When it comes to Hollywood, there are always famous “what-ifs” that haunt us (and sometimes actors) forever. We all know that Will Smith questions why he took the role in Wild Wild West instead of becoming The Matrix’s Neo. But what many MCU fans don’t know is that Oscar winner Zoe Saldaña was not the first choice for Gamora. In a recent interview, Amanda Seyfried reveals that she got an offer to star in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie as Gamora but turned it down.
Seyfried talked about her choice on an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast. After getting the offer, she thought about it for a few days and then decided to not take the role for a few reasons. She feared that the film would potentially be the first Marvel movie flop and didn’t want to trash her career. Amanda Seyfried also didn’t want to take on the hefty task of sitting through the makeup and prosthetics needed to portray the green-hued Gamora.
“I was really scared of the idea of being stuck and painted a different color because of the amount of time [it takes],” Seyfried said. “It was a giant opportunity. I had just met James in person. He is wonderful. Apparently someone said he didn’t remember but it’s definitely true. I definitely got the offer for it and I mulled over it for a couple days. I didn’t want to live in London for six months out of the year. There was another movie I really wanted to do with Seth MacFarlane called A Million Ways to Die in the West. It felt like a good opportunity.”
“Let’s also remember that being a part of the first Marvel movie that bombs ain’t good for your career,” she added. “I thought that because this was about a talking tree and a talking raccoon that it would be Marvel’s first bomb and me and Chris Pratt would never work again. I was wrong! But I was just being smart. It’s not brave.”
This sounds pretty wild to hear but it totally makes sense if you think about it. Up until then, the steadily rising MCU was all about Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and the Avengers collective, all pretty well-known heroes to both comic fans and general movie fans. For a lot of folks, the Guardians of the Galaxy were a weird team that people weren’t sure about, especially those like Seyfried who weren’t familiar with this world.
In 2012, she was in the Best Picture nominated film Les Misérables and her career was on an upward trajectory. As she said in her interview, a film involving a “talking raccoon” and a “talking tree” probably didn’t sound like the best next move.
Of course, we all know that Guardians of the Galaxy became a successful film that led to its own franchise within a larger franchise. And Gamora went on to be a part of larger films like Avengers: Endgame. It’s hard to really imagine anyone else playing that role besides Zoe Saldaña, to be honest. And Seyfried said that she doesn’t regret her decision at all. She went on to have a great career but we will always wonder what she would’ve been like in the MCU.