Finding Nemo's Dory Was Almost a Boy Until Ellen DeGeneres Came Along

Some roles are just meant to be. 

Finding Nemo is one of Disney's most beloved animated films. Ellen DeGeneres plays one of the movie's most iconic characters named Dory, a forgetful but loveable royal blue tang fish who was so popular that she got her own sequel. But according to the creator of Finding Nemo, Dory was almost a boy. 

Creator Andrew Stanton told the Los Angeles Times that while creating the movie, he had "this really dumb, male, naive view that the guide that should take the father through should be a male fish."

But that all changed one day as he watched Ellen DeGeneres on TV with his wife. 

"I heard [DeGeneres] change the sentence – the subject of a sentence – five times before she got from beginning to the end," said Stanton. "A light bulb went off that was an appealing, progressive way to be able to do short-term memory that wouldn’t get old really quick."

At that moment, everything clicked for Stanton. 

"Suddenly all the writer’s block I had just unloaded. And then I started to think, 'Well, why not? Why can’t it be a female? And why can’t it be a platonic relationship?'"

We're so glad serendipity stepped in this instance because we can't imagine anyone but DeGeneres in the role!