Amanda Seyfried Turned Down A Role In “Guardians Of The Galaxy” Because She Thought It Would Flop
There are a couple of reasons why an actor might turn down a specific movie role. Maybe they’ve got a 5-year plan to be as rich as Jeff Bezos, and their agent can’t guarantee a big enough paycheck. Or maybe they’re a “real” actor who only chooses roles that fulfill their pursuit of artistic integrity. Or maybe they’re the star of the 2004 film Mean Girls and the 2008 film Mamma Mia!, and they realize that nothing could top such career achievements, so why bother? Well, that’s not how Amanda Seyfried picks and chooses which call sheets her name appears on. But she did recently reveal that she fully turned down a role in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy solely because she thought it was going to bomb, and she didn’t want her name attached to a turkey.
Amanda appeared on an episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast because she’s in Netflix’s Mank, which is getting awards season buzz. The conversation turned to a big role Amanda reportedly turned down, which was Gamora, the green-skinned alien assassin who has been played by Zoe Saldana in Guardians of the Galaxy 1, 2, and 3, which is currently in production. Amanda has spoken about passing on Gamora before, but she previously explained it was due to the fact that she didn’t want to sit in a makeup chair, getting painted green, day after day after day. via Comicbook:
“I think about it often. I’m not really a Marvel movie watcher, which is, I think, why I was just like, ‘Ah, I don’t wanna be green. It’s just so much work.’ I remember Jennifer Lawrence talking about once, how long it took her to get blue. And I was like, ‘That seems like hell on earth,’ because then you get to set and you’re only there for a couple hours, and then you have to take everything off. And that was literally the reason.”
However, according to her recent interview with Awards Chatter, it sounds like the makeup wasn’t the only reason why she bailed. Amanda explains that she turned down the role of Gamora because she was afraid it might kill her career. via Indiewire:
“I didn’t want to be part of the first Marvel movie that bombed. I said, ‘Who wants to see a movie about a talking tree and a raccoon?’ Which is clearly – I was very wrong. The script was great, it was all based in not wanting to be ‘that guy.’ Because if you are the star of a giant movie like that, and it bombs, Hollywood does not forgive you. I’ve seen that happen to people and it was a giant, giant fear and I thought, is it worth it?”
Amanda wasn’t just off with her assumption, she was way off. The first Guardians of the Galaxy film made nearly $773 million worldwide on a reported production budget of $232 million. The sequel did even better, with $800 million in worldwide ticket sales. It was so successful, Disneyland remade The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror into a Guardians ride. In a twist of irony, Amanda says she turned down 2014’s Guardians because she thought it might be a mess that would bomb. And the very next year, Amanda appeared in Pan, a mess that bombed. It’s really too bad that some of Karen Smith’s psychic powers didn’t rub off on Amanda, because I think we can all agree that finding green makeup in your butt crack is a very small price to pay for a chunk of Guardians profits.
Pic: Wenn.com