Reese Witherspoon revealed why David Fincher didn’t cast her for the lead role in Gone Girl. Despite the author wanting Witherspoon to be in it, Fincher refused to cast her for a very simple reason.
Reese Witherspoon recalls why David Fincher didn’t cast her in Gone Girl as Amy Dunne
Directed by David Fincher, Gone Girl is a psychological thriller based on Gillian Flynn’s novel of the same name. The movie featured Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in the lead roles. While Reese Witherspoon didn’t star in it, she produced the film under her production company, Pacific Standard, which later became Hello Sunshine.
During Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang’s podcast, Las Culturistas, Witherspoon revealed that she was supposed to be in the film. She said, “I was supposed to star in it.”
However, Fincher disagreed. Recalling her conversation with Fincher, she said, “David sat me down, and this is not on David, but David’s like, ‘You’re totally wrong for this part, and I’m not putting you in it.’”
Academy Award-winning actress also shared that she had conversations with the author about the movie. “I’d had all these conversations with the writer, Gillian Flynn, and she was like, ‘No, I’d really like you to do it,’” she shared. “But [David] was like, ‘You’re wrong.’”
The 49-year-old actress recalled how she felt during that moment. “That was, first of all, an ego check for me. I was like, ‘No, you’re not right for everything,’” she revealed. “And he was right. He was totally right,” she added, admittedly.
The Big Little Lies star explained that she realized what her role as producer should be. “Producing also means get out of the way when you’re supposed to, you know, get out of the way,” she explained. “Do your job to promote. Continue to pull people together. Continue to build creative groups so that the ultimate result is the best work that it could possibly be. So that was a lesson to me,” the actress shared.
Witherspoon also appreciated Pike’s performance, “Rosamund is perfect [in the movie].”
The movie was successful in terms of both reception and box office collection. Furthermore, Rosamund Pike earned her first Academy Award nomination for her role as Amy Dunne in the film.
Originally reported by Harsha Panduranga for ComingSoon.
