downey’s Sherlock Holmes franchise.

  11. Anne Hathaway, Get Smart, 2008.   Future Oscar-winner Hathaway was surprisingly good as Agent 99, the unforgettable creation of delicious Barbara Feldon in the 1965-1970 series.   Director Peter Segal also gazed at Jennifer Love Hewitt, Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk and Rachel McAdams.
  12. Jessica Alba, Valentine’s Day, 2008.  Elizabeth Banks and Fernanda Romero also read for Morley Clarkson – in the 21-star-jammedLA take on Love Actually.  Director Garry Marshall struck gold – then re-made it (badly) as New Year’s Eve in New York.
  13. Isla Fisher, Confessions of a Shopaholic, 2009.    For once, the prerequisite outsider won as Disney chose an unknown (cheaper, sure, but hilarious) after seeing everyone from the Jessicas (Alba and Biel) to Lindsay Lohan (!) and Reese Witherspoon, who rightly felt Rebecca Bloomwood was too close to her Elle Woods creation in the two Legally Blonde films.  Also in the mix: McAdams, Emily Blunt, Kirsten Dunst, Anne Hathaway, Katie Holmes, Amanda Seyfried.
  14. Ellen Page, Inception, 2009.   After Evan Rachel Woods turned him down, UK director Christopher Nolan also considered Emily Blunt, Carey Mulligan, Emma Roberts, Jessy Schram and Taylor Swift before settling settling on a fifth Oscar nominee for his thriller in… the architecture of the mind.
  15. Rachel Weisz, Dream House, US-Canada, 2010.  What did she have against Daniel Craig?  After refusing his Bond debut, she also passed on marrying him in the (actually) nightmare house. “The movie didn’t turn out great,” admitted Craig. “But I met my wife. Fair trade.” Mrs C is Rachel Weisz,
  16. Scarlett Johansson, We Bought A Zoo, 2010.   Amy Adams and Mary Elizabeth Winstead were also in the Cameron Crowe mix for the wife of Matt Damon… running a UK zoo. Then, Scarlett won a top role – finally! – after losing out in a hectic casting season… The Great Gatsby, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Gravity,Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. A lot of good it did her!
  17. Elizabeth Banks, People Like Us, 2011.    Amy Adams and double Oscar-winner Hilary Swank were also up for the  sister that Chris Pine never knew he had.  LA auteur Alex Kurtzman rejected them and  Amy rejected him. To stay home with her baby daughter. So the LAuteur banked on Banks.
  18. Amy Adams, Man of Steel, 2011.
  19. Carey Mulligan, The Great Gatsby, 2011.   Australian director Baz Luhrmann said he was privileged to explore the manipulative Daisy Buchanan “with some of the world’s most talented actresses, each one bringing their own particular interpretation, all of which were legitimate and exciting” – Rachel, Abbie Cornish, Rebecca Hall, Keira Knightley, Blake Lively, Natalie Portman, Amanda Seyfried, Michelle Williams and the girl up for six films that autumn, Scarlett Johansson. Yet it was Carey he called – “Hello, Daisy!” – when she was on the red carpet at the The Fashion Council Awards in New York. She immediately burst into tears… in front of Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour.
  20. Jennifer Lawrence, The Silver Linings Playbook, 2012.   “If you really want to go back and do an archeological dig,” laughed director David O Russell, “I wrote it for Vince Vaughn. And Zooey Deschanel.” Then, Jennifer did a reading on Skype with “an enormous amount of confidence that was beyond her years… toughness and a sweetness and charisma… I hadn’t seen anything like that.” JLaw won the Oscar for the film meaning her rivals Elizabeth Banks, Kirsten Dunst, Rachel McAdams, Rooney Mara, Andrea Riseborough, Olivia Wilde had been well and truly Skyped!
  21. Kate Winslet, Collateral Beauty, 2015.    Doctor Strangemeant she could not join Edward Norton, Helen Mirren, Naomie Harris, Meira Knightley and be famously praised by Will Smith…  “If we are all judged by the company we keep… then I want this cast with me for life!”
  22. Jennifer Lawrence, Passengers,  2016.   First developed for  Keanu Reeves (and Emily Blunt) at his and Stephen Hamel’s Company Films, the interstellar love story nearly took off at the Weinstein Company (yeah, that long ago) with McAdams or Reese Witherspoon as Reeves’ co-star. Columbia signed Lawrence (for $20m) and Chris Pratt ($12m). They were hot –  yes,  but in separate films. Together, they were glacial. Allowing Michael Sheen to steal the proceedings as a robotic barkeep (“a cross between a puppy and a toaster”) in a copy-Shining bar. On the Starship Avalon. Hence, the bartbot was called… Arthur.
  23. Léa Seydoux, Kursk, France-Belgium-Luxembourgh, 2017.   Change of Tanya Kalekov in the fourth English language film from Danish director Thomas Vinterberg… about Russia’s K-141 Kursk submarine disaster of 2000.  

 

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  23