Blake Lively almost never got to wear the magic pants.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants producer Debra Martin Chase recently detailed the casting process behind the 2005 movie, revealing that Blake's part of Bridget Vreeland nearly went to someone else.
"We were gonna cast Mischa Barton in the Blake Lively role," she shared on the Feb. 7 episode of the Hollywood Gold podcast, noting that Smallville's Kristin Kreuk was also considered to play Alexis Bledel's Lena Kaligaris character.
Mischa, however, was pretty busy filming the popular TV series The O.C., which ran from 2003 to 2007. And after production on Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was pushed back in favor of Hilary Duff's iconic 2004 rom-com A Cinderella Story, the crew had to recast many of the roles due to scheduling issues.
"We started all over," Debra explained, sharing that Kaley Cuoco and Alexa [PenaVega] were considered, while [Olivia Wilde] was on "the shortlist."
As she noted, "We saw everybody."
Following a long search for a young actress with "innocence" and "skills," Debra finally narrowed down the options to three people.
"We brought in Olivia Wilde, Missy Peregrym and Blake for the final audition," she remembered. "It was Blake's role."
And the team had a hard time nailing down Alexis for her role, too.
"We went to Alexis early on for Lena but she passed," Debra divulged. "She was still doing Gilmore Girls. She was tired, and she passed, and then we kept looking."
Luckily, Alexis eventually agreed, rounding out the cast with Blake, America Ferrara and Amber Tamblyn.
And proving that friendship never dies, the quartet are still close these days, with the foursome even reuniting back in December to watch America take part in the SAG-AFTRA Foundation panel event for Barbie.
"Those are three women who I met when I was 16 years old," Blake told People in December 2020, "and I've been lucky to call them my friends and mentors ever since."
Keep reading for more stars' iconic audition stories.