It’s always interesting to find out what actors or actresses were in the running for other parts that they didn’t get.
With the decision in the hands of the director, it could change the course of someone’s career or the success of the movie. Some examples include Scarlett Johansson who was in the running for Kirsten Dunst’s role in Jumanji and both Emma Roberts and Chloe Grace Moretz auditioned for the role of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games but lost out to Jennifer Lawrence.
It could be that the directors already have a good idea who they want but need a large group of people to audition to make sure of their decision.
This latest auditionee is quite surprising. It turns out Gwen Stefani was in the running for Angelina Jolie’s Mr & Mrs Smith role. According to US Weekly, she told radio presenter Howard Stern, “I feel like I almost got it. I went to a bunch [of auditions].”
She added, “[It was] very competitive and I wanted to do it, but I wanted to do music more.”
She also revealed the audition process to Vogue magazine in 2008 when she said, “It was between me and Angelina Jolie, and I’m like, ‘Oh, great. I got a shot here. The whole acting thing really feels like something I could do. Whenever I’ve done it, whenever I had moments where it works, it’s just like performing. You hit a moment. And that’s what movies are: a series of moments.”
Other people who were in concideration for the role aren’t so surprising and include Nicole Kidman, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Chloë Sevigny.
The interesting part is that Angelina Jolie met her current husband, Brad Pitt, on set of the movie as they were the lead roles. Had she not secured the role then they may not be together today.
