Kristen Stewart already had a multitude of acting credits to her name by the time she was chosen to bring Bella Swan to life in Twilight, but the fame that came with the role made her a household name.
However, like with any other role in Hollywood, she wasn’t the only star who auditioned for the part.
In fact, four Hollywood A-listers have spoken out and revealed that they also put their name in the running. One of those actresses was even famously author Stephenie Meyer‘s first choice.
Expect Twilight casting rumors to kick back into motion again after it was announced that a TV retelling of the books was in the works. In honor of that and recent comments from one of their other stars about their audition, we looked back on who else might have played Bella in the iconic blockbusters.
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Emily Browning
Stephenie listed Emily Browning as her first choice to play Bella in a post on her blog before the movie was ever cast. However, the story about her audition is an interesting one.
“Maybe I should set it straight a little bit, because there are so many rumors flying around,” she told MTV in 2009. “People are coming up to me and saying, ‘Oh, my God. You turned [Twilight] down?’ and all this horrible stuff!”
She continued, explaining the truth: “What actually happened is that I was asked to audition – not take the part, but to just audition – shortly after The Uninvited had finished filming.”
“And I’m not the type of person who can just work back-to-back. So I was just exhausted, and I was like, ‘I’m sorry, but I just can’t sign on to a trilogy right now.’”
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Michelle Trachtenberg
Michelle Trachtenberg joked that she was considered for Twilight “because there’s only so few pale girls in Hollywood” in an interview with Us Weekly.
She added that she had known director Catherine Hardwicke for years but explained that “the schedules never worked out.”
“I already have Buffy,” she said, referencing her role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. “I’ve already done the vampire thing.”
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Lily Collins
“Yeah, one of my first auditions actually was for Twilight which is really funny now thinking about it,” Lily Collins told Crave, according to Hollywood Life. “This was many years ago. I was new on the scene, new at auditioning and it was always kind of this, ‘What’s going to happen?’ I think every young actor or actress in Hollywood starts to read some of the same material but I think everything happens for a reason and everyone who gets the roles they get were meant to. I’m a firm believer in that.
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Jennifer Lawrence
“I remember when the movie first came out, seeing Kristen Stewart on the red carpet and getting papped wherever she went,” Jennifer Lawrence told The Guardian in 2012. “I had no idea Twilight would be such a big deal. For me, and assuming for her, it was just another audition. Then it turned into this whole other thing.”
She noted that she was “glad” she didn’t get the role.
Jennifer recently looked back on her audition, saying that she was “immediately” turned down and “didn’t even get a callback.”
Speaking of Jennifer, did you know 9 other stars auditioned to play Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games? Josh Hutcherson faced off with four other actors to become the Boy with the Bread in the franchise, and Liam Hemsworth was against three other actors to play Gale Hawthorne.