3. If you thought Julianne Moore was bad
Can you ever recast a truly great character? Jodie Fosters performance as Clarice Starling is one of the most enduring in the past twenty five years of cinema. Recasting her was always going to be like recasting Bogie in Casablanca or Anthony Perkins in Psycho (sorry Vince Vaughn). As good of an actress as Julianne Moore is, her portrayal of Clarice was never going to stand up to Fosters. However, Foster was not top of the list in 1989 when the film went into pre-production. Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan and Melanie Griffiths all turned the role down because of the disturbing subject matter. Foster snapped it up when she was offered the part. Ironically Foster would turn down the role 10 years later for similar reasons. She thought that the violence in the follow up book Hannibal was far too graphic, and did not like Ridley Scotts vision for the adaptation.