What have been among the most coveted roles in Hollywood history?

Me, bitches.

How come Paul Newman ever played a homosexual?

These nation-wide screen tests making use of gullible young females was an EXCELLENT source of unpaid, nationwide publicity.

Fox tried it in 1947.

They imported a British girl who was rudely dumped for someone they already had on contract (a very dreary woman, IMHO)

James Bond

The roles in the Star Wars sequels, most recently young Han Solo

Harry Potter

The role of Edie Sedgwick in whatever flop film it was that Sienna Miller ultimately got, was tested w dozens and dozens of actresses trying for it. Like above, the film flopped.

One of the most fought-for roles among young men during my lifetime was the part that went ultimately to Ed Norton in "Primal Fear." It was so showy (a young murderer who apparently has a split personality--one rambunctious and evil, the other stuttering and gentle) that everyone knew whoever got it would gets tons of attention, and that's indeed what happened.

Annie in Annie Get Your Gun in film and television.

There has been too much focus on films, and not enough on stage and television.

T. E. Lawrence, for "Lawrence of Arabia"--went of course to Peter O'Toole (then pretty much an unknown)

r8, you're welcome to start threads on whatever you'd like. This one is about Hollywood, whether you approve or not.

Paul Newman played a closeted homosexual in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Every young actress in Hollywood wanted Clarice Starling in SOTL.

In the 2000s, so many actresses wanted to play Edie Sedgwick in Factory Girl. Funny since the movie mediocre.

I think every actress, model and porn star auditioned to be Ginger in Casino.

LINDA BLAIR BEAT OUT 500 OTHER ACTRESSES TO PLAY REGAN IN "THE EXORCIST"

For any movie or TV show, filmmakers usually hold auditions to decide which actor or actress is a good fit for the role. In the case of Regan MacNeil, Linda Blair is said to have beat out 500 other actresses for the role. Not very many child actresses would be able to handle the intensity that The Exorcist required, but Linda Blair’s mother actually brought her to the audition without an appointment because she knew her daughter could play the role. Blair could apparently keep it together while talking about the obscene things her character would have to do, and the director knew she had to be cast.

[quote] Every young actress in Hollywood wanted Clarice Starling in SOTL.

And then it was offered first to Michelle Pfeiffer, who turned it down.

Evita

From an article about casting the role of Gandhi in Attenborough's film. Funny that Brando (anything but emaciated at that point) was considered.

The project had been 20 years in the pipeline and would go on to win eight Oscars, including best picture and best director for Attenborough and best actor for Ben Kingsley, the brilliant young actor who was eventually plucked from near obscurity for the starring role. But documents from Attenborough's archive reveal just how close the 1982 movie came to blowing it.

Seemingly nearly every great - and white - actor from Alec Guinness to Marlon Brando, from Albert Finney to Al Pacino - was suggested before Attenborough opted, almost by chance, for the largely unknown Kingsley. Born Krishna Pandit Bhanji - and now knighted as Sir Ben Kingsley - he was part Gujarati by descent.

The archive, held at Sussex University and finally catalogued four years after Attenborough's death, contains 70 boxes alone devoted to Attenborough's correspondence on Gandhi. Much of it focuses on his great dilemma - who should play Gandhi.The archives reveal that Attenborough and John Briley, the screenwriter (who also won an Oscar), agonised over the title role. The first preferred actor was Alec Guinness. The search had begun in 1963 and Attenborough wrote to Guinness, pleading with him to play the title role. "My dear Dickie," wrote Guinness's agent in March that year, "I have had a long letter from Alec this morning, and as I feared he gives a negative answer." Guinness in his own letter to Attenborough was even more blunt. "I'm too big, grey, fat and blue-eyed and would sound like Peter Sellers," he explained.

The hunt went on. Some of the casting options in the Gandhi files make for comical reading.Albert Finney turned down the part, in rather gruff terms. Brando, fresh from playing the monstrously large Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, and weighing more than 15st, was proposed in the role of the slight leader, who weighed less than 8st.Dustin Hoffman was also approached as well as Al Pacino. Peter Falk - best known for playing the scruffy TV detective Columbo - came up in conversation, and so did, in the words of Attenborough, "Peter Sellers (bless him)". By 1980, and the film close to shooting, the battle over who should get the part, continued to rage. Briley wrote to Attenborough in that year: "I think you have to fight for John Hurt... And cast the rest of the Indians as light as you can." Hurt was given a screen test but even the actor was appalled when he saw the "rushes". "Well it's impossible, isn't it? My whole physique looks utterly ridiculous," wrote Hurt.

