- Sarah Michelle Gellar, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, TV, 1997-2003. Three girls lost Sunnyvale’s saviour: Selma Blair, Katie Holmes and Natasha Lyonne (soon wearing Orange is the New Black). Five more won other roles: Elizabeth Anne Allen (Amy), Julie Benz (Darla), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia), Julia Lee (Anne) and 16-year-old Mercedes McNab (Harmony) as SMG ruled for all 145 episodes as Buffy… original name of Yoda in Star Wars!
- Katie Holmes, Dawson’s Creek, TV, 1998-2003. Selma auditioned for 2. Joey Potter but out was Katie who played her for all 128 episodes – opposite her then lover, Joshua Jackson. Certain props were played by props from other Kevin Williamson works: Scream, 1995 and I Know What You Did Last Summer, 1996.
- Shannon Elizabeth, American Pie, 1998. Pick a chick! The director brothers, Chris and Paul Weitz, offered Shannon her choice of which girl she should play. She passed on the foreign exchange student Nadia… to Shannon’s joy! ““If I hadn’t hadn’t done the role of Nadia and the nudity that came along with it, I might not have a career today ” She regretted her Playboy spread, however.
- Alyson Hannigan, American Pie, 1998. …And bye-bye Michelle and her signature line about “This one time, at band camp…
- Natasha Lyonne, American Pie, 1998. Or Jessica… which Natasha nearly refused. “I didn’t identify with this sort of like, very white, very normal high school experience. Kinda like, ‘Oh! We’re gonna lose our virginity!’ I was like, ‘Honey, it already happened.’ I just don’t think I understood the movie. And then they gave me money . And I began to understand.”
- Tara Reid, American Pie, 1998. OK, so how about Vicky? Oh, no, said Selma. “I just can’t do another teen movie. Which was so dumb I should have just ridden that wave.”
- Parker Posey, Scream 3, 1999. More Ghostface murders begin during the shooting of Stab 3… the horror movie within the horror movie. Posey, Blair, Teri Hatcher and Téa Leoni were in the frame for actress Jennifer Jolie – opposite the British Emily Mortimer as actress Angelina Tyne. Their names came from… actress Angelina Jolie.
- Renée Zellweger, Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2000. Far too sexy – and American – for a plump 30-something London office worker. Even if she dared to put on 20 pounds like Zellweger.
- 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.
- Sarah Michelle Gellar, The Grudge, 2004. First of two Hollywood re-makes of Japanese winners for SMG – second and third were The Grudge 2, 2006 and Veronika Decides To Die, 2009.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 10