10 Potential TV Castings We’re SO Glad Didn’t Happen
3. Katie Holmes As Buffy Summers (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
Katie Holmes is best known for two things: marrying Tom Cruise and getting recast in Batman. Neither are things to be especially proud of, and now she can add a third to that list of lowlights; just missing out on the lead in one of the most iconic shows of the late ‘90s.
Katie Holmes was in the frame to play Buffy in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, a role which went on to be played fantastically by Sarah Michelle Gellar. It would have been Holmes’ first screen role ever, but by missing out she was able to star in Dawson’s Creek instead.
She followed up Dawson’s Creek with good performances in flawed movies, like Phone Booth, Pieces Of April and Wonder Boys.
Once she met (and seven weeks later, got engaged to) Tom Cruise though, her career pumped the breaks almost immediately. Between ‘05-‘08, she didn’t act at all.
Gellar’s career has floundered somewhat since then, starring in relative misses like Scooby Doo, Ringer and The Grudge. Still, Buffy is a character with a massive legacy, and it owes a great deal to Sarah Michelle Gellar’s performance.