Katie Holmes Reveals '40 Days and 40 Nights' Was Originally Supposed to Star Her and Ashton Kutcher

"It wasn't meant to be," the Rare Objects filmmaker and actress told Glamour of the 2002 film that went on to star Josh Hartnett and Shannyn Sossamon

Katie Holmes is reflecting on a role that "wasn't meant to be."

In her new cover interview for Glamour's April 2023 issue, the 44-year-old Rare Objects director and actress said she, Ashton Kutcher and Eddie Kaye Thomas were originally supposed to star in 40 Days and 40 Nights.

Josh Hartnett and Shannyn Sossamon ended up leading the 2002 romantic comedy, which follows Matt (Hartnett, 44) as he vows to abstain from any sexual activity for 40 days and 40 nights following a string of failed post-breakup encounters — but has a difficult time after unexpectedly meeting Erica (Sossamon, 44).

After being originally slated to appear in the film alongside Kutcher, 45, and American Pie's Thomas, 42, Holmes told Glamour, "I didn't know this, Eddie just told me, but he had gotten into a fender bender on the way to the table read and the reading just didn't go well."

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Related: Katie Holmes, Julia Mayorga and Alan Cumming Star in Trailer for Rare Objects — Watch

Holmes further recalled of the experience, "There were executives and all that, and you could just feel it. I remember leaving going, 'Oh, my God, what just happened?' "

"It wasn't meant to be. They ended up making it with another cast," she added.

40 Days and 40 Nights, which made $95.1 million at the worldwide box office, also costarred Paulo Costanzo, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Vinessa Shaw and Griffin Dunne, among others.

And while Holmes and Kutcher have yet to appear in a project together save for a 2003 episode of his MTV prank show Punk'd, she and Thomas recently starred in The Wanderers, an off-Broadway play that just took its final bow earlier this month following a three-month run.

Holmes directed, co-wrote, co-produced and stars in Rare Objects, which costars American Rust's Julia Mayorga plus Alan Cumming, David Alexander Finn and Derek Luke, the latter of whom previously appeared with Holmes in Pieces of April (2003) and Alone Together (2022).

Related: Katie Holmes' Red Carpet Look Has a Little Bit of Everything: Netting, Sparkles and Velvet Fringe

Based on Kathleen Tessaro's 2016 novel of the same name, the film sees Holmes' character Diana forming a close bond with "a young woman with a traumatic past" named Benita (Mayorga), who "seeks to rebuild her life when she begins working at a New York City antique shop."

Asked by Glamour about directing a scene, as a woman, that depicted sexual violence, the Dawson's Creek alum said, "What was most important to me was what it did to [Benita] in the aftermath."

"To me, unfortunately, [sexual assault] is an understood secret amongst women, so we don't have to share too much to know what we're talking about," Homes continued. "And I also felt like that."

"Julia was so incredible in that scene, and that was really a difficult one to shoot because I just needed her face," she added. "I kept telling both of the actors, 'It's your faces.' And so they had to really go there. Everybody was pretty shaken up after."

Rare Objects, from IFC Films, is in theaters and on demand Friday.

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