Would Amadeus have been a lot better with Meg Tilly in it?

That story of her breaking her leg and having to leave the film always interests me...Any gossip? I never really liked the woman who played the wife BUT after reviewing it I kind of enjoyed her performance even if she looks too contemporary. I wonder why they didn't move Cynthia Nixon up to the bigger role.

• "I wonder why they didn't move Cynthia Nixon up to the bigger role" How old was she then? She looked 12.

• she was 18 when it was released r1...not sure how far in advance it was filmed.

• the wife is horrid. it certainly would have been better with Tilly. Question is, why couldn't a director of the calibre of Forman find a suitable replacement?

• I remember one critic--maybe Rex Reed?--saying how "awful" Elizabeth Berridge was in the film. She did sound like a snotty, modern-day teenager, but I think that was what Forman was going for. It would have been interesting to see Tilly in the role, though.

  Anonymous

• I like Elizabeth Berridge in the movie. Meg Tilly would have been more of a presence, more appealing, but I'm not sure Constanze should have that kind of impact in Forman's strange, ugly, brilliant movie.

• Meg would have been wonderful. As I recall, this was a year or so after The Big Chill.

• I never knew that tidbit about Meg Tilly being up for the role. I liked the actress who played the part, I couldn't see anyone else doing it. I actually thought she looked a lot like the paintings of people from that time period, I thought she went well with Tom Hulce and they made a believable couple.

• Her part was cut down the most compared to the director's cut I saw about 6 years ago. She has another extended scene with Salieri in which she showed more nuance in the character. The wife is low class and you can quickly see why Mozart's prissy dad is such a snob to her. But she's the warmest character in the film. Someone like Marisa Tomei would have been a good choice 10 years later.

• ... And you can see where she'd get his playful nature and temperment compared to courtly women.

• I don't see it as a Marisa Tomei role. It's more like a Sherilyn Fenn role, though she'd be a little young in 1985. I could almost see Theresa Russell in it.

• Today I could see Cillian Murphy in that role.

• Meg Tilly as Mozart?

• She was supposed to be a combination of naive and spoiled, and a bit indulgent. Jennifer Lawrence and Anne Hathaway would be up for the role today, maybe Scar Jo as well.

• It would have been a lot better with *Jennifer* Tilly in it.

  Gina%20Gershon

• I saw it on Bway with Amy Irving who I thought was very good (although I was a kid so not sure if my opinion was worth much) Peter Firth was Mozart and he was amazing (and hot to death)

• All movies would be better with Meg Tilly in them, from "Lincoln" to "My Dinner with Andre."

• Gee she would have been interesting in Lincoln....come back Meg!!!

• Meg Ryan should have played Mozart.

• That movie would have been even more of an endurance test with monotone, dead-eyed Tilly.

• I'd cast Mattt Bomer as Mozart and Jon Hamm as Salierli.

• I loved the play and the film, as-is

• wait, I thought I saw Tim Curry as Mozart. Peter Firth played him as well?

• r22...Curry was the original...Firth replaced him.