Attenborough by then had deep misgivings at the prospect of a white actor playing Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation. Attenborough's saviour was at hand. He saw Kingsley in Bertolt Brecht's Baal at the Donmar Warehouse and then called him for a screen test at Shepperton Studios on July 25, 1980. He watched the audition back with Kingsley. According to Michael Attenborough, his son, the director turned to Kingsley and sighed: "Well, I suppose you'd better play it then."Kingsley replied: "I shall be the film's most humble servant."

The rest is cinema history.

Cleopatra.

Audrey Hepburn, Dana Wynter, Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Joan Collins, and more were all considered.

There's always been a lot of fighting over who could be the next Superman every time they've cast or recast that part. Nic Cage desperately wanted to play it, and was even cast when Jon Peters was behind a new entry in the series that never got beyond a few screen tests.

Salieri in Amadeus. Everyone new that would be a primo Oscar bait role.

Girl With A Dragon Tattoo was like a bucket of blood to the sharks ... J-Law, Scarlett, K-Stew, Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightly, Emma Watson ... they all wanted it. Some more desperately than others. Portman was offered the role unlike those gals and she turned it down. Not because of exhaustion as reported, but she didn't want the anal rape scene in the movie to that extent and it was clear the actress was going to have to sleep with Fincher by all reports.

Here here on Ed Norton in Primal Fear. I remember some old Matt Damon interview when he said every actor was drooling for it and Ed got it.

At one time Joanne Woodward was the favorite for Cleopatra, mainly because she was a Fox contract player and an Oscar Winner when the film was to be done on the cheap. Then they decided Joan Collins would be better. Then she was out and Liz was in when the budget increased.

I always considered Joan Collins to be the low rent Liz Taylor. So that amuses me.

I don't know about this stuff.

Mrs. Nicolas Cage.

The role is a bore but the payday spectacular.

I'm sure the V of the Ds roles were coveted.

The role of Amber in FOREVER AMBER (1947), played on screen by Linda Darnell. Condemned by the League of Decency!

Not sure if 'coveted' is the right word but Selina (Catwoman) in The Dark Knight Rises had a bunch of young actresses (Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Keira Knightley, Kate Mara, Gemma Arterton, Jessica Biel, Blake Lively, Lady Gaga, and Charlotte Riley) going for it. Obviously it went to Hathaway.

They made the right choice R15 Pfeiffer, who is a very capable actress, was far too pretty to play a convincing Clarice. Julianne Moore was also badly miscast in the sequel.

Every actress in her prime coveted the part of Frances Farmer in the biopic of the tragic star's life, from Natalie Wood, who tried to get Farmer's autobiography "Will There Really Be a Morning?" on the big screen back in the '60s, to Susan Dey(!) In the next two decades, the list of potential Franceses grew into a veritable Who's Who of talented leading ladies: Meryl Streep, Kim Basinger, Susan Blakely (who made her own TV version of "Will There Really Be A Morning?"), Anne Archer, Ann-Margret, Blythe Danner, Patty Duke, Mia Farrow, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Goldie Hawn, Glenda Jackson, Diane Keaton, Liza Minnelli, Michelle Phillips, Katharine Ross, Susan Sarandon, Cybill Shepherd, Sissy Spacek, Tuesday Weld, and finally, Jessica Lange.

Me! I should have been Catwoman!

A slew of actresses "of a certain age" were in the running to play the female lead in The Bridges of Madison County: Cher, Anjelica Huston, Barbara Hershey, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, and probably a few more I've forgotten, before Meryl Streep got the role.

What about the film adaptation of EVITA?

Re casting Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof". Can't imagine Sinatra or Burton...

In casting the 1971 film version of Fiddler on the Roof, director Norman Jewison and his production team sought an actor other than Zero Mostel for the lead role. This decision was a controversial one, as Mostel had made the role famous in the long-running Broadway musical and wanted to star in the film.[24] But Jewison and his team felt Mostel would eclipse the character with his larger-than-life personality. Jewison flew to London in February 1968 to see Topol perform as Tevye during his last week with the London production, and chose him over Danny Kaye, Herschel Bernardi, Rod Steiger, Danny Thomas, Walter Matthau, Richard Burton, and Frank Sinatra, who had also expressed interest in the part.

