Omg where's rihannafan? I'm watching an interview with Lisa Genova (author of Still Alice) and she said Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Michelle Pfeiffer and Diane Lane all passed on it
She also said it was initially going to be a Lifetime or Hallmark movie because the thinking was that "no one wants to go to the theatre to watch a drama about a 50-year-old woman without a triumphant ending."
