Julia Roberts was originally cast as Viola de Lesseps in the 1998 historical drama ‘Shakespeare in Love’, a role that ultimately earned Gwyneth Paltrow an Academy Award. For Roberts, the question of whether or not to remain in the project soon became decisive.
According to producer Edward Zwick, Roberts unexpectedly walked away from the film after a series of disastrous screen tests. The mere possibility of seeing the Pretty Woman star in a corset had excited the studio enough to secure financing, yet her time in London for readings with various young actors considered for the role of William Shakespeare proved problematic. Roberts reportedly found flaws in each of them.
She was determined that Daniel Day-Lewis should play the young playwright, even though he was already committed to In the Name of the Father. Convinced he could be persuaded, she sent him roses with a note urging him to take the role, but when it became clear he would not join the project, she read opposite Ralph Fiennes during auditions. The result was described as a failure, with no spark between the actors.
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Over the following two weeks, casting continued unsuccessfully. Among the actors considered were Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Colin Firth, Sean Bean, and Jeremy Northam, yet Roberts reportedly dismissed them all for different reasons, suggesting that one lacked softness, another lacked romance, and so on.
Eventually, Roberts agreed to test with Paul McGann. On the morning of the reading, she appeared radiant in costume, but once she began delivering lines, it became apparent that the performance was faltering. The issue was not the script or her co-star but Roberts herself, who had not worked on the required accent.
Sensing her discomfort, Zwick tried to encourage her, but she seemed to perceive his unease. The next morning, she checked out of her hotel, leaving the production behind. When Zwick contacted her manager, he was informed that Roberts had flown back to the United States and withdrawn from the film. Universal Pictures had already spent around six million dollars on the project by that point.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes in ‘Shakespeare in Love’
Zwick later reflected without resentment, describing Roberts as a frightened young woman of twenty-four, while he himself was only slightly older and struggling to act with authority as he watched the dismantling of the Globe Theatre set — along with his own dreams of cinematic triumph.
Ultimately, Shakespeare in Love was produced by Miramax under Harvey Weinstein, who attempted unsuccessfully to remove Zwick from the project. Gwyneth Paltrow went on to star alongside Joseph Fiennes, the brother of Ralph Fiennes, who had initially been considered for the lead.
