- Lucy Lawless, Zena: Warrior Princess, TV, 1995-2001. She got to the final three – with Lucy and Roma Downey – and won the role for Xena’s arrival in a three-episode arc of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, 1995). However, she became too ill to fly to the New Zealand shooting. Roma opted for Touched by an Angel, TV, 1994-2003, and Lucy won the glory
- Helena Bonham Carter, The Flight Club, 1998. Director David Fincher looked everywhere for his Marla Singer. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Winona Ryder, Kyra Sedgewick, Renee Zellweger. Plus two great Brits: supermodel Vanessa Angel (71 screen roles since 1985), and Anna Friel. After seeing her Wings of the Dove, Fincher wanted HBC, the suits wanted the better known Reese Witherspoon, and Reese wanted out – ‘too dark!” Courtney Love claimed the film’s star, Brad Pitt, had her dropped because she wouldn’t let him play her late husband in a Kurt Cobain biopic. Team Pitt said “You cannot be fired for a job you didn’t get..” And, anyway, directors select actors, not actors… and yet co-star Edward Norton vetoed any idea of New Jersey comic Janeane Garofalo as she “didn’t have the chops to do it.” HBC modelled Marla on the final years of Judy Garland. Fincher even called her Judy on-set get her back in her mindset.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 2