Julia Roberts was the original alternative for the role of Viola de Lesseps in 1998’s Shakespeare in Love before Gwyneth Paltrow landed the role.
Producer Edward Zwick has now revealed what prompted the 55-year-old Oscar winner Roberts to go away the project.
Apparently, she was the “problem”.
“The mere possibility of getting ‘Pretty Woman’ in a corset dress excited the studio enough to cough up some money,” the 70-year-old Glory director recalls in an interview. essay for airmail recently, noting that Universal Pictures will only pay for the film if Roberts is involved.
Zwick then flew with Roberts to London so she could take chemical readings with the actors who played William Shakespeare’s lover himself.
The “Erin Brockovich” actress was eager to star in a movie opposite Daniel Day-Lewis; nonetheless, the actor known for the film “My Left Foot” has already promised to shoot the film “In the Name of the Father” in 1993.
Zwick recalled Roberts telling him how “sensible, handsome and intense” Day-Lewis was at the time.
“Don’t you’re thinking that he’d be perfect? … I could make him do it,” Roberts reportedly told the producer.
The ‘Mystic Pizza’ star even asked her assistant to send two dozen roses to the ‘There Will Be Blood’ star together with a card that read ‘Be my Romeo’.
But when Day-Lewis told the Zwick and Roberts team that he was fully committed to In the Name of the Father, their chemistry lecture was cancelled.
![Gwyneth Paltrow](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007821812.jpg?w=1024)
Roberts was still going through the casting process, now he was paired with Ralph Fiennes.
“Even when Ralph did his best to make his famous smile, Julia barely recognized him,” wrote Zwick.
“I’m not suggesting she intentionally sabotaged it, nevertheless it was a disaster nonetheless,” he continued. As he left, I attempted to catch Ralph’s eye to apologize, but he couldn’t get out of there fast enough. When he left, I turned to Julia, waiting for her response. “He isn’t funny” was all she said.
Ralph’s brother Joseph Fiennes later won the role of the famous British playwright.
![Ralph Fiennes was one of the actors who auditioned for the role of William Shakespeare.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000002457427.jpg?w=679)
Other A-listers including Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Colin Firth, Sean Bean and Jeremy Northam also read with Roberts, but she “found flaws in everyone”.
Two weeks later, actor Paul McGann walked in to read with a Notting Hill alumnus.
Regardless that she was wearing full make-up and an Elizabethan-era costume, “something was unsuitable.”
“There was no magic. The issue wasn’t the script… It was Julia.
Zwick realized that Roberts was the problem in the scene, not any of the male actors.
“There was no magic. The script wasn’t the problem. Or Paul McGann. It was Julia, he said. “From the moment she began speaking, it was clear she wasn’t working on her accent.”
He went on to clarify in his essay how he “sensed Julia’s discomfort” in the scene, and she or he picked up on his uneasiness.
![Gwyneth Paltrow played William Shakespeare's mistress (Joseph Fiennes, above) in the Romance Era drama.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007821811.jpg?w=1024)
Nevertheless, he noted that he made a giant mistake by “underestimating her uncertainty”.
He believed that Roberts was “scared of failure” in the world of Hollywood because she had risen so quickly to one among the world’s most profitable stars.
After this experience, Roberts flew back to America and announced that she was leaving the film.
Shakespeare in Love was later produced by Harvey Weinstein at Miramax controversy later around their colossal 1999 Oscars campaign.
Paltrow and co-star Judi Dench each won gold statuettes for their performances, with critics claiming they were only victorious because of Weinstein’s constant lobbying.