Faye Dunaway

Kindergarten Cop The Rewatchables April 21, 2026

Kindergarten Cop

Recasting Couch

Cameron is proposed to direct; Roberts, Cage, Turner and several mother-role alternatives are suggested.

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 01:11:43Read transcript

James Cameron is proposed with Jamie Lee as the other teacher and increased violence/production value; a joke imagines tall blue students with tails. — Bill Simmons
Given the star and director’s status, a more ambitious cast is wanted, with Julia Roberts as the teacher on the run. — Kyle Brandt
Nick Cage is proposed as Crisp and receives approval. — Kyle Brandt
Faye Dunaway, Shirley MacLaine or Ellen Burstyn are offered for the mother; Kathleen Turner replacing Cathy Moriarty is the strongest wish. — Bill Simmons
Meg Ryan as the partner is questioned because she would need to be the female lead and might imply too much romantic interest; the existing partner’s flirtation and kiss are debated. — Kyle Brandt

Misery The Rewatchables July 5, 2022

Misery

Recasting Couch

Faye Dunaway or Jane Fonda for Lauren Bacall

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 01:10:24Read transcript

Lauren Bacall’s performance is criticized as too television-like — Brian Koppelman
The production’s intended cosmopolitan contrast with Annie is offered as context — Brian Koppelman
Faye Dunaway is proposed as a replacement — Bill Simmons
Jane Fonda is proposed and preferred — Bill Simmons

Kramer vs. Kramer The Rewatchables February 21, 2022

Kramer vs. Kramer

Casting What-Ifs

James Caan, Al Pacino and Jon Voight for Ted; Kate Jackson, Faye Dunaway and Jane Fonda for Joanna; Gail Strickland as Margaret

In the discussion (9)

Approx. transcript time · 01:34:24Read transcript

Hoffman initially did not want the role, and James Caan reportedly declined over fears the film would flop. — Bill Simmons
Al Pacino reportedly turned it down as not right for him; seeing him in the role would have been welcome. — Mallory Rubin
Jon Voight reportedly declined because he was already in The Champ, another divorced-parent story whose ending is called one of the saddest.
Hoffman changed his mind after meeting Jaffe and Benton in a London hotel. — Bill Simmons
By her own claim, Kate Jackson was offered Joanna but could not take it because of Charlie's Angels; the story is treated as only mostly true. — Bill Simmons
Faye Dunaway was reportedly offered the role and did The Champ instead; Jane Fonda, earlier said to have been talked about for the role, is mentioned again; Ali MacGraw is named only with the judgment that she would have butchered it, without saying she was considered. — Bill Simmons
Streep was originally meant for the JoBeth Williams role before being cast as Joanna. — Bill Simmons
Gail Strickland was cast as Margaret but reportedly fired after Hoffman taunted her on set, and Jane Alexander replaced her. — Bill Simmons
Earlier, a Kate Jackson version of Joanna is dismissed as unable to reach Streep's level, with casting what-ifs promised for later. — Bill Simmons

Basic Instinct The Rewatchables April 14, 2020

Basic Instinct

Most Rewatchable Scene

Nightclub scene into the sex scene

In the discussion (26)

Approx. transcript time · 00:41:56Read transcript

The opening murder is ruled out as a most rewatchable scene because a man gets brutally stabbed to death. — Bill Simmons
The first visit to Catherine's house is nominated: the cliffside drive and the house itself, which a half-assed internet research lookup suggested was listed for $52 million, though that is flagged as possibly untrue. — Bill Simmons
The first interview has exchanges like "Are you a pro?" "I'm an amateur" and "Are you sorry he's dead?" "Yeah, I liked fucking him," and is called one of the best character introductions ever.
The setting is symbolic: beautiful and serene on top, choppy water and jagged rocks over the edge. — Mallory Rubin
Her lines scandalize the detectives, men in their 40s; in 1992 there were no characters like this who were in complete control. — Bill Simmons
The second house visit is nominated too: she changes in front of them, the cigarette exchange in the car, and the new book about a detective who falls for the wrong woman. — Bill Simmons
The police interrogation, featuring Newman from Seinfeld and Eddie Harris from Major League, with the cocaine question, the crotch shot and the lie detector, is called the most rewatchable eight to nine minutes of the movie. — Bill Simmons
More lines are added from the interrogation; the cuts are brilliant, she is in command though nominally in their power, and the scene would have been a meme machine in the GIF era. — Mallory Rubin
The leg-cross is called one of the great movie star scenes of the last 30 years; Kathleen Turner and Faye Dunaway are floated as comparisons, but doubted as able to command the room the same way. — Mallory Rubin
The hosts say the leg-cross was Verhoeven's idea in the room and not in the script; Stone claimed she did not know the shot would be used, while he said they had discussed it; they say it would be a huge deal in 2020. — Bill Simmons
The hosts relay the story that Verhoeven told her the underwear was reflecting the lights, and debate whether the character wore underwear given the earlier dressing scene. — Mallory Rubin
Stone is praised for speaking openly about the lack of permission and its impact on her career, while the moment is still held up as iconic. — Mallory Rubin
The shot is called invasive because of the interrogation power dynamic, even though she is fully naked later in the film. — Chris Ryan
Catherine stopping by Nick's place, taking the ice pick and his cigarette, and calling him Shooter is liked, as is the pre-cell-phone habit of waiting on a stoop.
The nightclub: Nick is the oldest guy by 18 years in the V-neck, the three-person cocaine stall scene is called the all-time best, and Roxy's dancing is praised. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say the sex scene took five days to shoot; first-time viewers wonder whether he will be murdered, and Michael Douglas's butt is the funniest part. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say Verhoeven wanted full frontal nudity from Douglas, whose contract prohibited it. — Mallory Rubin
A director's cut viewing claims a side-angle glimpse and dwells on the strained eye contact during oral sex, which is called hilarious. — Mallory Rubin
Verhoeven is paraphrased as saying men think they know how women have sex but do not know how other men have sex. — Mallory Rubin
The ceiling mirror, fingers in mouths, the white scarf and the back scratch with no blood on white sheets are called ludicrous and mesmerizing. — Mallory Rubin
Nick visiting Catherine the next day ("a pretty good beginning," "I'm in love with you already, but I'll nail you anyway") is nominated as a great Basic Instinct scene. — Bill Simmons
A production flaw is noted: there is no sand beach at her property, so the hosts guess the beach part was filmed elsewhere; no later scene is seen as rewatchable once the whodunit kicks in.
Other nominations: the homicidal-impulse conversation that reveals how much Catherine knows about Nick, the Gus and Beth murder sequence and case wrap-up as near comedy, and the suspenseful final scene. — Mallory Rubin
The pick is the nightclub scene by far, lumped with the sex scene, including the dancing and Roxy getting mad. — Chris Ryan
Another pick is the car ride through the police interrogation, for the Bay Area and her command of the room.
A third participant calls the interrogation legendary but sides with Chris on the sex scene, with the club scene as the cherry on top. — Mallory Rubin

