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The Choice That Cost a Career: Emily Lloyd's Unbelievable Hollywood Story
In the late 80s, rising star Emily Lloyd made a fateful choice: she rejected the lead in *Pretty Woman* for a role in *Mermaids* alongside Cher. In a shocking twist, she was then fired from *Mermaids*, a career-altering event that sent her promising trajectory into a tailspin.
Hollywood is a town built on legends of overnight success, but it's equally haunted by stories of what could have been. Few tales are as poignant or cautionary as that of Emily Lloyd, a British actress who, at the peak of her meteoric rise, made a career choice that led to one of the industry's most infamous sliding-doors moments.
A Star on the Rise
In 1987, a 16-year-old Emily Lloyd burst onto the scene with a vibrant, BAFTA-nominated performance in Wish You Were Here. She was electrifying, witty, and immediately hailed as one of the most promising talents of her generation. Hollywood came calling, and by the end of the decade, she stood at a crossroads with two major offers on her table: the lead in a quirky family drama called Mermaids, and the starring role in a dark script about a sex worker titled $3,000.
The Fateful Decision
On paper, the choice seemed obvious. Mermaids was set to star the iconic Cher, a guaranteed box-office draw. Lloyd already had a contract with the studio, Orion Pictures, for the part. Conversely, $3,000 was a gritty, downbeat drama that multiple A-list actresses had already passed on. Lloyd, committed to Mermaids, turned down the risky project. That film, of course, would be rewritten, retitled, and released as Pretty Woman, the global phenomenon that transformed Julia Roberts from a budding actress into America's sweetheart and one of the highest-paid stars in the world.
Choosing Mermaids seemed like the safer, more prestigious bet. But in Hollywood, nothing is ever safe.
The Twist No One Saw Coming
Production on Mermaids was fraught with difficulty. Directors came and went, and tensions brewed on set. Then, the unthinkable happened. Cher, the film's undeniable star, began to express doubts about Lloyd's casting as her daughter, Charlotte Flax. The studio sided with their superstar, and Emily Lloyd was abruptly fired from the film she had chosen over Pretty Woman. Winona Ryder was brought in as her replacement. The official reasoning, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, was a matter of chemistry and appearance.
Cher felt that Lloyd simply wasn't believable as her offspring. In her own words, she explained, “Emily is a wonderful, wonderful actress, but I didn’t believe she was my daughter... I felt if the audience didn’t believe the relationship, the film wouldn’t work.”
For Lloyd, the dismissal was a devastating public blow. It didn't just cost her a role; it shattered her confidence and effectively halted the incredible momentum she had built. The industry is notoriously wary of perceived 'difficulty,' and being recast from such a high-profile project created a stigma that was hard to shake.
The Aftermath and A Career Altered
While Lloyd continued to work, appearing in films like Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It, her career never regained the luminous trajectory it once had. The promise of superstardom, which had seemed all but certain, faded. In her 2013 autobiography, Wish I Was There, Lloyd opened up about the profound impact the event had on her, exacerbating her lifelong struggles with anxiety and OCD. The combination of industry politics and personal battles proved overwhelming.
Emily Lloyd's story is more than just a piece of trivia about who could have been Vivian Ward. It’s a stark reminder of the fragility of fame, the brutal politics of filmmaking, and how a single decision—even a seemingly logical one—can change a life's course in the blink of an eye.