Hollywood has to be one of the hardest industries to work in; even if you are a famously beautiful woman and talented actor, you might still end up being 'not pretty enough' for certain roles.
At least, that's what might have caused A-lister Jennifer Lawrence to miss out on a highly sought-after role on Quentin Tarantino's last film, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019), which explores the historical backdrop to the Sharon Tate murders, carried out by the infamous Manson family.
When Tarantino was trying to cast the right person to play heartthrob Tate, whose murder aged 26 came at an ascendant time in her career after the success of films like Valley of the Dolls (1967) and The Wrecking Crew (1968), he needed to find the right person to play one of cinema's tragic icons.
According to the Daily Mail, back in 2017, Tarantino was weighing up choosing either Lawrence or Margot Robbie for the role, sending fans wild with speculation. But it was Tate's own sister, criminal violence campaigner Debra, who allegedly poured cold water on the hopes of the Hunger Games star.
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Lawrence claimed that Debra said she was 'not pretty enough' to play Sharon, who was a former pageant queen and model when she made her move onto the big screen. Instead, she backed Robbie as a better fit for her tragically murdered sister.
Tarantino would cast Robbie in the role of Tate, as well as a number of massive industry names like Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as the main characters in the nearly three-hour film.
35-year-old Lawrence has spoken about her disappointment at not getting the role at a recent 92NY event, where she claimed that the legendary director did not want her to play the role, for which the actor said she was repeatedly told: "She's not pretty enough to play Sharon Tate."
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Despite her interviewer's incredulity, she continued: "I'm pretty sure it is true, or it's that thing where I've been telling that story this way for so long that I believe it, but I'm pretty sure that happened."
Reflecting on whether Tarantino said that, or if the criticism of her looks came from elsewhere, she said: "Or he just never was considering me for the part and the internet just went out of their way to call me ugly."
After Robbie had been cast as Tate, once again it was her sister Debra who reportedly gave her stamp of approval to the role, sparking rumors that she had a say in who played Sharon, according to the Mail.
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Debra later told Vanity Fair that Robbie had nailed the role of her eight-month pregnant sister, adding that her performance 'made me cry because she sounded just like Sharon'.
As for Tarantino, he has not publicly confirmed whether Lawrence was being considered for this part in Once Upon a Time, but he has separately spoken about how he was considering her for another role in the production, which he has described as his favorite film in his oeuvre.
Instead of playing Tate, apparently, Lawrence was being considered as a member of the Manson family, the cult who carried out the murder of Tate and four of her friends in August 1968.
Tarantino apparently wanted the Silver Linings Playbook actor to play the role of 'Squeaky' Fromme, who in the film acts as a leader for the Manson family, while also professing to having sex with an elderly blind man, George Spahn, to con him out of the ranch where the cult operated from.
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The director made the claim in a 2021 edition of Marc Maron's podcast WTF, where he said that he invited Lawrence to his home to read the script, but it never came to fruition.
He said: "She read it, and afterward, we talked about it a little bit. She was interested in doing it, but something didn't work out."
Topics: Jennifer Lawrence, Quentin Tarantino, Margot Robbie, Hollywood
William Morgan