Ephemera: The Back Story
Alternate Marlas Emerge
Special thanks to Kyle McCormick for bringing this to the fore…
At the time of casting Fight Club, Courtney Love was involved with Edward Norton, just after the filming of The People vs. Larry Flynt. The executive producer of Fight Club, Art Linson, told me he’d gone to dinner with Love and Norton, and the pair had lobbied hard for her to play Marla.
Now it seems there were other factors… Click here for other factors.
In my first converstation with David Fincher I mentioned Love as Marla. David said he wanted to cast against type. That’s all I know.
Winona would have been fabulous. Helen delivered though. It's my favorite role by far.
It worked out well in the end. I'm finding it hard to Think about which other 90s actresses can convincely pull off that role. Maybe Eva Green? But she was not yet an actress. Or maybe Daniel Day Lewis, cause he's fucking dedicated to disappear completely.