What is Casting Couch? Yesterday it was mostly about a bunch of dudes who got jobs acting in movies, today it’s mostly about a bunch of ladies who got jobs acting in movies—ladies from the show Mad Men in a couple of cases. Tomorrow? Who knows.
UPDATED: CNN now reports that Fisher was “joking.” Sure. Probably Carrie Fisher was supposed to wait for some sort of official announcement from the new Disney-owned Lucasfilm’s marketing team before she went and confirmed what we all were thinking, that the main players from George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy are going to be showing up in J.J. Abrams‘ upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII. But Carrie Fisher being Carrie Fisher, she seems to have gotten sick of all the questioning and just confirmed that she’s coming back anyway. And she confirmed it to Palm Beach Illustrated, of all outlets. When asked if she could confirm that she would be reprising her role as Leia Organa for Abrams, Fisher simply responded, “Yes.” Oh, Carrie Fisher, never change.
Jessica Chastain
Rumors regarding director David Yates’ launching of a new Tarzan franchise have surfaced. The New York Post is reporting that they’ve heard Yates’ film is going to feature an older Tarzan who has already been taken out of the jungle and integrated into society, and that the story he’s going to tell is that of Tarzan going into the Congo on behalf of Queen Victoria to battle a vicious warlord. That’s not all though, the Post has casting rumors as well. Most prominently, they claim that Zero Dark Thirty star Jessica Chastain is Yates’ first choice to play Tarzan’s love interest, Jane. And the fun doesn’t stop there. They also say that Alexander Skarsgård is in the running to play the title role, and that Samuel L. Jackson is being looked at to play a mercenary who Tarzan goes to for help. That was a lot of rumors for them to pack into a one paragraph post.
Christina Hendricks
If Chastain doesn’t prove to be available for Tarzan, Yates might want to take a look at getting Mad Men star Christina Hendricks as a replacement, because the two are basically twins, and Hendricks is a great actress to boot. Not content to just sit around and scoop up any of Chastain’s overflow though, Hendricks has been busy procuring new gigs as well. Variety is reporting that she’ll be toplining a Campbell Scott (Company Retreat) adaptation of a Joan Didion book called A Book of Common Prayer. The novel, originally published in 1977, is about an American woman who travels to a Central American country on the brink of revolution, because for some reason she imagine it’s where she’ll be reunited with her 19-year-old, fugitive daughter. Her story is reportedly told from the point of view of an American anthropologist who’s married into the country’s ruling family. Is it just me, or did the idea of Christina Hendricks having a 19-year-old daughter just give you the age shivers?
Elisabeth Moss
One of the other actresses who’s been wowing everyone ever since the first episode of Mad Men, Elisabeth Moss, also has a new job. Deadline reports that she’s part of a trio of actors who have just signed on to star in a new indie from Charlie McDowell called The One I Love. Moss will be joined by Mark Duplass, who will be playing her husband, and Ted Danson, who will be playing the therapist in charge of their couples counseling. Deadline says that this will be McDowell’s first film as a director…and that he seems to be famous for being a guy who tweets about the arguments that his neighbors are having or something? I’m not certain. The qualifications you need in order to make it in Hollywood are starting to get really weird.
Emma Stone
Rounding out our group of leading ladies are two of the most lovely and talented in all of the entertainment industry: Naomi Watts and Emma Stone. Heat Vision is reporting that they’ve just joined the cast of Amores Perros director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s next film, Birdman, and that they’re going to be joined by a couple of actors who you may have also heard of: Michael Keaton and Zach Galifianakis. The story, which is kind of meta, sees Keaton playing an actor who used to be famous for playing a superhero called Birdman trying to regain his credibility by putting on a play. Stone will be playing his daughter/assistant, who just got out of rehab, Watts has taken the role of one of the play’s actresses, and Galifianakis will be the conniving producer. Yet to be cast is the role of the play’s egotistical leading man, whose behavior threatens to sink the whole production. Wouldn’t it be super-meta if they got Christian Bale?