Dreamgirls may have earned plenty of accolades (not to mention a few Oscars), but I'll never stop thinking about another movie musical role Beyoncé should have nabbed. According to a Billboard interview with co-writers and directors Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, Beyoncé was up for a role in Josie & The Pussycats, but, tragically, it just didn't happen.
That's not to say the 2001 film, which starred anti-drug spokeswoman Rachel Leigh Cook as the titular Josie and Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson as her band members Melody and Val, wasn't damn near perfect. The soundtrack (which was low-key performed by Kay Hanley of Letters To Cleo and not Cook) is still on my workout playlist, and Parker Posey has never been funnier or kookier than she was playing a diabolical record exec. In fact, the only flaw of the film may have really been that it lacked some Beyoncé.
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It wasn't just Queen Bey who could have been in the zany flick, which was a very, very loose adaptation of the iconic Archie Comics characters. (You can see them today in all their 2017 glory on Riverdale.) According to Elfont's Billboard interview, deceased music icons Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes of TLC and Aaliyah also wanted a part in the film.
"The fact that Beyoncé, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes and Aaliyah came in to audition was crazy. I think it was 2000. We read Left Eye twice. She really wanted to play the part. Beyoncé was really quiet and shy. Who knew?"
While we don't know why Bey didn't make the cut, Aaliyah didn't have the comedy chops the team was looking for at the time:
"It was a comedy and Aaliyah was more serious and thoughtful. We wanted someone who could really play the comedy."
Bey may not have scored the part of Josie or any of her Pussycats, but I think that things turned out pretty okay for the superstar.