Rachel McAdams

Posted on 6 November 2023by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

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).
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.
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.
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.
Eva Green, Casino Royale, 2005.
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.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Dark Knight, 2007.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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!
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.
Amy Adams, Man of Steel, 2011.
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.
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!
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!”
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.
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

WELCOME

to the films the stars did not make. The movies that never were. The most definitive collation of casting stories. Check up on all the films - of yesterday, today and tomorrow - that your favourite stars never made... A cast of thousands - 8,063 actors - to click on... More than 40 years in the making! And 2,777,633 words of spirited text.

The ultimate in movie trivia ... Better! Exactly the kind of history that Hollywood deserves. Back to front. Upside-down. Inside out. Full of flashbacks, close-ups, tracking shots (and, alas some badly edited sequences - sorry about that!) forming a fascinating, new and often bizarre flip-side perspective on your treasured movies and stars

HE SAID

“They’re doing stuff, but not with me. I’m not doing any more.” – Adam Driver on no more Kylo Ren/Ben Solo ... Or is it that there will be no more Star Wars?

“I’ve been acting for 42 years and then you make one cocktail…” – Stanley Tucci on his new fame as a TV food and cookery expert.

"The point is it's very hard work and you have to really want to do it. It has to be something that you're burning to say." – Martin Scorsese on directing at 80 and thinking “possibly only one more”.

“Whether you are a competent actor, or an artist, is incidental. The main business is: you’re product. I had a hard time steadying myself against that stuff.” – Robert Redford.

“I’ve never done the same thing twice and how many people can say that?” – Tom Hanks… forgetting his two successive Oscars.

“I was so excited when I got the script for Silent Night. There’s no dialogue in the entire movie! I thought this would be very good for me because it lets me use my gifts for telling a story visually. – John Woo on his Hollywood comeback at 77.

“I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies, because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage. What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down? Stan Lee is my surrealistic father.” – Nic Cage.

“The man who invented mornings was no Christian.” – Peter O’Toole.

“The moustache did the acting.” – Anthony Hopkins on Howards End.

“It’s very difficult to get 100 million people to watch anything,” – writer-director Joe Russo.

“I gave him a little part in Looper, where he got to be shot in the face by Bruce Willis. He was just so overjoyed… like a little kid.” – director Rian Johnson on his father.

“I'm not an actor - and I've got 64 films to prove it!” – Victor Mature.

“If you cast it right, you don’t have to tell the actors what to do.” – John Huston.

CCC CLIPS

>> Name Game. James Spader really started something with his Blacklist series. He played – remember? – Reddington. And now we have Austin Butler and, Emma Stone are in making Eddington… and newbie Glenn Powell is Huntingdon, his tenth gig since Top Gun: Maverick. Perhaps it’s time to re-issue Carrington… with, among others, Steven Waddington!

>> Christopher Nolan says “No, sadly no – no truth to those rumours.” About making the next Bond. So, no Cillian Murphy as Jimbo, then?

>> Rolling Stone. Those Poor Things, Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, are – naturally – in the next release of their Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. It’s Emma’s third Yorgos collaboration. Most likely she’ll be in his next one, too, a re-make of the South Korean hit, Save the Green Planet. That was a comedy. But one can never categorise a Lanthimos experience. After all this one was first titled… And.

>> Taylor Swift’s guy, US football superstar Travis Kelce, is making moves on movies. To be as famous as Dwayne Johnson. Although people are now beginning to ask: Dwyane Whosis?

>>Brandon Routh was Superman back in the day. Today he’s in…Ick.

>> A star sure was born! Lady Gaga now getting $10million for Joker 2…

>> Sean Ono Lennon says Emma Stone should play his dad. Now there’s a thought. After all, Cate Blanchett played Bob Dylan…

>> Sly Stallone has come this far without bothering with serial killers but that’s what he’s chasing in The Epiphany. He plays a retiring cop - what else at 78?

>> Thirty years after the first, Neve Campbell returns in Scream 7. She refused #6 over a money row…

>> Beatles director Sam Mendes made Skyfall and Spectre and another actor who has played John Lennon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, might yet be the next 007…

>> Ryan Gosling tipped to be join the Marvelverse. (They need him more than he them). Henry Cavill may follow – so definitely no Bond then. Not after Argylle. If anyone witnessed that accident, could they call the appropriate authorities.

>> Will Smith comes back (or so he hopes) in an almost suicide squad blasting drug dealers in Sugar Bandits… while Colin Farrell settles for just Sugar – back to his usual smoothie looks after The Penguin…

>> White Lotus 3 resurrects Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Charlotte Le Bon, Scott Glenn and introduces Patrick Schwarzenegger. But which one is going to flash…something?

CHAMPION'S LEAGUE

The battle for the top spot between Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson has – I think – come to an end. Recently, we‘ve seen Marlon leading Jack by one or two movies – and then, almost immediately, vice-versa. The gap is much wider now between the former Mulholland Drive neighbours. Latest research dug up more titles for Jack - Mr Mom, A Christmas Story, Striptease, The Bicentennial Man, Expend4bles – so that he is now safe (?) at the top of league with 177 films he chose not to make compared to Brando’s 172. But you know - you never know…

(The full list of their huge lists of bypassed films are not on their pages for now - one of the hassles being tackled in our - yes, very slow! – restructuring).