Amazing Amy in Gone Girl was widely sought after including by co-producer Reese Witherspoon. The director David Fitchner wanted Rosamund Pike and got her.

I never miss a Rod Steiger musical!

The title role in ‘Sophie’s Choice’ was much sought after because actresses knew the train platform moment would win them an Oscar if they played it well. Goldie Hawn was just one of the stars fought hard for the part.

R37 He was very good as Jud in "Oklahoma!" in 1955.

I was the first choice for Meryl Streep's role in Kramer vs. Kramer, but I had to turn it down because I had a previous committment with Mr. Burt Reynolds' dinner theater in Jupiter Florida.

Usher jobs in the theater aren't as plentiful as you think.

Re "My Fair Lady":

At the time Warner Bros began production on the film, Julie Andrews had starred in "My Fair Lady" on Broadway making the play the “longest run of any major musical theatre production in history.” So when it came to casting for Eliza Doolittle, many assumed Andrews would get the role.Jack Warner instead chose Audrey Hepburn, a major Hollywood star at the time, leaving the critics outraged.

He later explained in his autobiography, “Why did I choose Audrey Hepburn instead of Julie Andrews, the original Eliza (for ‘My Fair Lady’)? There was nothing mysterious or complicated about that decision. With all her charm and ability, Julie Andrews was just a Broadway name known primarily to those who saw the play. But in Clinton, Iowa and Anchorage, Alaska, and thousands of other cities and towns in our 50 states and abroad you can say Audrey Hepburn, and people instantly know you’re talking about a beautiful and talented star. In my business I have to know who brings people and their money to a movie theatre box office. I knew Audrey Hepburn had never made a financial flop…”

R38, the strange thing about "Sophie's Choice" is that its author, William Styron, wrote it with Ursula Andress (of all people!) in mind as Sophie. Alan Pakula originally wanted Liv Ullman, and considered Marthe Keller and Barbra Streisand, before going with Meryl.

Liv Ullman would actually have been great as Sophie. She is a first-class actress.

Ursula Andress would have been one stacked Sophie!

Streisand actually offered to do the role without pay - which for her is incredible - but ironically she was wrong for the part. Sophie is supposed to NOT look Jewish so Barba no way.

I think Adrienne Barbeau read for Sophie too.

Joan Fontaine said in an YouTube interview that Rita Hayworth was someone else who tested for Rebecca, though her screen test is not available. Rita was in real life a shy lady so that might have worked except maybe no one would believe someone so gorgeous would have to be a paid companion.

R40 Very funny but in truth the role that Meryl Streep played was actually Kate Jackson's for the taking but she couldn't get released from Charlies Angels.

Same thing happened to Deidre Hall. She was wanted by the Bond producers for Moonraker but couldn't get released from Days of Our Lives so it went to Lois Chiles.

My loving and unsuspecting “wife”. Still trying to cast.

R47, John Travolta had to turn down a big role in "Days of Heaven" because of his prior obligations to "Welcome Back Kotter." The part went to Richard Gere, and Travolta went into a deep depression. However, by the time Terence Malick was done editing Days, releasing it two years later, Travolta had become the biggest star on the planet.

A year later, when superstar Travolta was up for "American Gigolo," he demanded $3 mil, no nudity, and final cut approval. But the flop of "Moment by Moment" killed his passion for the project and he backed out. The role went to Richard Gere.

A few years later, Travolta turned down "An Officer and a Gentleman," complaining that the girl had the best part. He later regretted it. It was a big hit and made Richard Gere an even bigger star.

I tried out for the lead in "Taster's Choice".

R49 Speaking of Terrence Malick every actor on the planet wanted to be in The Thin Red Line. And most of them were even if they ended up on the cutting room floor.

Travolta sounds like he became a big ol' diva with those kind of demands and complaints, and made some very poor choices.

William Styron wrote Sophie the way a teenage boy would imagine a sexy older woman, having her do explicit sex scenes, discussing her "tits and cunt". No wonder he had Ursula Andress in mind when writing the book!

The roles of Rose and Jack when Casting the epic Titanic were obviously highly coveted.

