Drew Barrymore confirms she was considered for Boogie Nights role
Long rumored to have been up for Heather Graham's part, Drew Barrymore says she turned down Boogie Nights for another movie
Who doesn’t love a good cinematic “what could have been”? In a new episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, Janet Jackson revealed she was considered for the role of Storm in X-Men but had to pass because she “was just embarking on the Janet tour.” Film veteran Barrymore unsurprisingly has a few “almosts” on her résumé as well, and one of them marks a serious fork in the road moment for her career.
“It’s so hard when you, like, are thinking of doing a film and then you don’t end up doing it,” she said on the show. “I have so many of those experiences. I’ve never said this out loud, Boogie Nights. There was a moment where we were talking about Boogie Nights and I think it’s when I went and did Ever After [A Cinderella Story] and I went in a very different direction.”
According to IndieWire, Barrymore was rumored to have been in consideration for the part of the Rollergirl, ultimately played by Heather Graham. Being part of the ensemble cast of 1997’s Boogie Nights would have marked a real turning point in Barrymore’s career, an adult and artistic pivot working with an up-and-coming auteur (Paul Thomas Anderson). 1998’s Ever After was, indeed, a “very different direction,” but it was a turning point in its own way. Rather than be part of an ensemble, Barrymore established herself as a romantic lead, steering her career towards empowered, comedic, lovable feminine heroes.
It’s safe to say Barrymore doesn’t really have regrets, seeing as how she just celebrated the 25th anniversary of Ever After on her show in full regalia. She also previously called the role of Danielle (the movie’s “Cinderella” figure) her favorite, saying the film helped to re-start her career (via Elle). “I was in my early 20s and then I was trying to start a company and wanted to tell stories and make films and that particular messaging that you can rescue yourself and you don’t have to wait to be rescued is definitely the thing that set me up best in my life, and I don’t know who I would be honestly without it,” the actor told Entertainment Tonight last year. “It changed the way I saw the world.”