A History of Iconic Roles That Famous Actors Turned Down

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The story goes that Lindsay Lohan initially auditioned for and was offered the role of Regina George, but she turned it down because she felt playing a “mean girl” in a movie called Mean Girls would harm her reputation—even though only a few years later, she went on to ruin it just fine herself. The role instead went to Rachel McAdams, and Lohan took on the lead role as “nice girl” Cady. Life doesn’t always imitate art!

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Career-wise, this probably worked out best for him, but still—it would have been hilarious to see Leonardo DiCaprio headlining 1993’s Hocus Pocus. Apparently, the role of Max Dennison was originally offered to DiCaprio, but he was forced to turn it down so he could appear in Lasse Hallström’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. The role, instead, went to actor Omri Katz, who has not appeared in any new projects since 2006.

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Elf wasn’t released until 2003, but, as with a lot of Hollywood projects, the script was floating around long before that. Back in 1993, when it first emerged, it actually had a pre-Ace Ventura Jim Carrey attached to star as the lead pseudo-elf Buddy. The project took years to get off the ground, however, so Carrey eventually turned it down and the role went to Will Ferrell ten years later.

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Even worse than turning down a role that goes on to be legendary and iconic: When that role goes on to win an Academy Award as well. This was unfortunately the case for Julia Roberts in 2009, when she turned down the lead role of Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side. The part eventually went to Sandra Bullock, who received an Oscar for Best Actress for the role. That same year, Roberts appeared in Duplicity, which received mixed reviews and only got Roberts a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

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Contrary to popular opinion, Sandra Bullock did not exactly turn down 2004’s Million Dollar Baby, but she still had to drop out of the project due to scheduling conflicts with Miss Congeniality 2. She explained in 2005: “We had Million Dollar Baby with someone else for a while, trying to get it made. I couldn't get it made. We tried and tried and tried. (They were like) Female boxing movies don't sell. I was like, 'This is the most incredible piece.' I then started doing Miss Congeniality 2 and they got [Hilary Swank] and, they got Clint.” Bullock insisted she isn’t bitter, though, adding, “When things like that happen, that's the way they're supposed to be.” And it all worked out anyway. Swank went on to win an Oscar for her role in Million Dollar Baby, and Bullock eventually won an Oscar in 2009 for her role in The Blind Side.

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To those that have actually seen it, Wes Craven’s Scream is clearly a satirical, self-aware look at the horror genre, but thinking its just another B-horror movie is an easy mistake to make based off the name and promotional material. It was this that prompted Reese Witherspoon to turn down the lead role of Sidney Prescott when it was offered to her—she thought it was just another horror movie. The role eventually went to Neve Campbell, and the franchise went on to spawn three sequels. Witherspoon did alright regardless, though—apart from a fairly embarrassing arrest in Atlanta, she won an Oscar for her role in 2005’s Walk the Line.

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Sarah Michelle Gellar made pop culture history for playing a kickass vampire slayer in the late nineties on Buffy, but her career—and thus pop culture itself—was almost drastically different two years before the series even began. Apparently, Gellar was offered the lead role of Beverly Hills airhead Cher Horowitz in Clueless, but she was forced to turn it down because filming conflicted with her schedule on the soap opera All My Children. The role went to Alicia Silverstone instead, and SMG remained a relative unknown long enough to book Buffy and make herself a household name.

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Everyone pretty much remembers Basic Instinct and Sharon Stone for that totally-NSFW leg crossing scene, but pop culture history could have been a lot different had star Michael Douglas gotten his way. Reportedly, Douglas recommended Kim Basinger for the role of Catherine Tramell, but she declined, as did a whole lot of other actresses including Meg Ryan, Michelle Pfeiffer, Geena Davis, and Ellen Barkin. Eventually, relative unknown Stone was offered the part, and it ended up launching her career.

