10 Movie Roles That Almost Were Cast VERY Differently

Meryl Streep is one of Hollywood's finest actors. Winning multiple Oscars and BAFTAs, she's the last person you expect to be cast in a gritty science fiction survival horror movie. And yet, casting director Mary Goldberg suggested her for the role of Ellen Ripley in the first Alien.

Streep certainly has the range to play a space freighter's second mate, who can more than hold her own in a predominantly male crew. It remains to be seen what she would have looked like as a gun-toting action heroine, but if we're honest that's not the original character. Ellen Ripley is smart and resourceful rather than the tortured badass she becomes as the series drags on. You can see Streep as a crewmember of the Nostromo, you can't really see her as the convoluted pregnant clone Ripley from Alien: Resurrection.

There are conflicting reports as to why Streep wasn't cast, producer Gordon Carroll states that due to the loss of her partner, the team chose not to approach Streep to allow her time to grieve.

Other reports suggest that Ridley Scott viewed a screen test and deemed her too fragile to rough it on a space freighter. Whatever the reason, I still want to hear Streep tell an alien to "get away from her, you bitch".