‘Castle’ Star Stana Katic Lost ‘Elektra’ to Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Garner was known for portraying the superhero Elektra in both Daredevil and her titular film. But before she nabbed the role, Stana Katic had her eyes set on the character as well.
Stana Katic once auditioned for ‘Elektra’
Katic is no stranger to superhero projects. She’s voiced some of comic books’ most iconic characters across a few forms of media. This included playing Talia Al Ghul in the video game Batman: Arkham City, and Wonder Woman in the animated film Justice Society: World War II. She even felt her character in Castle, Kate Beckett, was a superhero in her own right.
“I think she’s like a female superhero on television, and we’re slowly exploring more and more of that,” Katic once told Collider. “She’s got a tremendous amount of integrity. I’ve gotten to do more stunts lately, which is really cool. They’re letting us show more of her sexier side. She’s complex, and she’s also flawed. She’s not a perfect character, so there’s a lot to play in that.”
But Katic also had an opportunity to play a superhero in a live-action film as well. It turned out she auditioned for Jennifer Garner’s Elektra back when she was still a teenager. And although she didn’t get the part, it seemed she was very fond of the experience.
“Rob Bowman, who’s one of our executive producers, directed Elektra and I didn’t know that. Elektra was the first character ever that I auditioned for. I was so new that I drove down from Toronto to Chicago to read for the role, at 18 or 19. I thought that was a really neat piece of kismet. And then, Frank Miller drew me as Elektra and gave me his personal edition of the Elektra comic book that he had drawn,” she said.
But there were a few other live action superhero roles that Katic was interested in getting as well.
“The new Wonder Woman is pretty bad-ass. I’d love to play Talia al Ghul, who I played in the new Batman Asylum for the video game,” she said. “I’d love to play her. I think Liam Neeson is so killer, and I’d love to play opposite Christian Bale and the rest. I read Scarlett recently, and that was a killer comic book. The Black Widow was pretty rockin’. There is a big list of killer chicks that are just rockin’.”
Jennifer Garner beat out hundreds of other actors for Elektra while using her phone
It was already an impressive feat that Garner won her role in Daredevil’s Elektra. According to the film’s producer Avi Arad, Garner had to compete with hundreds of actors for the part, including Katic. But what made her winning the role even more impressive was the fact that she insisted on using her phone during the audition.
“I said to myself, ‘Listen, lady. This is a big movie you’re trying out for,’” Arad recalled telling Garner in an interview with USA Today (via Superhero Hype).
It turned out, however, that the Alias star wanted to keep her phone in case of a family emergency.
“She said her sister was in labor and she wanted to get the phone if it was her,” Arad said. “So we said OK.”
The fact that Garner was able to secure the movie despite the distraction further proved to the producer what a talent she was.
“The more you look and get to know her, the more you realize what great potential she has,” Arad said. “When you can combine that kind of strength of character and work ethic and beauty, you’d be smart to put that in your movies.”
