Top 10 Actors Who Were Almost Cast in Movie Musicals

MsMojo

Hollywood almost looked completely different! Join us as we explore the fascinating world of musical casting what-ifs, featuring some of the biggest stars who were inches away from iconic roles that ultimately went to someone else.

Transcript

00:00Is this where the auditions are?

00:01This is where the auditions were. We're finished.

00:06What about me?

00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks

00:10for the alternate castings that almost completely changed movie musicals.

00:14And it seems the world that I long to see out of reach.

00:21Number 10. Julie Andrews, My Fair Lady.

00:24I could have spread my wings and done a thousand things I'd never done before.

00:37The Lerner and Lowe stage musical was a major hit on Broadway. Studio chief Jack L. Warner

00:42was clearly enamored enough with the production to recast actor Rex Harrison as Professor Henry

00:47Higgins in the film version. However, he thought the show's other lead, Julie Andrews, wasn't well

00:53known enough. I had never made a movie. I was not a star. I was not box office.

00:58But you were the star of it on Broadway. Everybody had bought the record.

01:01Warner replaced her with one of Hollywood's biggest stars, Audrey Hepburn. Andrews got the

01:06last laugh, though. That same year, she became a sensation in the role of Mary Poppins, winning

01:12several accolades, including the Best Actress Oscar. In fact, she even thanked Warner in her

01:17Golden Globe acceptance speech. Finally, my thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie

01:21and who made all this possible in the first place, Mr. Jack Warner.

01:31After all, if she had been cast in My Fair Lady, she wouldn't have been free to play Mary Poppins.

01:36Pour a spoonful of sugar, helps the medicine go down, the medicine go down, medicine go down.

01:45Number 9. John Travolta, Chicago.

01:59In another world, it would have been Danny Zuko himself puppeteering Renee Zellweger.

02:03John Travolta was originally offered the role of Billy Flynn,

02:06Chicago's sleazy and slick lawyer who makes a career out of defending beautiful murderesses.

02:21In fact, the Grease star was seriously considering signing on. However,

02:25Travolta declined on the grounds that he wasn't sure anyone could make a good movie adaptation

02:30from the stage show. He later said, however, that if he had met with director Rob Marshall

02:34and heard his vision for the story, he might have reconsidered. Billy Flynn

02:38was ultimately played by Richard Gere.

02:49Number 8. Carrie Fisher, Greece.

02:51Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.

02:55In the late 70s, director Randall Kleiser was about to start shooting the big-screen

02:59adaptation of Grease. He was able to consult his old college roommate and fellow filmmaker

03:04George Lucas' Star Wars Rushes in order to gauge Princess Leia actress Carrie Fisher for the role

03:09of Sandy Olsen. If Fisher had been given the role, she probably would have been a major departure

03:14from Olivia Newton-John, seeing as she's now known for her sardonic wit and edgy screen persona.

03:20A little short for a stormtrooper. Huh? Oh, the uniform.

03:26I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm here to rescue you. You're who?

03:29Fortunately, we did get to hear Fisher's musical chops in the Star Wars holiday special.

03:34A day of harmony. A day of joy we all can share.

03:46Number 7. Meryl Streep and Michelle Pfeiffer, Evita.

03:50What do I see? That's the question I'm most afraid of.

03:59Bringing Andrew Lloyd Webber's epic musical to the screen was a long and arduous process.

04:04The movie's then-screenwriter and director Oliver Stone originally wanted Meryl Streep to play

04:09Argentinian First Lady Eva Perón. Streep prepped for the role and even recorded some songs,

04:25before both she and Stone dropped out. Michelle Pfeiffer was the next choice for the vocally

04:30demanding role. She had sung on screen in The Fabulous Baker Boys, and her involvement was

04:35confirmed at one point. But once she had a child and production moved from America to England,

04:50she left. After imploring Parker to cast her, Madonna was hired instead.

04:55Number 6. Miles Teller and Emma Watson, La La Land.

05:07Writer-director Damien Chazelle made the less expensive whiplash in order to get funding for

05:11this Los Angeles-set movie musical. Miles Teller starred as the drummer protagonist in that film.

05:26When La La Land became a possibility, Chazelle wanted to cast Teller again, this time as jazz

05:34musician Sebastian Wilder. Chazelle was also eager to have Harry Potter actress Emma Watson

05:39in the role of Mia, the aspiring actress who Sebastian falls in love with. Subsequent changes

05:47to the script necessitated slightly older actors. The final film would see Ryan Gosling and Emma

05:52Stone starring as the central couple. Number 5. Hugh Jackman, The Phantom of the Opera.