Gone Girl The Rewatchables August 13, 2019

Gone Girl

Casting What-Ifs

Jon Hamm, slated for Nick until Mad Men's Matthew Weiner would not release him; Tom Cruise and George Clooney weighed for Nick; Reese Witherspoon, who held the rights to play Amy before Fincher talked her out of it; Charlize, Natalie Portman, Emily Blunt, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde and Julianne Hough considered for Amy; Emily Ratajkowski cast on Ben Affleck's recommendation

In the discussion (11)

Approx. transcript time · 01:06:51Read transcript

In the formal casting what-ifs, most having been covered already, the one new item is that Fincher cast Emily Ratajkowski on a recommendation from Ben Affleck, which the hosts find the funniest thing they have heard and worth a shout-out, joking about hiring her as a football writer to cover the NFC.
Jon Hamm was going to play Nick but Matthew Weiner would not let him out of his contract for the last season of Mad Men, the way The Office accommodated Ed Helms filming The Hangover at night; the part could have ignited Hamm's career as Don Draper in a bad marriage, though whether Hamm would have done the side dick is called the only question that matters.
The case against Hamm is that the role needs innate likability, and nobody ever simply liked Don Draper even if Hamm is loved in The Town and Baby Driver; the counter is that Nick is supposed to seem rationally likable yet somehow repellent, which Hamm could swing.
The relationship we have with Hamm is with Don Draper, while with Affleck it is with Affleck the public person; a Hamm version would still have been a good movie, because the film is about marriage, what women and men say they want, stardom and the media, bigger than Fincher's narcissism explanation; another voice thinks Hamm would have been good but loves that Affleck did this at the point of his completed comeback.
Tom Cruise as Nick Dunn is floated, with one voice calling the idea amazing, and rejected by the rest: he is too short and lacks Affleck's bulk and wide shoulders, you need to believe Nick can keep up with Amy, you need to see his belly exposed when he rolls over, and nobody can picture Cruise sitting down for Battlefield 3; Clooney fifteen years earlier is possible but a little too skinny.
Reese Witherspoon obtained the film rights intending to produce and play Amy, met Fincher and somehow gave the part up; the hosts cannot picture her riding Neil Patrick Harris covered in blood, finding her too earnest, open and likable to go dead-eyed the way Amy requires.
Other names reported for Amy: Charlize and Natalie Portman, both of whom would have been interesting though Charlize carries baggage as an actress, Emily Blunt, Rooney Mara whom Fincher had just worked with, Olivia Wilde, and strangest of all Dancing with the Stars' Julianne Hough, who got far down the road before her bid at a serious acting career stalled.
Fincher wanted an actress with a Faye Dunaway in Chinatown persona, someone who has experienced avenues of pain no one can articulate; he settled on Rosamund Pike because at 35 she could pass for 29 or 40, she was an only child like Amy, and after four or five of her movies he had never got a beat on her, an opacity he found interesting, when the natural move would have been Charlize.
Fincher has always had an eye for unproven, on-the-cusp talent, Pitt in Seven, Eisenberg and Rooney Mara in The Social Network, Mahershala Ali and Taraji Henson in Benjamin Button; the hosts expected Pike's career to go somewhere else after her Oscar nomination, and before this her notable role was Jack Reacher, an embarrassing part two years earlier.
Asked whether baggage with a real celebrity hurts a part like this, the answer is that for Amy you need to be totally confused about the person, the opposite of the Affleck character whom you must root for implicitly, so somebody you have never seen before makes it scarier. — Shea Serrano
Pike's biggest role until then was Jane Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, the book that turns up in the bookshop where they have sex.

48 Hrs. The Rewatchables December 7, 2017

48 Hrs.

Roger Ebert's review

In the discussion (1)

Approx. transcript time · 00:13:20Read transcript

Ebert gave the film three and a half stars and wrote about Eddie Murphy's Torchy's scene (transcribed as 'torture scene') that sometimes an actor becomes a star in a single scene, as Jack Nicholson did in Easy Rider and Faye Dunaway did looking out at Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde; the hosts add that the theater felt it in the moment and that the movie itself knows it.