4. In earlier iterations, Reese Witherspoon and Kate Hudson were considered to star.
5. Three hundred actresses auditioned for the role of Giselle, but Lima said he immediately knew Amy Adams was his princess when she walked in the room before she even read a line.
“She looked like a Disney character,” the filmmaker told THR. “She’s got those beautiful round eyes and fair skin. Boy, I just crossed my fingers and hoped that she understood how to play the character.” Spoiler: Adams completely nailed it, Lima calling her a “revelation.”
“I was looking for the whole time was someone who didn’t judge the character’s naivete, an actor who could disappear into the role and never wink at the role while they were playing it and ever think that what they were doing was ridiculous,” he explained. “Truly, she was the only woman who came into the room with that quality. I knew in that moment that I could make this movie.”
6. But Lima’s early conversations with the studio “had to do with the esthetic of casting a star verses an unknown, or, in Amy’s case, a relative newcomer,” Lima shared in an intervew with MovieMaker, adding he was pushing to crown a less established actress. While Disney originally wanted a major star, Adams managed to enchant them.
“The discussions with the studio after that audition were quite easy,” Lima revealed. “Amy’s audition tape was all that was needed to convince them that Giselle had arrived.”