Carole Landis was given the pivotal role of Doña Sol, in BLOOD AND SAND (1941), but after telling Zanuck she no longer wanted to be his daily fuck toy, he pulled her from the film with the lame excuse that Landis "Did not want to color her hair red" for the role. Before borrowing Rita Hayworth from Columbia (which he did painfully, as he cancelled the then Rita Cansino's Fox contract when he took over the studio in 1935) Zanbuck tested other actresses for the role including Maria Montez.

Rita was great....but Montez would have been FABULOUS.

R49 Wow!

The parts of Mozart and Salieri in Amadeus. The film's director, Milos Forman, met with thousands of actors in auditions held over the course of a year, and when the winnowing process was over, he selected F. Murray Abraham to play Antonio Salieri and Tom Hulce to portray the object of his consuming envy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Sorry, OP -- Davis and Sarandon were among the last choices for Thelma and Louise -- most actresses turned it down. Your Hollywood history is off

r35 Wasn't it part of Tevye's charm to be larger-than-life? They had a ready-made in Mostel, but he was not cast for what reason? Too ethnic? Not handsome enough for a major film? Overly Broadway-ish?

Danny Kaye? Sinatra??? I'm wondering if those names are just an inside joke? At that rate why not also consider Wally Cox or Ozzie Nelson? It's a good thing cooler heads prevailed, and Topol was cast.

I believe Wally had shuffled off this mortal coil by then.

No, r58, he hadn’t. Fiddler filmed for five more months beginning in August, 1970, and was released in Nov, 1971. Wally kicked the bucket in Feb, 1973.

If it had been made ten years earlier, he would have been a perfect Motel Kamzoil.

Anecdote about Mostel: when Fiddler won those Tony awards:

[quote]No one mentioned Zero Mostel in their Tony acceptance speeches. When Mostel went up to accept his award, he said, "Since no one else has thanked me, I will thank me.”

Mostel was known for being a huge pain in the ass. And his shtick, which worked well on a Broadway stage, was not as well suited for the big screen.

At the polar opposite end—the role nobody wanted: Catherine Trammel in Basic Instinct. Ironically, it made Sharon Stone a star and the role is iconic (for the wrong reasons more or less.)

Everyone needs to remember that every coveted role for a male lead in the last twelve years was first offered to Joe Mangeniello—who regretfully had to decline due to his “busy schedule.”

A lot of actors wanted the male lead in Garland's A Star Is Born: In particular, Bogart and Sinatra really coveted it. Garland and Luft wanted Cary Grant, but he thought the role was emotionally draining and that working with Judy would be even more draining. Of course, it eventually went to James Mason.

Personally, I think Sinatra would have been fantastic.

"Natalie Wood, who tried to get Farmer's autobiography "Will There Really Be a Morning?" on the big screen back in the '60s"

That piece of crap was published after Frances' death in 1970, r31. An unfinished manuscript was used embellished with lurid bits of fiction.

I would suspect the following roles Would have been sought after :

Virginia wolf in Who's afraid of

Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly

Laura in Doctor Zhivago

Maggie in Cat on a hot tin roof

Many Hollywood and Broadway legends were considered to replace Judy Garland after she was fired from Valley of the Dolls, including Bette Davis, Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Ann Sothern, Lucille Ball, Lana Turner, Gene Tierney, Rita Hayworth, Joan Fontaine and Lauren Bacall.

But the role went to Helen Lawson, and that's me, baby, remember?

Goober on Mayberry RFD

Goober survived being in the locker room scene in "All American" directed by well-known locker room scene aficionado Josh Logan.

Before the role of Dorothy Boyd on “Jerry Maguire” went to unknown Renée Zellweger, Hollywood’s former A-list were eager to get cast. In addition, her casting in “Bridget Jones” and “Chicago” made The likes of Charlize Theron, Toni Collette, Madonna, Goldie Hawn, Kate Winslet, and Gwyneth Paltrow pissed off.

Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels. Young Han Solo (the next Harrison Ford). James Bond was mentioned. Superman, Batman. The evil, shape shifting Terminator in T2. Basically the opportunity to be a recurring character that's part of a huge, well known franchise.

Bio film roles based on well known figures: Queen Elizabeth, Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra, JFK, J. Edgar Hoover

[quote] Virginia wolf in Who's afraid of

She has just one scene at the end of the play, and it's doozy. While hugging a devastated Martha, a hungover George starts singing, "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf," and Woolf sticks her head in the window and says, "I am, George... I am." And then both George and Martha, thinking she had drowned back in 1941, scream in terror.

