Julia Roberts inMy Best Friend’s Wedding(1997); Russell Crowe.Photo: Tri-Star/Kobal/Shutterstock; Maria Moratti/Getty
Russell Croweis denying that he ever auditioned to star oppositeJulia Robertsin 1997’sMy Best Friend’s Wedding.
On Friday, theGladiatoractor, 58,shared a Twitter postin which he wrote that an anecdote director P.J. Hogan shared in author Scott Meslow’s bookFrom Hollywood With Lovewas “pure imagination on behalf of this director.”
“I did not audition for this film. I have never done a table read with the actress mentioned,” Crowe wrote on Twitter. “Would be funny if it wasn’t so pointless.”
In the excerpt, Hogan admitted his first choice for the role of Michael inMy Best Friend’s Weddingwas Crowe himself, who he said “was probably the most amazing actor I had ever encountered” at that time. However, Roberts herself had final say over casting approval and “no one was getting in this movie if Julia didn’t approve,” according to the book.
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“I don’t know what went wrong,” Hogan said in the book. “It was one of the worst table reads I’ve ever experienced. Russell was seated opposite Julia. He gripped that script, and he stared at that script, and he didn’t look at her once.He read every line in a monotone.”
“At one point, Julia was literally leaning over the table, staring, like, inchesfrom Russell’s face, trying to make eye contact. And he wouldn’t look at her,” Hogan added. “At the end of the reading, Russell came up to me and said, ‘I thought that went pretty well.’ And then I knew: Russell was not going to be inMy Best Friend’s Wedding.”
Reps for Hogan did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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Dermot Mulroneyultimately played Michael in the film. The film follows Roberts' character Julianne as she discovers she’s in love with her friend Michael. When Michael calls with news of an engagement, she fakes one to her friend George (Rupert Everett) out of desperation. Cameron Diaz stars as Kimmy, Michael’s fiancée.
In April, Roberts reflected onMy Best Friend’s Wedding’slegacy during an interview with withE!Daily Popwhile promoting her seriesGaslit.
“So many people have someone that they can see themselves as in the movie, and I also just think that we really got lucky coming together,” she said. “None of us knew each other before we made the movie, and we just had a really great chemistry. It just worked. I mean, we all really liked each other.”
source: people.com
