Over a decade on from Mamma Mia!’s release, the makers of the hit film have revealed the film could have looked a whole lot different if another A-lister had said yes to playing Sophie Sheridan.
The role was brought to life on the big screen by Amanda Seyfried and while it’s hard to picture anyone else as Meryl Streep’s on-screen daughter, a host of big stars turned down the part.
Speaking to Vogue, casting director Priscilla John revealed that the movie nearly featured a Devil Wears Prada reunion, until “Emily Blunt passed [on the role] because she had moved to Los Angeles and was doing quite well at the time”.
And she’s not the only star who said no.
“We loved Michelle Dockery, and she could sing because she did all sorts of musicals in drama school,” Priscilla continued. “She chose to do a play at the Almeida Theatre instead.
“I’ll tell you who else we adored—Natalie Dormer. But she was filming The Tudors at the time and not available.”
Gemma Arterton, who was “a complete newbie” at the time also lost out as she “looked nothing like Meryl” while future Oscar nominee Felicity Jones “was adorable but kept telling me she wasn’t right for the part because she couldn’t sing—even though she could,” Priscilla added.
Thankfully, once Amanda had auditioned – bringing along her own guitar and playing I Have A Dream – they knew they had their Sophie.
Amy Adams, Brittany Murphy, Busy Phillips, Evan Rachel Wood, Jessica Biel, Kirsten Dunst, Leighton Meester, Mandy Moore, Zooey Deschanel were also named in Vogue’s feature for having auditioned for the role of Sophie.
Carey Mulligan apparently “got quite far” in the process too, before the behind-the-scenes team “ultimately chose Amanda, who could not only sing but also looked so much like Meryl”.
Finding the perfect actor to play Sky, Sophie’s husband-to-be, was equally tricky, with Henry Cavill, James McAvoy and Tom Hardy all saying they were unavailable.
After Dominic Cooper’s audition, Priscilla “really fought for [him to get the part], because the studio said they thought he wasn’t fun enough”.
“They saw him as a bad boy and seemed to want someone a bit more saccharine,” she said.
While Mamma Mia! divided critics, with one describing it as “the closest you get to see A-List actors doing drunken karaoke”, it became abox office hit by making $402 million (£322m) worldwide off a $75 million (£60m) budget.
Its sequel, which famously saw Cher cast as Meryl Streep’s on-screen mother despite their three-year age gap, was also a huge hit with cinemagoers.