Hollywood almost looked completely different! Join us as we explore the fascinating world of musical casting what-ifs, featuring some of the biggest stars who were inches away from iconic roles that ultimately went to someone else.
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00:00Is this where the auditions are?
00:01This is where the auditions were. We're finished.
00:06What about me?
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks
00:10for the alternate castings that almost completely changed movie musicals.
00:14And it seems the world that I long to see out of reach.
00:21Number 10. Julie Andrews, My Fair Lady.
00:24I could have spread my wings and done a thousand things I'd never done before.
00:37The Lerner and Lowe stage musical was a major hit on Broadway. Studio chief Jack L. Warner
00:42was clearly enamored enough with the production to recast actor Rex Harrison as Professor Henry
00:47Higgins in the film version. However, he thought the show's other lead, Julie Andrews, wasn't well
00:53known enough. I had never made a movie. I was not a star. I was not box office.
00:58But you were the star of it on Broadway. Everybody had bought the record.
01:01Warner replaced her with one of Hollywood's biggest stars, Audrey Hepburn. Andrews got the
01:06last laugh, though. That same year, she became a sensation in the role of Mary Poppins, winning
01:12several accolades, including the Best Actress Oscar. In fact, she even thanked Warner in her
01:17Golden Globe acceptance speech. Finally, my thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie
01:21and who made all this possible in the first place, Mr. Jack Warner.
01:31After all, if she had been cast in My Fair Lady, she wouldn't have been free to play Mary Poppins.
01:36Pour a spoonful of sugar, helps the medicine go down, the medicine go down, medicine go down.
01:45Number 9. John Travolta, Chicago.
01:59In another world, it would have been Danny Zuko himself puppeteering Renee Zellweger.
02:03John Travolta was originally offered the role of Billy Flynn,
02:06Chicago's sleazy and slick lawyer who makes a career out of defending beautiful murderesses.
02:21In fact, the Grease star was seriously considering signing on. However,
02:25Travolta declined on the grounds that he wasn't sure anyone could make a good movie adaptation
02:30from the stage show. He later said, however, that if he had met with director Rob Marshall
02:34and heard his vision for the story, he might have reconsidered. Billy Flynn
02:38was ultimately played by Richard Gere.
02:49Number 8. Carrie Fisher, Greece.
02:51Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.
02:55In the late 70s, director Randall Kleiser was about to start shooting the big-screen
02:59adaptation of Grease. He was able to consult his old college roommate and fellow filmmaker
03:04George Lucas' Star Wars Rushes in order to gauge Princess Leia actress Carrie Fisher for the role
03:09of Sandy Olsen. If Fisher had been given the role, she probably would have been a major departure
03:14from Olivia Newton-John, seeing as she's now known for her sardonic wit and edgy screen persona.
03:20A little short for a stormtrooper. Huh? Oh, the uniform.
03:26I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm here to rescue you. You're who?
03:29Fortunately, we did get to hear Fisher's musical chops in the Star Wars holiday special.
03:34A day of harmony. A day of joy we all can share.
03:46Number 7. Meryl Streep and Michelle Pfeiffer, Evita.
03:50What do I see? That's the question I'm most afraid of.
03:59Bringing Andrew Lloyd Webber's epic musical to the screen was a long and arduous process.
04:04The movie's then-screenwriter and director Oliver Stone originally wanted Meryl Streep to play
04:09Argentinian First Lady Eva PerĂłn. Streep prepped for the role and even recorded some songs,
04:25before both she and Stone dropped out. Michelle Pfeiffer was the next choice for the vocally
04:30demanding role. She had sung on screen in The Fabulous Baker Boys, and her involvement was
04:35confirmed at one point. But once she had a child and production moved from America to England,
04:50she left. After imploring Parker to cast her, Madonna was hired instead.
04:55Number 6. Miles Teller and Emma Watson, La La Land.
05:07Writer-director Damien Chazelle made the less expensive whiplash in order to get funding for
05:11this Los Angeles-set movie musical. Miles Teller starred as the drummer protagonist in that film.
05:26When La La Land became a possibility, Chazelle wanted to cast Teller again, this time as jazz
05:34musician Sebastian Wilder. Chazelle was also eager to have Harry Potter actress Emma Watson
05:39in the role of Mia, the aspiring actress who Sebastian falls in love with. Subsequent changes
05:47to the script necessitated slightly older actors. The final film would see Ryan Gosling and Emma
05:52Stone starring as the central couple. Number 5. Hugh Jackman, The Phantom of the Opera.