06:09A lot has been said about the casting of Gerard Butler. Unfortunately,

06:22his singing didn't earn him much in the way of praise. Unsurprisingly,

06:33there were a lot of big names in the mix for this massive Broadway adaptation.

06:37One of the possible phantoms was Hugh Jackman. Although he had already made his X-Men debut as

06:42Wolverine by then, the Tony winner was known to a lot of theatergoers as an accomplished

06:47song and dance man. Jackman confirmed he got a call to play the role, but he was sadly unavailable.

06:53It's hard not to dream about what could have been. His later Les Miserables co-star Anne

07:07Hathaway was even attached to play Christine at one point. Number 4. Amanda Seyfried, Wicked.

07:20Given its status among Broadway fans, the two-decade lead-up to the Wicked film saw a lot

07:25of different actresses up for the parts of Elphaba and Glinda. Once casting for the epic

07:30two-part adaptation was underway in the early 2020s, Glinda saw some heavy hitters stepping

07:35up to the plate. Allegedly, Renee Rapp and Dove Cameron both got fairly far in the audition

07:40process, but Mean Girls star Amanda Seyfried may have been one of the finalists. She set her sights

07:59on the role as soon as she heard the project was a go. Although her audition lasted several months,

08:04it was Ariana Grande who eventually won out. Number 3. Goldie Hawn and Madonna, Chicago.

08:26Between its Broadway debut in 1975 and its Oscar-winning film adaptation,

08:31there have been at least two attempts to give the merry murderesses of Chicago the

08:34Hollywood treatment. In the late 80s, Goldie Hawn wanted to produce and star in her own version.

08:39She brought pop star Madonna on board to play Roxy Hart to her Velma Kelly. Then,

08:44Harvey Weinstein had the role rewritten to be much younger than Hawn could play.

08:48"...who was writing my part for a 23-year-old. And he said, well, actually, you can't play 23.

08:55And I said to him, oh, oh yeah, I can, actually."

08:58Despite his underhanded approach to squeeze her out of the project,

09:01Hawn was paid for her development work on the movie,

09:04and Weinstein would later produce the 2002 version.

09:06"...you know, all my life, I wanted to have my own act. But no, no, no, no, no,

09:14always no. They always turn me down. One big world full of no."

09:18Number 2. Taylor Swift, Les Miserables.

09:21"...I think it had been established that I, I had more of a look of Cosette, but I had the range

09:27vocally of Eponine. So it was established that, like, I was there for a good time, not a long time."

09:32The story of redemption and revolution in 19th century France requires a packed cast

09:37with vocal chops. This big-budget production clearly had the money to spare to net some

09:42huge talent. One of the more puzzling but intriguing announcements for the cast was

09:46Taylor Swift, who was set to be offered the role of the long-suffering Eponine.

09:50"...Without him, the world around me changes. The trees are barren everywhere,

09:57the streets are full of strangers."

10:00Swift has since explained that while she did a series of screen tests for the roles of Eponine

10:05and Cosette, the roles ultimately went to performers with more acting experience.

10:09Samantha Barks and Amanda Seyfried were cast as Eponine and Cosette respectively,

10:14and Swift would land a notorious big-budget movie musical a few years later.

10:19Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified

10:28about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.

10:34If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.

10:391. Beyoncé – A Star Is Born

10:42I then saw Judy Garland's version of A Star Is Born, and I realized every 20, 30 years,

10:50a new star is born and a new talent represents that generation and era.

10:57A fourth version of this classic Hollywood melodrama had been rumored as early as the 2000s.

11:02Around 2011, Clint Eastwood had floated the idea of pairing Bradley Cooper with Beyoncé in a new

11:07remake. However, the timing was never quite right. Production delays, script rewrites,

11:29Eastwood's departure as director, and the singer's pregnancy led to the project having

11:33a longer pre-production period. Once Cooper took over the project as director, he actually

11:51still wanted Beyoncé for the part. Still, nobody was especially upset that Lady Gaga was chosen

11:56as a replacement. Which of these alternate castings would you have wanted to see? Tell us

12:12in the comments. Do you agree with our

12:26picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.

12:29And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended