Why I Turned Down "Silence Of The Lambs" Michelle Pfeiffer & Meg Ryan

Only 5% for Meg?

Meg is crap

Meg Ryan? Seriously? It's laughable that she was considered for this role. I can see Michelle doing this, but Jodie Foster was the best choice

Whatever happened to Meg Ryan. What's the old cunt doing these days?

Did notorious decliners Molly Ringwald and Debra Winger also pass?

I don't want Meg Ryan to speak the words "I can smell your cunt", ever. Meg was perfect for the kind of movies she was in, and she's a good actress with a limited repertoire.

Pfeiffer could have worked, but Foster was the best choice.

r3, she's doing john mellancamp

NO, NONE OF THE ABOVE.

For once, the Vivian Vance option makes the most sense.

Write-in: Lucille Ball

Why did Gary have to talk her out of it? Damn him!

Jodie must have been pretty moist when they took that photo in the OP.

They were offered this role? Absurd! Both would have been terrible in the role. Particularly Ryan. Foster was perfect for the role.

Meg would've tried to date Hannibal.

Foster was COMPLETELY miscast. The role called for an eighty year old with a Scotch and cigarette damaged voice and clown red wig.

She didn't even demand a scene be inserted in which Clarice accidentally locks herself in a prison cell with Gale Gordon as Hannibal Lecter.

I love it when Meg Ryan says she would still turn it down. Bitch, please. You'd give your children's souls over to Satan to take back that decision once you saw not only did it sweep the Oscars as a film, but it would have gotten you best actress.

Doubt it would have won Best Actress with her in it. I saw her once play serious in a convoluted Oscar bait movie whose title I'm too lazy to look for, playing an Army nurse who's posthumously nominated for a Medal of Honor. Her vague Southern accent and attempts at acting tough were ludicrous. It had some entertainment value as a window into what a Malibu yoga mommy imagines a female soldier must be like, but not two hours' worth. At least Scott Glenn was in it so it wasn't eight bucks totally wasted.

Pfeiffer would have been good. But many would have been better. It was a gift of a role that didn't require great acting chops. (And I don't particularly think Foster is anything special as an actor.) It just required intense concentrated stillness.

Michelle was too sultry. Meg has a surly element that suits a Fed.

How many Feds do you actually know, R17? I've been stationed in the D.C. area, and I wouldn't call them surly, more like very serious and competitive. The character played by Reese Witherspoon in "Election" was pretty close, minus the satirical elements of that movie, and if they were casting "Silence" today, she'd be on my short list of actresses who could play Clarice Starling.

Starling is both those things, minus Tracy Flick's deviousness, plus with the additional insecurity of being an orphan from impoverished Appalachia. Her intelligence and ambition drive her to escape her background, which Lecter sees and tries to embarrass her with, but her background gives her an insight into the killer and his victimology that her middle class colleagues don't have. I thought Foster did very well with the part--I knew people a lot like that in college. They were the enlisted men and women who made it out of the ranks to become commissioned officers, same as I did. There's always a little something different about them vs the Academy people, and you see the same in Federal service.

Julianne Moore by contrast was all wrong in the sequel. Like Nicole Kidman, I never believe her as a a working class character. Dale Dickey would have been excellent and the right age in 1990, but I don't know if she was even acting back then. Winger might have been good, totally different, but was a bit too old by then.

After Meg Ryan received the script, it was clearly not to be, seeing as she was allegedly "offended" that such a grim, ghastly film would come her way.

Director Jonathan Demme says that his first choice for Clarice was Michelle Pfeiffer, the star of his recent film Married to the Mob. “She was concerned about the darkness of the piece — she was going to do it, but then she wasn’t going to do it,” says Demme.

Meanwhile, Demme decided that Meg Ryan would be perfect as Clarice. (“I would believe her; I wouldn’t believe Jodie Foster in that part,” he remembers thinking.) According to Demme, Ryan was “slightly offended” by the offer.

"she was allegedly "offended" that such a grim, ghastly film would come her way."

Explain THE WOMEN.

Wow, just realized what a long time ago it was that Pfeiffer and Ryan were A list actresses. This would have been taking place around 1990.

Now the conversation would be Emma Stone vs Scarlett Johansson and Jolie insisting she wasn't too old to play an FBI trainer.

Neither could do a halfway decent spider face.

Unlike you-know-who...

A psychopathic transsexual making a woman suit out of real women's skins pursued by an FBI trainee under the guidance of an incarcerated cannibal doctor. Foster took a gamble with something that could have ended up as an unintentional dark camp comedy and came out a winner. Demme was a brilliant director.

I watched the "making of" video on the DVD a while back with all the deleted scenes and it made me realize how important it is knowing what to leave out. It didn't look like it would have turned into a camp classic so much as a dull police procedural. Don't know if that's to the director's credit or the editor's.

[quote]Julianne Moore by contrast was all wrong in the sequel.

Oh god, yes.

I would love to have seen Pfeiffer do it. She has a natural combination of fragility and strength. But she would have been a distractingly beautiful FBI agent.

Foster makes a more believable regular person, although her $500 haircut in the film was a joke.

I don't think Michelle could have done Clarice justice, honestly and Meg would have been even worse.

Surprisingly, Demme also wanted and preferred Laura Dern over Jodie. It seems the studio really worked hard to shove Jodie at Demme. Perhaps one of the rare times the studio was right.

Too bad Desilu had been dissolved by that point.

I don't think Meg was an ambitious type. Things just rolled her way and she took advantage of the opportunities. In that famous Parkinson interview, she said she wanted to be a journalist, but when pressed what kind, she was sort of wishy washy about it; ditto her movie career. When she was younger, she had the kind of charm you couldn't fake and it was a ticket to Hollywood; but she didn't age very gracefully.

Michelle Pfeiffer is an amazing actress -- far better, and more versatile, than Jodie Foster.

R30, yet Jodie has two Oscars and Michelle has how many?

[R15] Courage Under Fire-- Matt Damon had a small role and I remember when he first appeared on the screen thinking how hideously ugly he looked.

Pfeiffer Might have done a good job.

[quote]What's the old cunt doing these days?

Weeping dry-eyed as she stares in the mirror. But you can't tell because nothing on her face moves, including whatever activates her tears.

[quote] Whatever happened to Meg Ryan. What's the old cunt doing these days?

Settling into place

[quote] . The role called for an eighty year old with a Scotch and cigarette damaged voice and clown red wig.

Catherine Zeta-Jones had another commitment.

Pfeiffer would've looked way too gorgeous and like mentioned it would've been a distraction. Lookswise Meg Ryan would've been much better. Ryan is not a bad actor really, or at least that's what I remember since it's been a while I've seen her in anything. In any case she really did have screen presence which is the reason she became so huge. People mostly remember her from her romcoms but she actually was doing slightly darker action stuff before becoming huge, notably D.O.A and The Presidio. And she was in The Doors. It's all coming back to me now.

She probably might've alright as Starling but I'm totally fine with Jodie getting the role. I agree that Julianne Moore didn't work at all. I like her as a person but there's many times certain disconnect with the character she's playing. It's always Julianne Moore playing the character. At least Meg Ryan was believable, and certainly Pfeiffer as well but she was just too pretty.

Why I refused to wear an FBI badge by Deidre Hall.

With Pfeiffer playing Clarice the audience would have feared for her character a little more, maybe. Because Pfeiffer had such fragile beauty about her. This ability of hers to seduce you with vulnerability is a big part of her Catwoman character.

Meg Ryan

They both would've been about as believable as intelligent, stern FBI agents as Farrah Fawcett was playing a detective on Charlie's Angels.

I think dykishness serves Clarice Starling well.

Michelle would have been phenomenal

Pfeiffer could act it, but even though she’s just 4 years older than Foster, she’d seem a little mature and sophisticated for an FBI trainee.

Forget giddy, airhead Ryan. She doesn’t belong anywhere near any official procedural job, like being a federal agent/detective.

Completely agree, r30, she is great in most thing and although not always good at choosing parts, she usually elevates the material.

Foster was good butI don’t she it was oscar material.

The movie is gruesome and r24’s description says it all. Specially at the time, when we hadn’t been overexposed to every kind of serial killer kinks there is. It opened the doors to a lot of crap.

Meg Ryan is a Hard NO.

I think Michelle’s beauty would have worked for the role.

All the things that rocked Clarice - the autopsy, Hannibal’s pestering - would have served as evidence that she was not FBI material.

The reason for Scott Glenn’s character choosing her would have been “obvious” to the other cadets.

Then, when Clarice shows up to the right address when the rest of the squad is at the wrong address would have been that much more frightening.

Pit girl screaming for her to come back would surely have felt like a goner.

And the night vision goggles scene would have the audience believing Gumm had his next victim.

[quote]R46 Pretty would have worked against Pfeiffer in all the right ways. All the things that rocked Clarice - the autopsy, Hannibal’s pestering - would have served as evidence that she was not FBI material. The reason for Scott Glenn’s character choosing her would have been “obvious” to the other cadets...

That all undercuts the existing character.

She’s attractive, but not some frail beauty.

Making it be about the character’s looks diminishes the whole point.

What, no votes for Elizabeth Berkley? She would have been great, giving Hannibal a lap dance and having a lezzie make out session with Ardelia Mapp.

And she would've nailed that "I can smell your cunt" line.

I think it should have gone to Tori Spelling.

I'm just grateful that Winona Ryder wasn't cast as Clarice. She seemed to be in everything back then, no matter how inappropriate she was for the particular role.

I’m surprised Holly Hunter wasn’t offered the role. Her down-home persona equalled Foster’s, at least. Pfeiffer would have been implausible as a plucky naif from a coal mining town. (Julianne Moore was also too elegant for Clarice, IMO.)

Holly Hunter could've done it, but perhaps she was just a tad too old. She was in her early 30s and looked it. Clarice was an FBI trainee, so she would've been 24ish. Foster was 28 at the time, but could pass for younger.

Holly Hunter played an FBI Agent in Copycat

How about DL Fave Julia Roberts?

Although Clarice Starling's appearance is never detailed in the novel "Silence of the Lamb" it is iterated several times that she's a goddess, gorgeous, an uberbabe. Men fall in love with her at first sight. Lecter does, Dr. Chilton does, and the crossed eyed bug expert Pilcher does, too. In appearance, MIchelle Pfeiffer would have been the obvious choice.

Holly Hunter could have been decent. But Jodie Foster was really perfect in the role.

Michelle Pfeiffer is by far the best actor among the three, but she would have been miscast.

She's too extraordinarily beautiful--she can never pass for someone who looks like a regular person.

I think Jodie Foster was the right choice.

Vera Farmigo (or whatever), Holly Hunter, Jennifer jason leigh, toni collette, laura linny, lily Taylor, etc would have been good. women who's looks are just a tiny bit off in a pinched way.

in no universe would anyone ever be able to say this about Michelle Pfeiffer 'You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition's given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? '

she would have been able to act the character well in many respects but the audience would never have accepted the above.

now it would be Michelle williams in the role.

[quote] Vera Farmigo (or whatever), Holly Hunter, Jennifer jason leigh, toni collette, laura linny, lily Taylor, etc would have been good.

In 1991, when the movie came out, Vera Farmiga had just graduated from high school.

Vera Farmiga and Toni Collette were in high school at the time.

yeah, I knew I was going to inappropriately lump a bunch of ages together. they all look the same age to me.

The thing about Clarice is that she was attractive enough, but she was COMMON. She was from white trash Appalachian stock. As others have said, Michelle Pfeiffer would've been totally unbelievable as a person from those kind of roots. Pfeiffer is a terrific actress, but white trash hillbilly is not something she could ever be convincing as.

She was too young at the time, but what about Charlize Theron in this role?

One of the reasons the film is a classic is because Jodie was perfect. We don’t need to recast Scarlett O’Hara, Margo Channing, or Clarice Starling. Let it go.

R55 Turning Clarice into an unlikely hero struggling to hold her own among powerful men is what made the film a gothic fairytale instead of a run-of-the mill serial killer drama. How cheesy it would have been if Lecter lusted after Clarice instead of her ambition (it literally sets him free). Harris gets away with the schlock in his novel because his details about criminal profiling and the cat/mouse pursuit are fascinating enough to make up for the tired character stereotypes.

"She's too extraordinarily beautiful--she can never pass for someone who looks like a regular person."

Clarice Starling didn't look like "a regular person." She was gorgeous; Dr. Chilton called her "glorious...a winter sunset of a girl." Not only is she a stunning looker, she's also tough, extremely moral, and seemingly has knowledge of EVERYTHING. I though Clarice Starling was as implausible as character as Dr. Lecter.

I never liked Jodie Foster's nervous, trembling performance in "Silence of the Lambs." And that hick accent! She really overdid with the accent. As for Anthony Hopkins' performance as Lecter...it was pure ham.

[quote]And that hick accent! She really overdid with the accent.

