CASTING OUCH
Stars turned down for bonkers reasons
★ SPOTS once put paid to top star Chris Pine getting a role, as we revealed yesterday.
The Star Trek and Wonder Woman actor says he was passed over for the part of Ryan Atwood in TV drama The OC because of an acne attack, calling the experience “traumatic”.
★ But it’s not the only unusual reason a celeb has been rejected from gigs on the big and small screen, as JAMES MOORE reveals…
Ugly truth: Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield is a heartthrob to many fans now, but failed to land the part of Prince Caspian in 2008’s The Chronicles Of Narnia movie because of his looks. After he nagged his agent for a reason, she said:
“It’s because they don’t think you’re handsome enough.”
Chuckled out:
Another actor who made his name playing Spider-Man –
Tom Holland – flunked an audition for 2015’s Star Wars:
The Force Awakens after giggling at an android. The part of Finn eventually went to John Boyega.
He said: “I obviously didn’t get the part.
That wasn’t my best moment.”
Instawham: She’s starred in movies such as Super 8 and TV shows like The Great, but Elle Fanning says she once lost out on a big franchise movie role because she didn’t have enough Instagram followers. She said: “That’s something I firmly don’t believe in, for not getting a part.”
What a loser: Hollywood legend Robert Redford lobbied for the role of Benjamin in classic flick The Graduate, eventually played by Dustin Hoffman. Its director had to let him down, telling him: “You could never play a loser.”
Uh oh seven: Superman star Henry Cavill was told he wasn’t “lean enough”’ to play James Bond at 21, while Avatar’s Sam Worthington admits his audition for the same part was “awful” as he couldn’t woo a woman in the style of 007, saying: “I couldn’t get the charm.”
Fame shame: Singer Harry Styles lost out on playing Elvis Presley in the 2022 biopic because he was too famous. Director Baz Luhrmann said: “The real issue with Harry is he’s already an icon.”
Puss over: Actress Sean Young once turned up unannounced at a studio in a bid to get the part of Catwoman in 1992’s Batman Returns dressed up in the superheroine’s outfit because she was so keen to get the
role. She didn’t. The part went to Michelle Pfeiffer.
Pretty crazy: Catherine ZetaJones was told she was “too old” to play a 20-year-old at the age of 19, as well as “too pretty” for the lead role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage show Aspects Of Love. Water cheek: Dame Joan Collins recalled being rejected for a role as she wouldn’t share a bath with a producer: “He definitely wasn’t playing with his rubber duck when he asked me to get in with him. When I refused, I was asked to leave, and I didn’t get the part.”
Ziggy star bust: Amazingly singer David Bowie was rejected by the BBC for a talent show back in 1965 because bosses thought the star, who would find fame with hits like Space Oddity, was “devoid of personality”.