The one reason why Claire Danes refused to star in ‘Schindler’s List’
When the sad day comes that Steven Spielberg is no longer on this Earth, his legacy will be poured over by anyone with even a remote interest in film.
The man behind Amblin contributed so much to the cinema that it’s almost fruitless trying to distil his career down to a single release: you may pick Jaws, the first blockbuster, or Saving Private Ryan, which perfectly captured the brutality of war, or the bittersweet sci-fi family adventure ET the Extra-Terrestrial, or even the Indiana Jones series before that went tits up. However, if you ask me, then the movie that should be placed on the highest pedestal of all of Spielberg’s work is 1993’s Schindler’s List.
A passion project for the Jewish director, Schindler’s List tells the remarkable story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist, who quietly rebelled against the Nazi party in Poland and rescued hundreds of Jews from being sent to the gallows of the concentration camps. Helmed by Liam Neeson in the title role and featuring Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes in career-defining turns, the film is a whirlwind of triumph, terror, and the two extremes of the human condition, so, of course, you’d have to be mad to turn down a role in something like this, right?
As you will know from this article’s headline, that’s precisely what Claire Danes did when the future star of Romeo + Juliet was invited to audition for the movie. It’s not known which part, but given that Danes would have been a young teenager at the time, it’s not difficult to draw up a shortlist, and unfortunately, it was her age that ended up putting a kibosh on these plans.
Danes had flown to Los Angeles from her native New York City to audition, and she would have to relocate again to Poland if successful, which would have wreaked havoc with her education. According to a piece in the Los Angeles Times, Danes revealed that “they weren’t willing to give me any schooling in Poland”, which was a dealbreaker for the young star, so she walked away.
However, the actor was far from the only one to turn the movie down, with the list of those who passed on playing Schindler ranging from Kevin Costner to Daniel Day-Lewis to, ironically, Mel Gibson. Additionally, Tim Roth was reportedly considered to play the sadistic Amon Göth, while Juliette Binoche was also supposedly meant to appear in an unknown capacity.
Luckily for Danes, her trip to LA wasn’t wasted, “Because she was flying in for Schindler’s List, she was able to come and meet with us,” recalled Winnie Holzman, the creator of the TV show My So-Called Life, adding, “She was the second person we met, and it was like the part walked in the door.” The actor went on to appear in all 19 episodes of the show and even won a Golden Globe for her efforts, putting her on the map and leading to all the success she would achieve over the next few decades.
It’s hard to imagine anything other than the version of Schindler’s List we ended up with, and while Danes’ decision not to take the role might not have had a massive impact on the film, it certainly changed her life for the better and kept her in school.