Have you ever been to West Virginia?? Her hick accent was right on target.

"Have you ever been to West Virginia?? Her hick accent was right on target."

Not everyone from West Virginia sounds like THAT. And I assume Starling would have acquired some polish from attending the University of Virginia and getting an education. It's like Foster wanted her to sound as white trashy as possible.

R67 For crying out loud. What about Movie Buffalo Bill - is he also too “extra” because of his demented tuck dancing and lotion scenes?

Only on DL can you find a continual debate about who else should have played an iconic film character who everyone agrees was the right choice and won a well deserved Oscar.

[quote]R55 it is iterated several times that she's a goddess, gorgeous, an uberbabe. Men fall in love with her at first sight. Lecter does, Dr. Chilton does, and the crossed eyed bug expert Pilcher does, too.

I don’t remember the book that way.... though Jame Gumb admires her hair. And plans to scalp her for it.

Straight men are attracted to most presentable women, period. And the characters you mention don’t “fall in love with her at first sight.” They’re intrigued by her, and respond to her, but it’s not like they turn into sputtering idiots.

[quote]I though Clarice Starling was as implausible as character as Dr. Lecter.

It's a work of FICTION. That's like saying you don't like Batman or Superman because they're implausible characters.

Pfeiffer could have done well in the role, but it’s true that her looks would have been too distracting. Clarice is beautiful *for an FBI agent*—a college degree and a career in the FBI is her big ticket out of a shit life. If Clarice looked like Pfeiffer, her big ticket would have been that face. Foster, looks-wise, was perfect. She was pretty but you could still imagine her coming from poor white trash and getting ahead with a combination of a gifted mind, good genes, and savvy.

meg is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fugs

R72 I guess that’s why Foster’s hair is glamorous in the film although the rest of her is not. I believe there’s a shot of Gumb reaching out to touch it in the night vision confrontation. Creepy.

[quote]R76 I believe there’s a shot of Gumb reaching out to touch it in the night vision confrontation. Creepy.

Yes. In the book Gumb is thinking something like, “It was a pity he couldn’t keep this one alive for a few days. There would be much to learn from watching how she naturally cared for and combed that hair.”

He also doesn’t want to shoot Clarice in the head while he’s following her in the basement, which would be the easiest shot, but unfortunately risk damaging the salvaged scalp.

Meg Ryan was the most talented a CD actress of the 90s. Her movies were so fun. You've Got Mail, French Kiss, the one where she plays an alcoholic suburban frau, etc.

Her hair is glam when she needs to dress/appear above her status. Clarice is smart and practical, and knows how to play up her best features. When she needs people to take her seriously, she blows out her gorgeous hair and carries her good bag. Having grown up so poor, she’s learned how to prioritize. There’s a great series of passages in the book that illustrate why that makes her so much better at gaining insight into the victims’ lives than the men. She knows the difference between Catherine Martin coming from money and having access to the good life despite the outward appearance of a slacker vs. Frederika Bimmel who was poor and who made her own clothes but invested in expensive creams to preserve her good skin.

When she’s busy being a student/grunt and not worried about how she looks, Clarice is plain (Hollywood plain at least). A very smart detail the film picked up on and used well.

The brilliance of the film version is how it shows that ALL young women are pursued and harassed by men to some extent, no matter how they dress, or how attractive they are. Pfeiffer would have only reinforced the trope that only hot women need to deal with male coveting (unless they are a size 14.)

The opening shot of Clarice in baggy sweats running the obstacle course pretty much sets it up. Despite her disheveled appearance, she is gawked at by a pair of male trainees running the opposite direction; she even looks a bit frantic, like prey escaping from a predator in the woods.

Then there is Chilton, Migs, Buffalo Bill (of course), Clarice’s intimidating and condescending male co-workers... Lecter is a goddamn gentleman in comparison, which I think is the film’s biggest jab.

This is one of the few times Hollywood got it right. Foster was great. Pfeiffer would have been good, but the movie would have felt different and might not have become the classic it is now. This is why casting is so important. Even a great actor miscast in a major role can throw things out of wack.

Meg Ryan would have been a big no. It's understandable why she was coveted for the role at the time since she was America's Sweetheart, but she was all wrong for it the same way she was wrong for To Die For and thank god Nicole Kidman stepped in and gave one of her best performances.

