When David Fincher turned Reese Witherspoon from Gone Girl: “He was right”

“It was a lesson in humility,” admits the actress, ousted in favor of Rosamund Pike.

At the end of 2011, Reese Witherspoon was approached to produce the adaptation of a book not yet published. These are Gone GirlGillian Flynn’s novel, which will have a huge success a few months later. The actress is even supposed to embody the main role of Amy Elliott Dunne, with the approval of the author. But, when David Fincher arrives on the project to become the director, the situation changes.

Witherspoon returned to this episode this week during a podcast (via Variety). A painful moment for the star of The revenge of a blonde ::

“”David made me sit. It is not against David, but he said to me: ‘You don’t agree at all for this role, and I’m not going to take you. I had all these conversations with the writer Gillian Flynn, and she really wanted me to do it. But he said: ‘It’s not for you’. “

Other actresses are mentioned (we talked about Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron or Emily Blunt), but this complex role of manipulative woman finally goes to Rosamund Pike. A real springboard for the British actress, then unknown in Hollywood. She is appointed to the Oscars, and Gone Girl Cartoon at the cinema with $ 369 million in revenue worldwide. A record for a film by David Fincher.

The role of the husband was attributed to Ben Affleck (chosen by Fincher via … Google Images because of his particular smile). But there was not the first choice either. In 2023 Jon Hamm confirmed that he had to play Nick Dunne. Except that he had to withdraw because of his commitment to the series Mad Men.

Reese Witherspoon, she kept her role as a producer on Gone Girl, looking good alongside Rosamund Pike during the film’s first. And she never wanted David Fincher.

“”Above all, it was a lesson in humility. It meant that everything could not suit me. And he was right, completely right. Finche did an incredible job. And Rosamund Pike is so evil, with Ben Affleck who plays a kind of plouc, opposite.“”

In addition to the success of the film justifying the choice of Fincher, Witherspoon was able to digest his ouster by also winning, in the same year, an Oscar nomination for his role in Wildby Jean-Marc Vallée. The two actresses lost in front of Julianne Moore for her role in Still Alice.