Here, at the Film Experience, we value the readers' input, good or bad, be it the sharing of a divergent opinion or even suggestions for future posts. Consider how Juan Carlos Ojano's latest Hello Gorgeous piece, about the 2012 Best Actress nominees, led many to discuss the contenders' broad careers, way beyond those five specific turns and those same characters' introductions. Longtime reader and commenter Mr Ripley79 even speculated that we could do a whole post on Jennifer Lawrence's three Oscar-nominated David O. Russell films. Specifically, one about her miscasting – mostly due to the actress' age – and who could have played those roles instead. So, here we are. Let's play the recasting game…
First, one should remember the parts, the movies, and where to watch them in case a refresher is needed. Not that these star turns are forgettable, especially for awards obsessives who spent entire seasons reflecting upon their merits, faults, charms, and frustrations.
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (2012)
Jennifer Lawrence won the Best Actress Oscar on her second nomination for playing Tiffany Maxwell, a widow suffering from some unnamed mental illness that's probably a form of depression. Though her age is never specified within the narrative, the film's origins in Matthew Quick's book seem to place the woman in her mid-30s. The implied life story certainly makes more sense for someone in that age bracket than Lawrence's green 22 when the film came out and one year younger during production. Some of the other actresses considered for the role were Zooey Deschanel, Anne Hathaway, Elizabeth Banks, Kirsten Dunst, Angelina Jolie, Blake Lively, Rooney Mara, Rachel McAdams, Andrea Riseborough, and Olivia Wilde.
Silver Linings Playbook is streaming on Amazon Prime, Peacock, and Tubi. You can also rent or purchase it from Apple TV, Amazon, and the Amazon Store.
AMERICAN HUSTLE (2013
If the Silver Linings Playbook casting caused some discussion, this one set off a whole round of discourse. Including here, at The Film Experience, where Matthew Eng wrote a fantastic piece on Lawrence's unsuitability for the role of Rosalyn Rosenfeld, a fictionalized version of Marie Weinberg. The blog was even quoted on Indiewire back in 2013! In any case, it's easy to understand why some would balk at the actress' choice to play a woman who, in real life, was in her 40s during the Abscam operation the movie dramatizes. You could argue Russell changed the historical person so much that her age is immaterial. And yet, the role as written, seems a decade or so beyond Lawrence's 23 years at the time of release. That didn't stop AMPAS from nominating her for Best Supporting Actress, of course, and she was the likely runner-up to Lupita Nyong'o in 12 Years a Slave.
American Hustle is available to rent from Amazon, Apple TV, the Microsoft Store, and Spectrum On Demand.
JOY (2015)
Tiffany was entirely fictional, and Rosalyn was as well, though based on an actual person. On the other hand, Joy Mangano is presented in her namesake movie without a substantial separation from the real woman, who was 34 when the film's plot begins, in the winter of 1990. At 25, Jennifer Lawrence fits the part better than in her other two Russell collaborations, though the last sequence jumps in time to a point when the actress' distance from the character's age becomes much more glaring. All in all, this is my personal favorite of these three performances, though Joy was less acclaimed than its predecessors. For her work, Lawrence received her fourth and, so far, last Oscar nomination. She lost to Brie Larson in Room and is often placed fifth in folks' ranking of that year's Best Actress lineup.
Joy is streaming on Max. You can also rent or purchase it from Amazon, Apple TV, and the Microsoft Store.
Now, let's talk recasting. From the many actresses circling the role of Tiffany Maxwell back in the day, I'm most curious about what Andrea Riseborough could have done with the role, though many of those possibilities sound enticing. As for Rosalyn, Eng once suggested the likes of Marisa Tomei, Maria Bello, Cameron Diaz, and Drea de Matteo. It's hard to argue against any of those picks, though I want to go an alternate route. Because, if you think about it, each of these movies includes actresses in supporting roles that could have easily stepped into the parts Lawrence landed.
For Silver Linings Playbook, there's Julia Stiles, who plays Tiffany's sister and could've done with a higher-profile prestige role at this stage in her career. It might have changed her fates or sunk the movie depending on where you stand on the thespian's talents. If nothing else, I trust Stiles to be a bit pricklier than Lawrence ended up being, imbuing the character with a rancorous maturity that's only half realized in the final film.
As for American Hustle and Joy, please consider Elisabeth Röhm. She was 39 when the first film was shot, and 41 for the later biopic, stealing many of their scenes from the margins of the main action. In American Hustle, Röhm played Jeremy Renner's spouse, a political wife caught in a whirlwind of mad scheming, eager to trust at the start yet shaken by betrayal by the film's finale. Then, in Joy, she's Lawrence's sister, full of bitterness from the first scene, yet able to illuminate much of what the film doesn't delineate about the Manganos' family history. I would go so far as calling her the latter picture's MVP, and close to it for the former, were it not for Amy Adams' ferocity and preposterous accents. If Stiles' profile could have been magnified by a role like Tiffany, can you imagine what Röhm might have achieved with Rosalyn and Joy?
Please share your own recasting ideas for these Lawrence-Russel joints. Do you like my suggestions or find them dead wrong?