Julia Sawalha dropped from 'Chicken Run' sequel for sounding 'too old'

She was old when she played Saffy. She must be ancient now.

She re-recorded her dialogue from the original movie and she sounds pretty much the same.

Never liked that bitch. She was always a cunt to Eddie and Pats.

R1 Huh? She was 23

Chicken Run was made before animated films had to have every character voiced by some popular actor or singer.

23 was too old to play a teenager and it showed.

She's being replaced by a much younger Catherine Zeta Jones.

Would you blame them?

Patsy and Roger: yes!

Julia Sawalha is the only reason I watched the first film. I'll give the sequel a hard pass. The producers are fools. Look at the Cars, Toy Story, and other animated franchises. They keep the same voice actors whenever possible. Get rid of those familiar voices, and what's the point?

Why a sequel 18 years after the original? Nobody even remembers or cares about Chicken Run.

She may dress like a Christian.....

The first one also had Mel Gibson’s voice. Did they replace him, too?

R13 Yes they did.

Julia has quite big tits.

There's nothing actresses hate more than no longer being the ingenue at 50.

She's always choking on her porridge.

“Act of god!”

“My life is like a constant winter.”

“She’s so cold, she has her periods in cubes.”

While I'm not downplaying that it's terrible to fire someone because they 'sound too old,' I"m that's totally agist, but Julia Sawalha does has have a reputation for being difficult to work with and may be they just didn't want to have anything to do with her? In which case, they should have just said, we don't want to work with you again.

The original film’s selling point was the British animation studio putting a new spin on a pointedly British genre (war films, chiefly THE GREAT ESCAPE), and the excellent ensemble cast of British television actors assembled for it besides just Sawalha. There was Imelda Staunton (Bunty the hen), Jane Horrocks (Babs the hen), Benjamin Whitrow (Fowler the rooster), Miranda Richardson (Mrs. Tweedy), and Timothy Spall & Phil Daniels (the rats, Nick & Fetcher).

Whatever they do with this new project - and from the synopsis, it doesn’t look a lot - without those collected voices and without the heartening backward to film history, it will not have the same considerable charm.

And in any event, Aardman stop-motion animations take forever to make. Often it’s some years after announcement that their films ever see the light. There’s time for a change of heart in the casting department.

She sounds much the same. I presume they'll ask Emma Watson or something.

Julia never really played the ingenue. From "Press Gang," "Ab Fab" etc. she was always the smart, plucky type.

Did she recently lose a child, or am I confusing her with someone else?

Her sister, Nadia, has children.

She’s probably a cunt. What are they going to say...we’re not using you because you’re a cunt? She didn’t get a part she wanted, like hundreds of actors every day. Next.

She played the part before. And some of her co-stars are returning for the sequel.

Oh you little bitch troll from hell...

“A knitting needle!”

I like her. She was awesome in AbFab and Pride and Prejudice. I hope they don't replace Jane Horrocks in Chicken Run 2 as well. I won't miss Mel Gibson at all though. Never found him attractive. Racist homophobic POS that was always full of himself.

I'm a huge fan of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun The Sheep.

They should find a gay Australian actor to replace Mel. Nicholas Hamilton?

“I am a self raising flower.”

As much as I love Saffy as a character, Sawalha was just not a very good actress--she always tipped her hand too much. They've be re-running "Pride and Prejudice" lately on PBS and she's such an over-actor. Both she and the actress who plays Mrs. Bennet are over-the-top, and almost everyone else in the cast is so terrific.

Apparently Mel's being replaced by his brother Donal Gibson

Sounds like she needs to use the BunVac on the casting and producing departments.

R21 Where did you hear that she is difficult to work with?

I have never really risked losing what matters.

well that's too bad, i thought all the voices were great the first time. esp. jane horrocks and lynn ferguson.