Lucy Ball and John Waters

Lucy was supposed to play Aunt Ida but.....

"Lucy Ball"?

It's either "Lucille Ball" or just "Lucy".

It was originally supposed to be Serial Grandma, but then Lucy died or Gary talked her out of it.

It's funny, because John wanted Vivian Vance for one of his movies- which she wanted to do, but had to decline because she was afraid it would ruin her dinner theater circuit money.

I think Lucy Ball could have played Cuddles in Polyester, even though Edith was perfection.

Ricki Lake wasn't a fan

Amateur.

OP, there was no reason to start a new thread for this.

It's not helpful to think of careers in terms of what iconic roles an actor or actress could've done in a hit movie.

For actors, there's the decision to work. Lucy didn't want to work. She didn't want to read the scripts, meet with the writers and directors, and put time into offering ideas on projects that might or might not have happened. She probably also had a reputation as very demanding, which means filled with ideas that absolutely had to be added to the project regardless of whether the team working on it understood how to make her ideas work.

She didn't need the money. She didn't have a desperate need to act. And she didn't take the time to read scripts and pitch herself for roles she enjoyed or thought she could do something interesting with. She was done.

I wrote R9. Sometimes actors will read something and enjoy it so much they'll take a role that might not be a 100% perfect fit or take a supporting role that isn't the center of attention. She chose not to do that either. She didn't want to work and wasn't lured into it with offers that were too enticing to turn down.

Kind of like Streisand's problem. She's too much to deal with and too hard to make a deal with.

Lucy had died long before it was filmed, but imagine her playing Meemaw in Pecker.

Pussy willows! And bring me HOT coffee.