Who turned down Debra Winger's role in Terms of Endearment?

The Winger thread brought up this old question. On the DVD James L. Brooks says that an actress turned down the part because of the scene after her wedding when Winger says "here comes the bride."

I know Sissy Spacek turned it down but I kind of doubt she'd be uptight about that line considering she did Carrie and 3 Women etc.

Who could it be? Marie Osmond?

Jodie Foster and Jamie Lee Curtis both turned down the role.

That's odd r4. Both of them could have used a hit around then. Jodie may have not wanted to miss college. I think she was still in it around then.

Kim Basinger turned down Patsy because the role was too small. She could have been Emma's touchstone.

I could see Jodie refusing to say that line. Lesbians have no sense of humor.

R4, Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis were considered for the roles of Aurora and Emma, but I doubt they would've turned down the offer, had one been made.

Sissy Spacek turned down the role because of the line "you just made me wet." She said she couldn't say that.

Spacek would have had the accent. Winger had the right flintiness, but both she and Jeff Daniels were miscast. Daniels was unbelievable as a lothario junior professor.

Spacek also would have given the character more of an interior life and made the film less of an annoying soap opera.

Thank God Spacek didn't it. She always looked unwell. There's nothing robust about her.

R11 she looks a lot more like MacLaine, though. She and Winger don’t look even remotely related. Not that it matters all that much.

Would Melanie Griffith have been considered. That could have been interesting casting.

I don't think Melanie was A-list enough back then. The next year with Body Double was like her return to prominence.

Originally, it was Jennifer Jones and Sissy Spacek. I don't know if there was anybody in between.

Yeah she had a couple of films that got her noticed earlier on and then she faded away a bit r15.

What is the context of the line in the OP? I don't remember why it's a problem for an actress to say.

Debra Winger was all wrong for the role, but she just wins me over so completely by the end. And her little son who cries with her in her hospital bed.

Jennifer Jones had the rights for years but it never got close to being made since she was pretty much forgotten and Towering Inferno didn't relaunch her career like she had expected.

I think Jones' involvement was long before Spacek was offered it. That would be when James L. Brooks takes over.

You know who would have been good as the mom? Jennifer Jones.

Brooks has said he hired MacLaine because she was the only one who could bring comedy to it as well as dramatics.

I wonder why he did give it to Mary Tyler Moore his good friend. It would have been a stretch but I think she could have handled it based on her Tv movies made around that time like Lincoln and of course earlier with Beth.

There is a little bit of something mean and frightening in Shirley McLaine that made that performance, that a lot of similar actresses just didn’t have.

Best Soap Opera movie ever.

Both McLaine and Winger are superb as are the screenplay and direction. I can't see any other actors in those roles.

Elizabeth Ashley could have been mean and frightening.

I have the same question as r18

Her husband slips under her wedding dress after throwing her on the bed. We are left to assume he is performing a sexual act on her. (you can't see anything.)

She then laughs and says "here comes the bride."

Lucille Ball would have made a great Aurora Greenway. I can easily imagine her doing "the spider" when she first hears about her daughter's cancer!

You know Lucy and Lucie Arnaz actually might have been pretty good in this.

(no Gary Morton jokes.)

Debra Winger and Lori Petty would have been great as sisters in A League of Their Own. Too bad blinking humanity void Madonna ruined the whole thing.

That's the movie over which I totally fell for Rose!

“A league of their own” was just typical schmaltz. Sounds like Debra is still not a fan of it despite how well it did box office-wise. I really don’t blame her, I find it hard to watch that stuff these days, even as a kid I found it overly sentimental. I think she could have given geena a little more credit than “she was ok” though, that smacked a bit of sour grapes.

Moira Kelly would have been Winger's sister, not Petty.

The only reason Sissy Spacek turned down the role was that she had just had her first children and wanted to spend time with her new born and not on a studio set. She would have been perfect casting but I think Debra Winger was great in the role.

Mary Steenburgen was also considered for Emma after Spacek dropped out.

Who are these people claiming MacLaine and Winter were miscast?? They were perfect in those rules, and I say that as somebody who's really not a fan of either.

That said, Sissy Spacek could have been a marvelous Emma. I really can't think of anyone else I'd like to see as Aurora... certainly not MTM.

*Winger, obviously. Autocorrect changed it.

I preferred the porn parody Terms of Endowment.

I think Winger's Emma is one of the great performances on film, she's absolutely brilliant. She makes some of the most inventive choices throughout the film. Both she and MacLaine gave wonderfully poignant, yet humorous performances. The story may be melodrama, but they never get tripped up by that.

Anyone else find it funny that by the end of THE EVENING STAR, you are actively rooting for Aurora's death?

Why wasn't it offered to Meryl?

R42 No. Meryl didn't start getting offered every role until Sophies Choice came out in December 1982.

Terms of Endearment would already have started filming by then. So essentially Meryl has probably been offered almost every aged suitable role that started filming from 1983 onwards.

Maureen Stapleton would have been an interesting choice.

[quote]Meryl has probably been offered almost every aged suitable role that started filming from 1983 onwards.

Except for Patsy Cline. No one wanted her for that.

Streep was desperately courted for Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. It’s the reason Tanya Roberts has the blonde dye job. Meryl was stung by Sheena’s success and it’s direct impact as Tanya’s casting as a Bond girl in A View to a Kill. Streep had long held dreams of someday being cast as a Bond girl.

R45 That role belong to me. (Though Lange is sensational in the role, Streep could never have pulled that off).

All joking aside, yes Sweet Dreams is a role she wasn't offered, neither was The Remains of the Day. Nor was she offered any of the roles in Crimes of the Heart (Keaton & Spacek were actually cast in that years before it was made).

Who would they cast today? Some idiot plastic surgery whore like Megan Fox?

Well I'd go with either Sissy Spacek & Emma Stone or Debra Winger & Natalie Portman.

Of course it would be Meryl Streep and whoever is the first go-to young actress in Hollywood.

[quote]Maureen Stapleton would have been an interesting choice.

Jean Stapleton would have been even better!

Debra Winger gives one of the great performances in Terms. I would have preferred she win the Oscar over Shirley but they were both worthy. It's a classic.

Kim Basinger turned down the role of the friend, that’s all I know.

Her hair must grow incredibly fast, because she clipped it all off for the film she did instead, yet she managed to go back to long hair again quite quickly.

It’s puzzling.

While writing the screenplay, James L Brooks pictured Fannie Flagg as Emma, opposite Brett Somers as Aurora (with Richard Dawson as the horny next door neighbor/retired astronaut).

I would have liked the opportunity to decline, except everyone knew I'd accept.

I could have won an Oscar!

Sally Fiekd could have done it

With a name like Fiekd? No.

Well if we're recasting all the principal parts, who else could have played Jack's role as the retired astronaut?

R62 Well, Burt Reynolds turned it down and he could have easily done it.

Field in what role? She would have been awful in either of the female leads.

She could've played Patsy.

What r63 said.

I easily could see Reynolds as the neighbor retired astronaut, and would have preferred him over Nicholson.

Reynolds himself regretted turning down the role.

Can we just take a minute to agree that Miss Basinger really was QUITE beautiful in that (and every) era? She’s been on my mind, with Baldwin in the news.

Do Jack and Debra have many scenes together?

Who was it who famously clashed with Burt?

I think director director Paul Thomas Anderson on MAGNOLIA, for one (?)

One - in the driveway when she returns from Nebraska. I can't recall another. The dialogue between the characters was minimal.

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