Since Marvel Cinematic Universe started, Sarah Finn has been an integral part of the production.
As the primary casting director behind the cinematic superhero franchise, she is often one of the first people to be working on these productions, and she’s one of the few people at Marvel Studios to have their vision embedded on every single movie the production company has released. She knows the Marvel Cinematic Universe better than most die-hard fans.
On the red carpet for “Avengers: Endgame” premiere, Finn admits that Guardians of the Galaxy has been the hardest Marvel movie to cast, not only because they were trying to get people to play a talking raccoon and walking tree, but because one of the leads initially refused to audition for their part. In an interview with Variety, Finn says “Guardians of the Galaxy” star Chris Pratt initially did not want to play Peter Quill aka Star-Lord.
“They’re all challenging in their ways, but I’d probably go with Guardians of the Galaxy,” Finn says. “James Gunn has been very generous about this in saying that I – to the point of annoying him – kept insisting that Chris Pratt was the guy for the part, but Chris didn’t want to play the part and refused to audition.”
After some work, Finn was able to get Pratt to audition, but at that point, James Gunn had already tried moving on to other actors.
“I finally got him to audition, and James Gunn said he didn’t want to see him, and that really was a challenge,” she continues. “I was really happy when I finally got them together, and it was honestly one of those eureka moments that we talk about in casting when it absolutely feels right and you know it’s right. James turned to me within ten seconds and said ‘He’s the guy.'”
Sarah Finn has cast over 22 #Avengers movies and shares that the first person she cast was Robert Downey Jr. as #IronMan pic.twitter.com/8mdXvImJC7
— Variety (@Variety) April 22, 2019
“We were reading many actors, and they were all incredible and all different versions of the character, but I kept hearing Chris in my head, so it was great when he decided he was interested and now, it’s a legend. He’s the perfect person.”
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