A-stars could have been Oscars: Julia Roberts failed miserably at these auditions – Gwyneth Paltrow got the part

The role of Viola de Lesseps in John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love won Gwyneth Paltrow an Oscar in 1999. But Julia Roberts could shine in this role! It was she who was originally supposed to be invited to the film, work on it began already in 1992, but difficulties hit the film crew already at the casting.

The twenty-four-year-old actress, who at that time had already become a star thanks to Pretty Woman, chose her partner carefully. Roberts initially said that Daniel Day-Lewis should star with her, but he was already busy with another project. The actress simply sabotaged the audition with Ralph Fiennes, thinking that Daniel could still be persuaded. Then Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Colin Firth, Sean Bean, Jeremy Northam came to the casting. But Julia, according to the memoirs of producer Edward Zwick, found fault with everyone.

As a result, Roberts approved Paul McGann’s candidacy and the matter moved to the main costume rehearsals. But then it turned out that the American Julia does not manage to speak with a British accent at all. The audition for the first scene turned out to be a disaster. Roberts herself realized that she had failed. The very next morning, she flew from London back to the US and announced that she was leaving the project. But by then Universal had already spent $6 million on it!

The film was re-released a few years later and Shakespeare in Love was eventually produced by Miramax and the now disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein.

The main female role was played by Gwyneth Paltrow, but the image of young Shakespeare was embodied by Joseph Fiennes, brother of Ralph Fiennes, who auditioned with Roberts.

For this role, Paltrow received the Oscar for Best Actress at the ceremony in 1999, but Julia did not receive her first Oscar until 2001 – she received the award for the main role in the film Erin Brockovich.

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