The Scary Movie franchise has both welcomed and turned away a fair number of famous faces. Aaliyah was sent the script for the first movie, but declined the offer because she didn’t feel comfortable parodying Brandy’s character from I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. And Marlon Brando was actually originally cast as the priest in Scary Movie 2. The Godfather star even showed up to film his scenes before being let go due to health issues.
With publicity in full swing for the latest entry in the series, another piece of Scary Movie casting lore has been making the rounds. While sitting down with Entertainment Tonight recently, Marlon Wayans told co-stars Anna Faris and Shawn Wayans that Clarissa Explains It All’s Melissa Joan Hart was supposed to play Faris’s part, much to their surprise.
“I didn’t know this. She’s good,” said Faris in response. “Way to go. Taking food out of another white lady’s mouth,” joked Wayans.
The Nickelodeon Star Anna Faris Beat Out for Her ‘Scary Movie’ Role
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time the subject of Hart being in Scary Movie has come up. In a 20th-anniversary retrospective published by Variety in 2020, it’s mentioned that both Hart and Jenny McCarthy auditioned for the original film. However, the role they were said to have tried out for wasn’t Faris’s. Instead, the Variety piece claims that they were rejected for the part Carmen Electra played at the beginning of the movie.
Hart herself has discussed being fired from Scary Movie on several occasions, and, according to her, it was the Electra role she was supposed to play. As Hart tells it, she was on her way to the airport to fly to the movie set when she got the news that she was getting the axe. Evidently, the filmmakers decided at the last minute that she didn’t have big enough breasts to play the role.
You can hear Hart’s version of the story below.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Hart wasn’t in the running for Faris’s role as well, but given that most other sources say it was Electra’s that she was up for, it’s possible that Wayans could be misremembering things.
The post Before Scary Movie Made Anna Faris a Star, This Nickelodeon Star Almost Got the Role appeared first on VICE.
