We know Emma Watson was originally picked for Emma Stone's Oscar-winning La La Land role. Now, she has clarified why she didn't end up in the part.
The New York Post reported in January that Watson was passed over for the La La Land role for being too demanding.
Thepaper said Watson was offered the lead female role but was replaced by Stone because she "began making all these crazy demands, like rehearsals for the film must be done in London ... They jumped through hoops to make it work with her, but she just didn't feel the film was right for her."
Actors Dan Stevens and Emma Watson arrive for the world premiere of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Photo / Getty
But the British actress has a different version of events.
"It's one of these frustrating things where sort of names get attached to projects very early on as a way to kind of build anticipation or excitement for something that's coming before anything is really actually agreed or set in stone," said Watson, according to EW.
However, she had committed to Beauty and the Beast and said she couldn't be in two places at once.
"I knew I had horse training, I knew I had dancing, I knew I had three months of singing ahead of me, and I knew I had to be in London to really do that," said Watson.
"And this wasn't a movie I could just kind of parachute into. I knew I had to do the work, and I had to be where I had to be. So scheduling conflict-wise, it just didn't work out."
La La Land director Damien Chazelle also had his Whiplash star Miles Teller slated for male lead before dumping him for Ryan Gosling.
Actor Emma Stone starred in La La Land. Photo / Getty
In February last year, Chazelle seemed keen on Teller.
"(The movie's) set in contemporary (Los Angeles), but it's very much an homage to Technicolor, Cinemascope, '50s musicals - A Star is Born, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, It's Always Fair Weather, movies like that," he said, adding, "Miles is the lead. And we're still casting the rest. Nothing else is certain."
Teller told Esquire magazine he was not impressed to find out he had been sidelined.
"I got a call from my agent, saying, 'Hey, I just got a call from Lionsgate. Damien told them that he no longer thinks you're creatively right for the project. He's moving on without you.'"
Teller sent Chazelle a text saying "what the f**k, bro?"
Chazelle addressed the casting rumours, admitting that Watson and Teller were both attached to the project at some point.
Miles Teller missed out on a role in La La Land. Photo / Getty
"I will say is that the casting of this movie during the six years it took to get made went through lots of permutations, and it's true there was a moment where Emma Watson and Miles Teller were doing it," he said to Uproxx.
"And neither of those casting things wound up lasting or working out. But it was part of the up and down of this movie: that we were about to make it, we were about to not make it, about to make it, about to not make it."
