'Ava Gardner'

i think marcia gay-harden is a great actress but i've got to agree, she was not right for ava. you're totally right about sela ward! i would never have thought of that but she would have been perfect!

Marcia Gay-Harden was definitely the wrong choice for Ava.




I had the chance to work with Michael Jackson who was as brilliant as they come.
Tommy Mottola

Hardin said in an interview she nearly turned down the role, she found it daunting to portray "the most beautiful woman in the world." And granted, while attractive but not beautiful let alone a great beauty, physically she sufficed for me since she at least had the type of look Ava did (though not exotic, she possessed the mature and womanly, earthy appearance).

But indeed, at the time there were other actresses who were obvious choices, like the aforementioned exotic, earthy Sela Ward (she was called "the Ava Gardner of the 90's"), Lara Flynn Boyle (lacks the exoticness but had the coloring and similar facial features), and Sherilyn Fenn (a ravishing beauty who looked like a fusion of Ava and Elizabeth Taylor). Maybe they turned down the roles and/or were unavailable.

But Hardin's great performance made up for the lack of physical resemblance/beauty...she totally embodied the character and convincingly exuded the necessary personal magnetism, instability, toughness, vulnerability, and independence. Very impressed by this talented lady!

Though it is *hugely* ironic Gina Gershon was cast as Nancy instead of Ava, she had many commonalities to the latter and was an obvious choice instead of Hardin. Gershon not only had the exotic smoldering looks, she also had the overpoweringly sensual, bombshell quality Hardin lacked. She also could well exude the requisite independent, scrappy quality. She likely would've been just as good or better if their roles had been switched. And her voice was/is closer to Ava's, that she even did her voice-over in the recent HBO Sinatra documentary.