was she ever a contender for Closer?

Apparently not according to some interviews that were out with her over here in Britain during a push for Goal...

She says that Patrick Marber (the Playright and Director of Closer and who wrote the award-winning screenplay) didnt put her forward to Director Mike Nicholls...

According to her, if she has been quoted correctly, people keep asking why she didnt play the role as apparently she would have been much better than Natalie Portman - who only was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for it...

but awards are based so much more on the money and politics of the industry. personally, i think the role should have been played by someone with the ability to project much more experience. i think anna friel or maggie gylennhal(who also performed the role on stage) would have been much more beleiveable.

Natalie Portman was really terrible in the film. It would have been a whole lot better if Anna played her role instead.

None of those awards mean anything, it's all about politics etc not real talent..

agreed and agreed.

I disagree with above, Natalie was fantastic as Alice in my opinion, she's a great, believable actress. But it would've been interesting to see Anna Friels take on Alice.

A complete travesty she was never up for the role in the film version. I was fortunate to see her in the play back in '99 on Broadway and she remains the definitve Alice in my eyes. Such a shame this performance was never captured on celluloid so more people could see it. Natalie Portman was OK but insubstantial and didn't create a fully-fledged performance - Anna gave this role depth and a unique blend of sexiness and vulnerability. She was captivating in the way that Natalie Portman was not. I'm so, so glad I saw this.