Claire Danes, The Mod Squad, 1998. Hardly matched the pizazz of her French actioner, The Fifth Element, 1997, when she was man and wife with director Luc Besson. Or, as co-star Ian Holm (or his ghostwsriter) put it, "man and waif."
Zenzele Uzoma, Cecil B Demented, 2000. The Kiev-born model-actress - Luc Besson's St Joan in 1999 - was eager to join John Waters' movie send-up until its delay clashed with Wim Wenders' Million Dollar Hotel.
Cameron Diaz, Charlie's Angels, 2000. Her fellow angels were due to be Alyssa Milano and... a likely story!... Julia Roberts.
Angelina Jolie, Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, 2000. For the girls, Lara Croft is their James Bond. Well, more of a sexy Indiana Jones. And 22hopefuls wanted to bringther sassy, video-game adventurer to life. Demi More was, perhaps, the most keen, but who was simply disregarded. Christina Applegate, Drew Barrymore, Victoria Beckham Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Nicole Eggert, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kate Hudson, Elizabeth Hurley, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Lopez, Gwneth Paltrow, Anna Nicole Smith (a joke, surely), Catherine Zeta-Jones were considered. Fairuza Balk, Natalie Cassidy, Kirsten Dunst and Milla Jovovich auditioned while Denise Richards, Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman and Liv Tyler simply refused. And Lara's guy (who fled the sequel) was Daniel Craig - complete with a Walther PPK pistol that he would use again as 007 in Casino Royale, 2005.
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.
Reese Witherspoon, Legally Blonde, 2000. Jovovich, Christina Applegate, Katherine Heigl, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Gwyneth Paltrow and Charlize Theron all tried to win Elle Woods in the far from official sequel to Clueless,1994. At one point, Elle said that she gew up in Bel Air, across the street from TV producer icon, Aaron Spelling - his daughter, Tori, was also up for Elle
Anne Hathaway, The Princess Diaries, 2001. Among 22 youngstars (Jessica Albato Reese Witherspoon) rejecting the awkward San Francisco teenager being groomed (by Julie Andrews!) to inherit the Genovia throne - after director Garry Marshall's (rather surprising) first choiceof Juliette Lewis quit.
Renée Zellweger, Chicago, 2002.
Jennifer Garner, Daredevil, 2003. How did I become Action Girl?" asked Garner. Because 22 other girls were not punching their weight in TV's Alias every week. They were Jessica Alba, Jolene Blalock, Neve Campbell, Penelope Cruz, Portia de Rossi, Eliza Dushku, Claire Forlani, Angie Harmon, Salma Hayek, Katie Holmes, Milla Jovovich, Nicole Kidman, Lucy Liu, Mia Maestro, Rhona Mitra, Bridget Moynahan, Natalie Portman, Kyra Sedgwick, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon. Plus the Norwegian ballet dancer Natassia Malthe, who became Typhoid in Garner's 2004 Elektra spin-off. Garner reportedly KOed the blind hero, Ben Affleck, in one scene – he still married her three years later!
Kate Beckinsale, Underworld, 2003. So goeth the legend... As if director Len Wiseman was going to build a franchise around anyone other than the lady becominghis lover... and wife.
Juliette Lewis, Blueberry: L'expérience secrète, France, 2003. Possibly the single worst movie adaptation of a comicbook ever foisted upon the French (or any other public.
Malin Åkerman,, Watchmen, 2008. Not so much "Who watches the watchmen?" as Aristotle asked, but who them playeth? As Alan Moore's forcibly retired superheroes were called back to duty in an alternate 1985 America - Jovovich, Jessica Alba, Jennifer Connelly, Hilary Duff, Hilary Swank were up for Laurie Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre II. Cast included actors playing Brezhnev, Castro, JFK and Jackie, Kissinger, Nixon, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol…
Rachel Weisz,, The Bourne Legacy, 2011. Three was enough for Matt Damon. (Until 2015…!) The studio did not agree and kept the franchise alive by rebooting Jason Bourne as Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) - another victim of US secret service's Program. Weisz won Dr Marta Shearing from a dozen other hopefuls: Eliza Dushku, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Milla Jovovich Kristin Kreuk, Diane Kruger, Jennifer Lawrence, Blake Lively, Michelle Monaghan, Elizabeth Olsen and three Kates: Beckinsale, Bosworth and Mara. Why? Because as Chicago critic Roger Ebert pointed out she spends more time on-screen than is usual for women in actioners, is not just around for sex and "her performance stands up strongly beside Renner's." Bravo!
Rhonda Rousey, The Expendables 3, 2013. Jovovich, Nicolas Cage, Jackie Chan were in negotiations to join Sylvester Stallone's testostorone Dad's Army. None of fhem joined and Milla's role as respun to accommodate Rousey's unique abilities. She was the first American woman to win an Olympic judo medal (bronze at Beijing, 2008) and the ex-Ultimate Fighting Championship's women's bantamweight champion.
Carrie-Ann Moss, Pompeii, 2013. Director Paul WS Anderson's wife was not, as per usual, his leading lady this time. Maybe she knew - he certainly did - that most of Aurelia's scenes would be slashed from this Fast & Furious on horseback.TheResident EvilfranchIse queen is the deadliest action star with has the most kills - 1,296 - said the action movie channel Movies4men in 2018 - followerd by Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chow Yun-Fat, Sylvester Stallone, Jason Stathamam, Kevin Costner, Wesley Snipes, Nicolas Cage.