Come to think of it, Julia Roberts might have been an ok Clarice. It might seem a little off the wall and she might have been a little young at the time, but she was just coming off of Steel Magnolias and I don't think Pretty Woman had made her a star yet.

Demi Moore campaigned for the role.

Actually, the scene of the running guys who ogle happens when Clarice is jogging with Ardelia... my bad. Great foreshadowing, regardless, since Clarice and Ardelia later share the epiphany about how Lecter’s question “What do we covet?” will lead to the killer.

No disrespect to Jodie Foster, but she's totally believable playing someone who comes from a white trash hillbilly background. Pfeiffer and Ryan, no way. Pfeiffer especially.

R55. Lecter falls in love with her at first sight? Book Hannibal always seemed kinda gay or at least not completely straight to me ( his love for opera, all his known victims before the nurse at the Baltimore state hospital were male, him reading Vogue, Mason Verger trying to lure him into some S/M scenario, him watching Mason perform autoerotic asphyxiation before disfiguring him), also Thomas Harris based the character on a gay mexican surgeon.

R55. Lecter falls in love with her at first sight? Book Hannibal always seemed kinda gay or at least not completely straight to me ( his love for opera, all his known victims before the nurse at the Baltimore state hospital were male, him reading Vogue, Mason Verger trying to lure him into some S/M scenario, him watching Mason perform autoerotic asphyxiation before disfiguring him), also Thomas Harris based the character on a gay mexican surgeon.

"Lecter falls in love with her at first sight? Book Hannibal always seemed kinda gay or at least not completely straight to me."

Have you read the sequel 'Hannibal." SPOILER: He and Starling become a couple in that one. He's definitely NOT gay.

"And the characters you mention don’t “fall in love with her at first sight.” They’re intrigued by her, and respond to her, but it’s not like they turn into sputtering idiots."

They don't turn into "sputtering idiots" but it's evidentl that they WANT her. Chilton is certainly VERY interested: he taunts Lector over HIS attraction to her: "Years of silence and then Jack Crawford sends down his girl and you just went to jelly, didn't you? What was it that got you, Hannibal? Those good, hard ankles? The way her hair shines? She's glorious, isn't she? Remote and glorious. A winter sunset of a girl, that's the way I think of her. I know it's been some time since you've seen a winter sunset, but take my world for it." And of course the bug expert Noble Pilcher immediately falls for Starling, asking out for "cheeseburgers and beer or the amusing house wine." He's smitten with her; she tells him "Maybe I should call you when I can" and he blubbers ""You definitely should, absolutely, I would like that." He later invites her to spend a weekend with him at his sister's big house on the Chesapeake, which Starling considers "a bit much, considering we've never had a date. even." But she goes anyway, and at the end of the novel it's implied that she's sleeping "deeply, sweetly, in the silence of the lambs", in a bed with Pilcher. Yes, men go mad for the gorgeous Clarice Starling.

I know R87 but I still think that Lecter was originally intended to be a non heterosexual character, however after the success of Silence of the lambs Harris tried to straighten him out in Hannibal. He even quotes Truman Capote to Clarice at one point. Yes I know that's datalounge logic but I don't care ❤️.

Lecter’s sexual orientation is “control of others”... he gets off on hypnotizing people and eating them. Gender does not matter.

They should have cast Faye Dunaway. She wouldn't have been scared or put up with any bullshit from that little cannibal boy.

'I can smell your cunt'

Faye as Clarice 'Because I am ALL cunt you little homosexual boy!'

Madonna would have excelled in this role.

Madonna has all the vulnerability of an electric eel

Silence of the Lambs really ushered in all the forensic science stuff that became ubiquitous in our culture afterwards. All the tv shows and movies that followed are a result of this movie.

I hope no one who has seen "Silence of the Lambs" actually thinks it bears much resemblance to reality. No way would the FBI have a trainee be heavily involved in finding a very active serial killer. And of course Hannibal Lecter is such an over the top serial killer villain that it's actually funny. I always thought Hannibal Lecter was always more laughable than scary.

Obviously the only serious choice to play Clarice Starling was...

Miss Joan Crawford!

She could have easily pulled off the 24 year old, fresh faced FBI graduate going tete a tete against a madman.

"Tell me who decapitated your patient!"

Foster was perfect in SOTL. Pfeiffer would have been good in “The Accused”. And Meg Ryan as “Nell” would have been...interesting.

If Meg Ryan is cast as the next incarnation of the Joker, she will finally get her Academy Award.