Fates in Filmmaking: Who Were the Wallflowers at the ‘La La Land’ Dance?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/movies/la-la-land-oscar-race.html

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LOS ANGELES — The celebrated musical “La La Land,” which begins its theatrical run next week, is expected to be a force in multiple Oscar races, including for best picture, but not least for best actor and best actress. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone so perfectly inhabit their melancholy characters, or so the chatter on the fall awards circuit is going, that they were born to play the roles.

They almost didn’t get them.

As the film was coming together in late 2014, Lionsgate, the studio behind “La La Land,” said that the leads — difficult roles requiring singing, dancing and dramatic emotional swings — had gone to Miles Teller, then generating buzz for playing a tortured drummer in “Whiplash,” and Emma Watson, best known as Hermione in the “Harry Potter” movies.

“La La Land,” directed and written by Damien Chazelle, would have been a big deal for both young stars. Ms. Watson had been keen to finally discard her Hogwarts uniform. For Mr. Teller, the musical would have been a move toward above-the-title leading man territory.

But the movie gods had other plans — offering a prime example, as Hollywood hurtles into its annual awards hoopla, of the messy confluence of ephemeral factors that make some films sizzle.

Mr. Teller, now 29, and Ms. Watson, 26, may well have mustered the chemistry necessary to pull off the wistful romance at the center of “La La Land.” We’ll never know. What is clear: Their departures (hers involving a competing project, his pertaining to scheduling and pay) were nonetheless kismet for Mr. Chazelle, who was able to land Mr. Gosling and Ms. Stone, who had been his dream pair but were initially unattainable.

“There is something about film that we cannot define, and it’s called Bogart and Bacall,” said Jeanine Basinger, author of “The Star Machine” and founder of Wesleyan University’s film studies program. “The best movies reflect the unknown, undefinable chemistries of life.”

She added: “You can be as meticulous a filmmaker as there ever was. It’s the accidents that make art. It’s why you can’t manufacture great films. If we could, Hollywood would be churning them out.”

The creative push and pull of moviemaking, where one decision among thousands can make the difference between a critical hit and a miss, is on display all year long, of course. But the film industry’s awards season, which will become supercharged on Dec. 12, when nominations for the 2017 Golden Globes are announced, has a way of throwing the happenstance aspects of cinema into high relief. Along with “La La Land,” perhaps the best example this time around is “Manchester by the Sea.”

A drama about a hard-bitten New Englander (Casey Affleck) coping with horrendous loss, “Manchester by the Sea” has received some of the best reviews of the year — and it almost starred Matt Damon, who had to bow out because of scheduling conflicts. As a result, Mr. Affleck may nab his second Oscar nomination. His first came in 2008, for his supporting performance in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”

Mr. Damon, a four-time Oscar nominee (and a one-time winner, with Ben Affleck, for writing “Good Will Hunting”), was also supposed to direct “Manchester by the Sea,” which has backing from Amazon and Roadside Attractions. But he handed that duty over to Kenneth Lonergan, who is widely expected to battle Mr. Chazelle (among others) in the Academy Awards director race. A win would catapult Mr. Lonergan, who also wrote the film’s screenplay, into Hollywood’s major leagues.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is to unveil its nominations on Jan. 24. The ceremony is scheduled for Feb. 26. If the nominee list includes Ms. Stone and Mr. Gosling — as the handicappers at Gold Derby, an entertainment honors site, predict — how will Mr. Teller and Ms. Watson react?

It’s hard to know. Both declined to comment. But Ms. Basinger hazarded a guess.

“With two big that-could-have-been-me sobs, I would imagine,” she said. “No matter what kind of face they try to put on afterward, these so-close-yet-so-far-away career moments are very hard to swallow.”

There may be no dishonor that burns quite as hot in Hollywood as having an Oscar-winning (or even -nominated) role slip through your fingers. The instant flow of better scripts, the fame, the fawning — it all goes to someone else.

And the entertainment news media will make sure it is never forgotten. Just ask Angela Bassett, who turned down the role in “Monster’s Ball” that won Halle Berry her best-actress statuette; or Julia Roberts, who spurned the plucky character in “The Blind Side” that cemented Sandra Bullock’s place on the A-list; or John Travolta, who has admitted that it was a bad idea to turn up his nose at the lead in “Forrest Gump,” which won Tom Hanks his second Oscar.

But again — kismet. Mr. Travolta as Forrest Gump? It would have been an entirely different movie.

“Some of these cases feel like near-miss car accidents,” Ms. Basinger said. (Another famous example: Truman Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe to play the “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” part that became Audrey Hepburn’s signature role, and earned her the fourth of five Academy Award acting nominations.)

Mr. Chazelle, who also directed “Whiplash,” was not just going on instinct when he ultimately sought Ms. Stone, 28, and Mr. Gosling, 36, to play his entertainment industry dreamers in “La La Land.” They had already exhibited screen chemistry in films like “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”

But he was able to secure the pair only after encountering challenges with Ms. Watson and Mr. Teller.

Ms. Watson fell out first, according to three people briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.

Tackling “La La Land” would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for her to take a role she had long coveted: Belle in Disney’s live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast.” The film, commitments for which would overlap with “La La Land,” had the extra benefit of filming in Ms. Watson’s home base of London; she could remain close to her boyfriend at the time, a star rugby player for Oxford University.

Mr. Chazelle and Ms. Watson parted on good terms. “Beauty and the Beast” will arrive on March 17. While not conceived as an awards contender, the film is expected to be a box office hit.

Mr. Teller did not leave on his own accord. According to the people briefed on negotiations, he was first upset with the money Lionsgate was offering, a fee of about $1 million, and was even more irritated to learn that Ms. Stone — in a turnaround of Hollywood’s gender pay gap — was being offered closer to $3 million.

Lionsgate, which declined to comment, agreed to raise its offer a bit. But then came scheduling difficulties.

Mr. Chazelle, who also declined to comment, cut Mr. Teller loose and went with Mr. Gosling, who had become available. (Mr. Teller, not known for his quiet demeanor, told Esquire magazine in August that he had responded by sending Mr. Chazelle a profane text message.)

All’s well that ends well? It certainly seems that way for team “La La Land.” The New York Film Critics Circle named it best picture on Thursday, and according to 23 of the 28 Gold Derby prognosticators, it’s currently the one to beat on Oscar night.