Top 10 Actors Who Were Almost Cast in Movie Musicals

“My Fair Lady” (1964)

The Lerner and Loewe stage musical was a major hit on Broadway. Studio chief Jack L. Warner was clearly enamored enough with the production to recast actor Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins in the film version. However, he thought the show’s other lead, Julie Andrews, wasn’t well known enough. Warner replaced her with one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Audrey Hepburn. Andrews got the last laugh, though. That same year, she became a sensation in the role of “Mary Poppins,” winning several accolades, including the Best Actress Oscar. In fact, she even thanked Warner in her Golden Globe acceptance speech. After all, if she had been cast in “My Fair Lady,” she wouldn’t have been free to play Mary Poppins.

“Chicago” (2002)

In another world, it could have been Danny Zuko himself puppeteering Renée Zellweger. John Travolta was originally offered the role of Billy Flynn, “Chicago’s” sleazy and slick lawyer who makes a career out of defending beautiful murderesses. In fact, the “Grease” star was seriously considering signing on. However, Travolta declined on the grounds that he wasn’t sure anyone could make a good movie adaptation from the stage show. He later said, however, that if he had met with director Rob Marshall and heard his vision for the story, he might have reconsidered. Billy Flynn was ultimately played by Richard Gere.

“Grease” (1978)

In the late ‘70s, director Randall Kleiser was about to start shooting the big screen adaptation of “Grease.” He was able to consult his old college roommate and fellow filmmaker George Lucas’ “Star Wars” rushes in order to gauge Princess Leia actress Carrie Fisher for the role of Sandy Olsson. If Fisher had been given the role, she probably would have been a major departure from Olivia Newton-John, seeing as she’s now known for her sardonic wit and edgy screen persona. Fortunately, we did get to see Fisher’s musical chops in the “Star Wars Holiday Special.”

“Evita” (1996)

Bringing Andrew Lloyd Webber’s epic musical to the screen was a long and arduous process. The movie’s then-screenwriter and director Oliver Stone originally wanted Meryl Streep to play Argentinian First Lady Eva Perón. Streep prepped for the role, and even recorded some songs, before both she and Stone dropped out. Michelle Pfeiffer was the next choice for the vocally-demanding role. She had sung on-screen in “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” and her involvement was confirmed at one point. But once she had a child and production moved from America to England, she left. After imploring Parker to cast her, Madonna was hired instead.

“La La Land” (2016)

Writer-director Damien Chazelle made the less expensive “Whiplash” in order to get funding for this Los Angeles-set movie musical. Miles Teller starred as the drummer protagonist in that film. When “La La Land” became a possibility, Chazelle wanted to cast Teller again, this time as jazz musician Sebastian Wilder. Chazelle was also eager to have “Harry Potter” actress Emma Watson in the role of Mia, the aspiring actress who Sebastian falls in love with. Subsequent changes to the script necessitated slightly older actors. The final film would see Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone starring as the central couple.

“The Phantom of the Opera” (2004)

A lot has been said about the casting of Gerard Butler. Unfortunately, his singing didn’t earn him much in the way of praise. Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of big names in the mix for this massive Broadway adaptation. One of the possible Phantoms was Hugh Jackman. Although he had already made his “X-Men” debut as Wolverine by then, the Tony winner was known to a lot of theatergoers as an accomplished song and dance man. Jackman confirmed he got a call to play the role, but he was sadly unavailable. It’s hard not to dream about what could have been. His later “Les Misérables” co-star Anne Hathaway was even attached to play Christine at one point.

“Wicked” (2024)

Given its status among Broadway fans, the two decade lead-up to the “Wicked” film saw a lot of different actresses up for the parts of Elphaba and Glinda. Once casting for the epic, two-part adaptation was underway in the early 2020s, Glinda saw some heavy hitters stepping up to the plate. Allegedly, Reneé Rapp and Dove Cameron both got fairly far in the audition process. But “Mean Girls” star Amanda Seyfried may have been one of the finalists. She set her sights on the role as soon as she heard the project was a go. Although her audition lasted several months, it was Ariana Grande who eventually won out.

“Chicago” (2002)

Between its Broadway debut in 1975 and its Oscar-winning film adaptation, there had been at least two attempts to give the merry murderesses of “Chicago” the Hollywood treatment. In the late ‘80s, Goldie Hawn wanted to produce and star in her own version. She brought pop star Madonna on board to play Roxie Hart to her Velma Kelly. Then, Harvey Weinstein had the role rewritten to be much younger than Hawn could play. Despite his underhanded approach to squeeze her out of the project, Hawn was paid for her developmental work on the movie, and Weinstein would later produce the 2002 version.

“Les Misérables” (2012)

The story of redemption and revolution in 19th-century France requires a packed cast with vocal chops. This big-budget production clearly had the money to spare to net some huge talent. One of the more puzzling but intriguing announcements for the cast was Taylor Swift, who was said to be offered the role of the long-suffering Éponine. Swift has since explained that while she did a series of screen tests for the roles of Éponine and Cosette, the roles ultimately went to performers with more acting experience. Samantha Barks and Amanda Seyfried were cast as Éponine and Cosette respectively, and Swift would land a notorious big budget movie musical a few years later.

“A Star Is Born” (2018)

A fourth version of this classic Hollywood melodrama had been rumored as early as the 2000s. Around 2011, Clint Eastwood had floated the idea of pairing Bradley Cooper with Beyoncé in a new remake. However, the timing was never quite right. Production delays, script rewrites, Eastwood’s departure as director, and the singer’s pregnancy led to the project having a longer pre-production period. Once Cooper took over the project as director, he actually still wanted Beyoncé for the part. Still, nobody was especially upset that Lady Gaga was chosen as a replacement.





Which of these alternate castings would you have wanted to see? Tell us in the comments.