"[R35] Wasn't it part of Tevye's charm to be larger-than-life? They had a ready-made in Mostel, but he was not cast for what reason? Too ethnic? Not handsome enough for a major film? Overly Broadway-ish? "

Probably "overly Broadway-ish". These are supposed to be poor villagers in a shtetl, not poor villagers backing up Broadway STAR!!

I love Mostel in "The Producers" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum" and other films, but he was an overwhelming presence and it was a rare actor who could even attempt to share the screen with him. I can see why a director might think that he wanted the movie version of "Fiddler on the Roof" to be a realistic ensemble piece and not a star vehicle for Mostel, but maybe he was wrong. The finished film is kind of dull, Mostel's star quality and humor might have helped.

R33 that part should have went to Patty Duke

I'd imagine every woman wanted to play Mama Rose in Gypsy before Rosalind Russell's husband snatched up the rights so no one else could have a chance. I'm sure a few wanted to have their go at Mame, too, because Lucille Ball did the same thing.

I have a feeling Reese Witherspoon did the same thing with Gone Girl, hoping that she'd get the role. Come to think of it, she'd be interesting in the role if not ideal. Clearly, Fincher wanted a colder, more distant Amy. I think Reese could have really sold the "cool girl" aspect of the character. She seems like the kind of girl you'd eat Cheetos with on the couch while in sweatpants. I sorta longed for a more playful, dynamic Amy. Rosamund Pike was decent, but a little too cold and patrician for me.

Elaine Stritch tested for Maria in The Sound of Music.

Apparently Mystic River by Clint Eastwood. It had about 4 roles for actors in their late 40s and everyone wanted in,

Daisy Buchanan in the 2013 version of The Great Gatsby. Carey Mulligan ultimately got the role, but lots of other actresses wanted it, and were mentioned in the trades as being considered during the casting process: Keira Knightley, Blake Lively, Scarlett Johansson, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Hall, Abbie Cornish, Michelle Williams, Natalie Portman.

A lesser known one, but the female lead in The Sheltering Sky (dir. Bertolucci) was MUCH sought-after. It was a juicy part in the novel and Bertolucci's most recent film (The Last Emperor) had won 9 Oscars including Best Picture.

Meryl and Lange both wanted it and were in talks. Annette Bening was actually attached for some time and said in a THR roundtable a few years ago that it was the one role she wanted that she didn't get to do. Melanie Griffith and Ellen Barkin were considered at some point (despite how wrong they seem on paper), I believe Emma Thompson also. Natasha Richardson (RIP) wrote a long letter to Bertolucci begging for the role, Judy Davis has named it as the one part that got away, and I think several others wanted it too.

In the end Debra Winger got the role, and the film was released with little fanfare and not much awards buzz. Perhaps it was a more impressive role on paper than what appeared in the final cut.

And most of them would have been more convincing

R33, according to director Bruce Beresford, he had worked on pre-production on "The Bridges of Madison County" unpaid for a year, with Clint Eastwood and Jessica Lange set to star. Eastwood, however, was uncooperative and was manipulating the producers to let him direct, so Beresford quit. With Eastwood now at the helm, he sacked Jessica, whom he never liked, and hired Meryl.

R56 is right.

OP is wrong.

Least coveted: Maxie, so they just hired G.

I still love that Joan Crawford fought so hard to play what she called "that egghead lady," the title role in MADAME CURIE that went ultimately to Greer Garson. Can you imagine Joan explaining how to isolate radium?

Several actresses have wanted to make films out of THE BELL JAR in the last twenty years so they could play he lead role of Esther Greenwood, and have not succeeded. (The film actually made of it starring Marilyn Hassett in 1977 has largely been forgotten.)

Reese Witherspoon, Kirsten Dunst. and Julia Stiles all tried to get it made, and none of them succeeded before they aged out of the part.

"How come Paul Newman ever played a homosexual?"

English, please!

"that part should have went to Patty Duke"

R73 What an ignorant cunt you are.

Scarlet and Rhett.

R87 Really just Scarlet as 'The King' was pretty considered the only choice for Rhett Butler. Anyway, they got one of the best pairings ever in cinema.