Nathalie Portman was offered this role
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Lolita
lazarillo — 9 years ago(January 28, 2017 09:27 AM)
She turned it down because, as she later explained, her parents didn't want her first kiss to be with Jeremy Irons. I'm sure HE took the role though because he really WANTED to make out with a 15-year-oldit's called ACTING, you little jerk. Obviously, Portman has always been a classless a**hole who has no compunction insulting her fellow actors or roles she turned down, but she is a little more talented (and even prettier) than Dominique Swain. She still wouldn't have fit this role very well. HOWEVER. . .
She probably came close to looking like the "Lolita" of the beginning of the novel a few years earlier when she was in "Leon". A more sexualized version of that though would have been pretty creepy (although even as it was, I don't know why her parents found the "Leon" role totally acceptable, but didn't want her playing "Lolita" a couple years later). And unless they started filming the movie at the time of "Leon" and spent 4-5 years making it, she wouldn't have been believable as the older "Lolita" at the end.
On the other hand, if you want to imagine a sexy version of "Lolita". Tuesday Weld was apparently offered the Sue Lyon role (she would have been a little older than Sue Lyon16 or 17 time). She turned the role down, she claimed, because she had already been Lolita in real life!
"Let be be finale of seem/ The only emperor is the Emperor of Ice Cream" -
Harlem_Nights — 9 years ago(January 29, 2017 10:10 AM)
She turned it down because, as she later explained, her parents didn't want her first kiss to be with Jeremy Irons.
Hmm, interesting. I did not know that. Maybe because Irons is a heavy smoker?
Anyway, I can definitely see Portman as on-screen Lolita, but on the other hand Dominique Swain really made the part her own and I'm absolutely convinced that - if there was no controversy around the movie - she would've been nominated for an Oscar. Just think about the scene "Murder me like you murdered my mother!!!!". That scene alone is enough for an Oscar nod for Swaine.
I mean, these days they nominate young actresses left and right. That Jennifer Lawrence chick has like, what, two Oscars already?
It's a shame, really. Shame that Lolita 1997 was ignored by the industry. It's such an incredibly well-made movie. In every aspect. It's a perfect Oscar candidate.
Alas, people were too busy talking about how wrong it is for this kind of movie to be made. Stupid, stupid"You don't watch Michael Bay films. They happen to you."