The iconic role Meryl Streep unsuccessfully pitched herself for: “It’s a very dark movie”
There are some scripts that immediately become the talk of the town, with everyone in Hollywood buzzing over the arrival of a genuinely good story that could take their careers to the next level. Agents become competitive, some actors become desperate, and chaos ensues as people scramble to find a place in the next big thing.
It could be the recent script for After The Hunt, Luca Guadagnino’s latest project that was described as the best script of the year after it was published last year, or it could be the screenplay for the new horror film Weapons, with Jordan Peele even firing a colleague after losing the bidding war to obtain the distribution rights. However, one movie in the 1980s seemed to beat them all, with Ridley Scott’s 1991 film Thelma and Louise becoming the talk of the town as all the best actresses tried to secure one of the lead roles.
Thelma and Louise is arguably one of the most human stories from Scott’s filmography, following two women who escape their dreary lives, accidentally commit a crime, and go on the road for the foreseeable future. It’s a heartwarming story about friendship, womanhood, and rediscovery, with Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon reprising the lead roles and making a splash through their effortless chemistry and believable banter.
However, before going into production, many other actors were trying to grab the lead roles, with the producer even advocating for Cher to play one of the women, even though Scott didn’t think she could capture the humour of the role. But while many names were thrown into the ring, there was one that might have been equally interesting, with Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn turning up at the studio one day and pitching themselves as the titular duo.
The producer one day got a call that Streep and Hawn were interested in the project, with both women inviting themselves to the office without any involvement from their agents and presenting themselves as options for Thelma and Louise. It was an unexpected curveball during the casting process, given that both were Award-Winning actors who were pitching themselves for a project, with actors of this calibre only accepting roles they had been offered, highlighting just how great these parts were. When discussing this, the head of the studio said, “To sit in a meeting with Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn was spectacular. They were enthusiastic and adorable and smart.”
While it might have been extremely flattering to know that such great actors were so keen on the story, the producer wasn’t convinced by their joint powers, saying, “I think that Meryl could do anything,” he said. But with Goldie, “it would have been more of a comedic turn. When you think about it, it’s a very dark movie; it’s not a happy piece of fluff, which was how Goldie was thought of at the time. But I had worked with her on a number of pictures, and I did dramas with her, too.”
Streep might have been able to handle the dark and light subject matter, but he wasn’t convinced about Hawn, with fate running its course and leading to two perfect leads in an eternally loved picture.