Marlon Brando – 177
Jack Nicholson – 172
Paul Newman – 160
Cary Grant – 150
Robert De Niro – 140
Tom Cruise – 135
Dustin Hoffman – 126
Mel Gibson – 118
Sean Connery, Al Pacino – 117

Highest Brit remains, as always, Sir Sean at 117… followed by Laurence OIivier, 93; Richard Burton, 87; Peter O’Toole, 79; Elizabeth Taylor, 73; Peter Sellers, 72; Dirk Bogarde and James Mason, 68; Olivia De Havilland, 58; Vivien Leigh and Gary Oldman, 57.

Highest lady is Bette Davis, 97; Jodie Foster, 84; Michelle Pfeiffer, 81; Katharine Hepburn, 79; Julie Christie, 76; Meryl Streep, 75; Elizabeth Taylor, 73; Nicole Kidman, 72: Jane Fonda, 70; Julia Roberts, 68.

Younger Brigade: Johnny Depp 108; Leo, 75; Jim Carrey, 70; Madonna, 62; Natalie Portman, 57; Aishawarya Rai Bachchan, 40; Bridget Fonda, 36: Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Uma Thurman, 35; Jake Gyllenhall, 33: Ben Affleck, 31.

(You'll find the full list at Champions in the Main Menu)

A BOND MISS

Is Léa Seydoux now a spy…or, to be more polite, a talent scout for Eon Productions? 007’s girl in both Spectre and No Time to Die appears to assisting the (rather quiet) search for the next Jimbo. In La bête (The Beast), one of her many new French films, Léa co-stars with Hammersmith’s George MacKay - Sam Mendes’ find for 1917. He learned French for the film, so this may not be his last Paris booking.

As Gabrielle and Louis, they work extremely well together as star-crossed lovers in three time-lines: 1904, 1914 and 2044. And he looks the business in his retro tuxedo. ‘Twould be fascinating to cast an eye over her report for Barbara Broccoli’s eyes only. On verra as Léa (and now even George) would say. We’ll see.

SHE SAID

“You need your parents to set boundaries and hold you accountable and keep you away from, like, weird people.” – Scarlett Johansson on surviving as a child actor.

“I was so deeply in love with Bella, it terrified me not to live up to her as a character. I felt like I was failing her in the first week, and failing Yorgos [Lanthimos]. ). It was just difficult. I could talk to him about it, but I couldn’t talk to her about it. “ – Emma Stone on making Poor Things, leading to her second Oscar.

“Everything was so beautiful up on that screen. That make-believe world was much more pleasant than anything I was experiencing. I didn’t like reality. I wanted to be in the movies, even though I knew I didn’t look like the other women on the screen. My mother said, ‘you better learn to type,’ but I didn’t listen. Somehow, some way, thank you God, it all came true.” – Barbra Streisand, receiving lifetime achievement honour from the Screen Actors Guild.

“If I arrive at a moment in the history of cinema where I am legally obliged to have some kind of police on my set telling me what I’m allowed to do, I would rather stop filming sex scenes completely.” – French director Mia Hansen-Løve.

“I’m not one to sit around doin’ nothin’, I would never retire, I’ll just hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song onstage, someday, hopefully one I’ve written.” – Dolly Parton.

“Playing it safe doesn’t necessarily get you anywhere. You have to take chances. especially if you’re a black woman. You have no choice.” – Halle Berry.

“The more famous an actress becomes, the less she's allowed to eat.” – Lana Turner.

“I don’t do T&A very well because I haven’t got much of either.” – Tea Leoni.

“I was an idiot in terms of career-building, but I had a great time.” – Sally Kellerman.

“As you get older, you realise your parents aren't these superheroes. They're actually people.” – Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

“Everybody thought I was crazy. And by the way, I thought I was crazy.” – Jennifer Lopez on spending $20m of her own money on making This Is Me … Now: A Love Story.

“It’s dangerous to repeat performances. It becomes the sole thing on your gravestone.” – Helen Mirren on playing The Queen in The Queen and on stage in The Audience.

“I think I was offered every Marilyn Monroe script ever. I was like: Is this the end of the road creatively?’” – Scarlett Johansson on surviving as a star.

WAIT & SEE...

This is such a busy year for movies that various releases have been postponed until 2025… Captain America: Brave New World, Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, Games of Thrones spin-off The Hedge Knight (not about a gardener), Ke Huy Quan’s actioner With Love, John Wick’s spin-off, Ballerina, Fast X :part 2, Avatar 3, Jurassic World 4, Black Mirror 7, Mission: Impossible 8, Fantastic Four, Superman and the dreaded Michael bio – more like horror film, surely. Oh and no The Batman 2 or Harry P TV series until 2026.