10 Best Actor Replacements In Movies

Now, it goes without saying that recasting a voice role is significantly less arduous for filmmakers than one that's in front of the camera, but all the same, in the case of Spike Jonze's brilliant sci-fi romance Her, the voiceover role has very special significance.

During principal photography, Samantha Morton was hired to voice protagonist Theodore Twombly's (Joaquin Phoenix) AI love interest Samantha, and rather than merely record her lines during post-production, she was actually present for the shoot, acting on set in a soundproof booth.

However, during editing Jonze decided that Morton's performance wasn't quite the right fit for the character, and so decided to recast, drafting in Scarlett Johansson as her replacement, while Morton received an associate producer credit.

Despite the expectation that Johansson would simply re-record the lines over a weekend, she reportedly spent four months working on the film with Jonze, who also re-shot new material to accommodate the change in actress.

Those months were evidently well spent though, given that beyond the inherent appeal of Johansson's soothing voice, she gives a terrifically nuanced performance as an unexpectedly multi-faceted character, enough that some even believed her worthy of an Oscar nomination despite her lack of visual presence in the film.