Actress who was offered Julia Roberts’ role in My Best Friend’s Wedding

It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Julia Roberts leading My Best Friend’s Wedding, but it turns out another actress was offered the role first.

Julia Roberts was unforgettable playing the scheming, flawed, loveable Julianne Potter in My Best Friend’s Wedding more than 20 years ago.

Her character was the forceful, vibrant food critic who decides she’s in love with her best friend Michael right as he announces his engagement to wide-eyed college student Kimmie.

The 1997 rom-com, which just hit streaming on Binge today, was a smash-hit success spearheaded by Roberts – but the role was originally given to someone else: Sarah Jessica Parker.

Sarah Jessica Parker was forced to pull out after signing on to do Sex And The City. Picture: AFP/Stan Honda

Luckily for Roberts, SJP had already signed on to do Sex And The City (the series began airing in 1998) so had to turn down the role.

That casting change ended up having a domino effect: Drew Barrymore was in line to play Kimmie, but once Roberts was installed as the lead, she pushed for Cameron Diaz instead.

Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend’s Wedding.

Evidently she had a fair bit of clout, as the actress also managed to get her pick of Dermot Mulroney for the male lead.

Mulroney recently gushed about how much he appreciated being part of such a successful film.

“I have nothing but great memories of that movie,” he told The Huffington Post in 2016.

“There was a period shortly after it was out that was like, ‘Oh, please, go away, leave me alone.’ And that passed, and I’m back to really just, I can’t believe that I’m in a movie that has that kind of staying power.”

He also explained why he thinks the movie has remained so beloved over decades.

“I guess we can’t call it a classic yet [but] there’s so few [rom-coms] since then that were as well made or that just had the same kind of legs that this has,” he said.

“It took me this long to actually analyse why that movie stands out from the crowd of romantic comedies – it’s, she’s a sad clown. It’s a melancholy movie. And that’s what’s funny about it. It’s like somebody slipping on a banana peel. We love that. And all of the other romantic comedies, they’re focused on the girl and the guy getting together. My Best Friend’s Wedding is the exact opposite. So I’ve just given away a secret formula.”

Apart from the early casting shake-up, the film went through some major changes throughout the editing process too.

Producers were forced to urgently reshoot the ending after test audiences ended up hating Roberts’ scheming character.

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Julia Roberts and Dermott Mulroney in a scene from My Best Friend’s Wedding.

Director P.J. Hogan revealed in 2017 they rewrote one key character and changed the ending completely when viewers reacted with scorn, according to The Sun.

“They wanted her dead,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

“They just couldn’t understand her motives.”

The original ending saw the troubled character meet a new man, played by John Corbett, after failing to seduce Dermot Mulroney’s character Michael O’Neal.

“[TriStar Pictures were] very nervous because we were making a Julia Roberts film and they couldn’t have [America’s sweetheart] end up alone and unhappy,” he added.

“We expanded George [Rupert Everett’s] character. Every time Julianne talked to him, she’d explain why she was doing these terrible things; he’s her conscience throughout.”

The ending was eventually reshot and Jules’ gay friend George Downes surprised her with a dance during the reception.

“It would have been such a downer of an ending if George hadn’t shown up,” the filmmaker added.

He admitted the last five minutes allowed the audience to forgive Julianne, and made the movie “work”.

– with The Sun