A Star Is Made?
Another little known fact is that although, Paul Newman was always in the running for Butch in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1955) Paul was first choice for East Of Eden before James Dean got the role.
Destiny made Judy Garland the quintessential Dorothy in Wizard Of Oz because Shirley Temple was unavailable.
However writer/director Billy Wilder must be the all time casting loser when trying to put a face to his characters. For Sunset Boulevard he saw Montgomery Clift before he gave William Holden the part.
Initially, Monty did not regret his decision when he was quoted as saying: "The script had holes in it that I couldn't ignore." When, Sunset Boulevard become a cult classic, Monty recanted: "Billy, should've tried harder to get me interested."
For The Defiant Ones (1958) Stanley Karmer saw none other than Marlon Brando as the racists white-man chained to a black-man. What Wilder thought to be a simple matter of typecasting turned into a farce, as he explains: "First I went to Brando, and Marlon said, "Yes, I'll do it, but I want to play the black man... So, I asked Kirk Douglas. He said, "Yes, I'll do it, but I want to play both parts."
Interestingly, before the lead finally went to Tony Curtis, Wilder even considered Elvis Presley.
A startling number of Academy Award winning performances came about as the result of a producer or director having to make do with second choice when the mega-star couldn't be seduced.
Monty Clift said that he couldn't relate to the role of a ex-prizefighter of On The Waterfront which landed Marlon Brando an Oscar.
Ingrid Bergman walked away with 2 Oscars for Gaslight and Anastasia roles which could have gone to Jennifer Jones. Director Elia Kazan was forced to use Vivien Leigh as his Blanche du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire when Olivia De Havilland informed him that a lady just didn't say and do those things on screen. Insightful second choice casting by old Hollywood produced further classic hits and unlikely opportunities, such as Joan Crawford seizing the role in Mildred Pierce only because arch-rival Bette Davis turned it down. And Vivien Leigh thinking herself too young to play the lead in Suddenly Last Summer made Kathrine Hepburn into a star.
Perhaps, director Brian De Palma should have taken a leaf from the golden pages of mogul Sam Goldwyn when casting for
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