Before Amanda Bynes headed into her notorious meltdown, the Nickelodeon star was reportedly frustrated she wasn’t landing roles being offered to Linsday Lohan.
While Lohan was snapped up in adult fare like Robert Altman’s “A Prairie Home Companion” Bynes couldn’t escape being typecasted into teenage roles.
“Everybody had her as a goody-goody. She couldn’t break out of that genre,” the executive told The Hollywood Reporter in their profile on Bynes. “Her frustration was, ‘I could have played this role; I could have played that role. I’m not getting the Lindsay Lohan roles.'”
How ironic, as both former child stars who were born just a few months apart, seem to be neck-to-neck at taking the title of Hollywood’s hottest train wreck.
The report alleges that Bynes, who starred in “What a Girl Wants” (2003), “She’s the Man” (2006) and “Hairspray” (2007) was consciously trying to distance herself from her innocent image, citing her decision to pose scantily clad on the cover of men’s mag Maxim in 2010.
The then 23-year-old told Maxim that she would be willing to act in “sexy films” if they were “done the right way.” She got her wish when she was cast in “Hall Pass,” the Farrelly brothers’ raunch fest about unhappy husbands whose wives allow them to have sex with other women for a week. Bynes, cast as Paige the “provocative baby sister,” was interested in Owen Wilson’s character.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Bynes became problematic as soon as shooting started in Atlanta in Feb. 2010, not knowing her lines, not getting along with the castmembers and being described as “out of nowhere.” The filmmakers dropped Bynes and hired Alexandria Daddario to replace her.
A source counters to the magazine that Bynes’ departure stemmed from a misunderstanding over the size of her role. Directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly declined comment on the article.
It was only a handful of months after leaving “Hall Pass,” that she took to her Twitter and announced her retirement from acting. In June 2010, she tweeted: “Being an actress isn’t as fun as it may seem.”
After retiring, Bynes seems to have only made headlines after her multiple run-ins with law enforcement. Most recently, the actress has been charged on two separate hit-and-run incidents on April 10 and Aug. 4. She plead “not guilty” to both. She still faces one DUI charge and two charges of driving on a suspended license.