06:09A lot has been said about the casting of Gerard Butler. Unfortunately,
06:22his singing didn't earn him much in the way of praise. Unsurprisingly,
06:33there were a lot of big names in the mix for this massive Broadway adaptation.
06:37One of the possible phantoms was Hugh Jackman. Although he had already made his X-Men debut as
06:42Wolverine by then, the Tony winner was known to a lot of theatergoers as an accomplished
06:47song and dance man. Jackman confirmed he got a call to play the role, but he was sadly unavailable.
06:53It's hard not to dream about what could have been. His later Les Miserables co-star Anne
07:07Hathaway was even attached to play Christine at one point. Number 4. Amanda Seyfried, Wicked.
07:20Given its status among Broadway fans, the two-decade lead-up to the Wicked film saw a lot
07:25of different actresses up for the parts of Elphaba and Glinda. Once casting for the epic
07:30two-part adaptation was underway in the early 2020s, Glinda saw some heavy hitters stepping
07:35up to the plate. Allegedly, Renee Rapp and Dove Cameron both got fairly far in the audition
07:40process, but Mean Girls star Amanda Seyfried may have been one of the finalists. She set her sights
07:59on the role as soon as she heard the project was a go. Although her audition lasted several months,
08:04it was Ariana Grande who eventually won out. Number 3. Goldie Hawn and Madonna, Chicago.
08:26Between its Broadway debut in 1975 and its Oscar-winning film adaptation,
08:31there have been at least two attempts to give the merry murderesses of Chicago the
08:34Hollywood treatment. In the late 80s, Goldie Hawn wanted to produce and star in her own version.
08:39She brought pop star Madonna on board to play Roxy Hart to her Velma Kelly. Then,
08:44Harvey Weinstein had the role rewritten to be much younger than Hawn could play.
08:48"...who was writing my part for a 23-year-old. And he said, well, actually, you can't play 23.
08:55And I said to him, oh, oh yeah, I can, actually."
08:58Despite his underhanded approach to squeeze her out of the project,
09:01Hawn was paid for her development work on the movie,
09:04and Weinstein would later produce the 2002 version.
09:06"...you know, all my life, I wanted to have my own act. But no, no, no, no, no,
09:14always no. They always turn me down. One big world full of no."
09:18Number 2. Taylor Swift, Les Miserables.
09:21"...I think it had been established that I, I had more of a look of Cosette, but I had the range
09:27vocally of Eponine. So it was established that, like, I was there for a good time, not a long time."
09:32The story of redemption and revolution in 19th century France requires a packed cast
09:37with vocal chops. This big-budget production clearly had the money to spare to net some
09:42huge talent. One of the more puzzling but intriguing announcements for the cast was
09:46Taylor Swift, who was set to be offered the role of the long-suffering Eponine.
09:50"...Without him, the world around me changes. The trees are barren everywhere,
09:57the streets are full of strangers."
10:00Swift has since explained that while she did a series of screen tests for the roles of Eponine
10:05and Cosette, the roles ultimately went to performers with more acting experience.
10:09Samantha Barks and Amanda Seyfried were cast as Eponine and Cosette respectively,
10:14and Swift would land a notorious big-budget movie musical a few years later.
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10:391. Beyoncé – A Star Is Born
10:42I then saw Judy Garland's version of A Star Is Born, and I realized every 20, 30 years,
10:50a new star is born and a new talent represents that generation and era.
10:57A fourth version of this classic Hollywood melodrama had been rumored as early as the 2000s.
11:02Around 2011, Clint Eastwood had floated the idea of pairing Bradley Cooper with Beyoncé in a new
11:07remake. However, the timing was never quite right. Production delays, script rewrites,
11:29Eastwood's departure as director, and the singer's pregnancy led to the project having
11:33a longer pre-production period. Once Cooper took over the project as director, he actually
11:51still wanted Beyoncé for the part. Still, nobody was especially upset that Lady Gaga was chosen
11:56as a replacement. Which of these alternate castings would you have wanted to see? Tell us
12:12in the comments. Do you agree with our
12:26picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
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