Richard E Grant: Julianne Moore fired from “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” over wanting to wear fat suit and fake nose

We all know by now that Julianne Moore had originally been cast as real-life literary forger Lee Israel in the film Can You Ever Forgive Me?

She was fired from the project two days before filming was due to begin. Melissa McCarthy ended up replacing her and earning a well-deserved Oscar nomination.

Richard E. Grant, Oscar nominated for the his performance in the film, had spilled the tea on why Moore was axed:

“Julianne Moore wanted to wear a fat suit and a false nose to play Lee Israel and (original director) Nicole Holofcener said ‘you’re not going to do that’,” Grant told an Advertising Week Europe event in central London.

According to The Independent he also said: “The original cast was going to be directed by Bob Balaban with Helena Bonham Carter and Sam Rockwell playing my part. Fast forward 10 years and then it was going to be Julianne Moore and Chris O’Dowd and then Nicole Holofcener, the co-screenwriter, fired Julianne Moore two days before they started shooting over creative differences and then Melissa McCarthy’s husband, who had been in the previous version and still played the same part, gave her the script to read and then she came on board and then I got cast so it was third time lucky for me otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”