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You’ve got to feel bad for Henry Winkler—he really did think he was doing the right thing when he turned down the lead role of Danny Zuko in Grease. In a 2007 interview, Winkler divulged: “I was asked to be in Grease. But I decided I didn't want to be typecast,” he explained, referring to his longtime role as Fonzie in Happy Days. “But what I didn't realize was that I already was…that's why John Travolta went on to buy his own plane and I just went home.” Had he taken it, though, who knows who would have portrayed the Bluth family lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn in Arrested Development? That’s an important role!

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Even before the show began, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan knew there was no one more perfect than Bryan Cranston to portray Walter White, but both Sony, who owns the show, and network AMC were skeptical about casting the actor because of his Malcolm in the Middle past, and because Walt was envisioned as closer to 40 years old rather than 50 years old. Amongst the very serious suggestions for an alternative casting: John Cusack. Fortunately, he passed. Matthew Broderick was then offered the role, but he passed as well. In the end, Gilligan got his way, and Cranston was offered the lead role.

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Ray Liotta perfectly embodied gangster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, so it’s no surprise that he was approached by producers to portray Tony Soprano in HBO’s The Sopranos. According to Liotta in a 2001 Today Show interview, he turned it down because he wanted to focus on movies, and signing on to the series would have meant at least a two-year commitment. Things, of course, ended up working out for the very best. The part was then offered to late actor James Gandolfini (R.I.P.), who was absolutely legendary in the role.

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Tom Hanks was crucial to the success of Forrest Gump, but a ton of other famous actors could have easily headlined the 1994 comedy: Bill Murray, John Travolta, and Chevy Chase, for instance. All three of them were reportedly offered the lead role of Forrest, but they each turned it down. Travolta later said that he regretted the decision, and Chase claimed he was shown a very early draft of the script that was “drastically different” than the film.

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It’s hard to believe that Steve Carrell wasn’t producers’ first choice to portray Michael Scott during development of the US version of The Office. Reportedly, Paul Giamatti, who at the time was fresh off his success in Sideways, was actually producers’ first choice for the role. He declined, and a ton of other actors auditioned before Carrell ultimately won the part.

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Jon Hamm kills it as Don Draper in Mad Men, but he was hardly the first actor in mind for the role. During development, Thomas Jane was originally approached to portray the ad exec, but he turned it down because he didn’t do television. Two years later, he signed on to portray the lead in HBO’s Hung.

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It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Bruce Willis headlining the Die Hard franchise now, but back in the late’80s before production of the first film, Willis wasn’t at the top of the list to portray lead character John McClane. Burt Reynolds, however, was; Willis received the role after Reynolds turned it down.

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There are a lot of high profile roles that were first offered to Sean Connery before anyone else, but the two biggest would absolutely have to be the role of Morpheus in The Matrix, and the role of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. Connery reportedly turned down both roles when they were offered to him because he “didn’t understand” the material, so Morpheus eventually went to Laurence Fishburne—it, in turn, revitalized his career—and Gandalf went to the brilliant Ian McKellen. He, understandably, later regretted turning down both roles, which led him to join the cast of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen when it was offered to him in 2003. According to producer Don Murphy, when Connery accepted the part, he said: “I got offered The Lord of the Rings, and I turned it down because I didn't understand it. I was offered The Matrix  twice, and I turned it down because I didn't understand it. I don't understand this movie, but I'll be damned if I'm going to turn it down.'”

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Before Harrison Ford was ultimately cast as Indiana Jones, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas auditioned a ton of actors for the role of the badass archaeologist. One of those actors, who actually went so far as to screentest, was ‘80s icon and Magnum P.I. himself, Tom Selleck. Thanks to the magic of the Internet, those screentests are actually available online for viewing.

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Shortly after the success of staple ‘80s films Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, and Sixteen Candles, star Molly Ringwald was in high demand in Hollywood. Unfortunately for her, she turned down one of the major roles that was offered to her as a result: The prostitute with a heart of gold, Vivian, in 1990’s Pretty Woman. Julia Roberts was eventually cast, and she, in turn, cemented her status as America’s sweetheart and won a Golden Globe award for the role. Around that same time, Ringwald also turned down the role of Molly in Ghost, which eventually went to Demi Moore. Big mistake. Big. Huge.

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Time for a lesson in Hollywood history: Edward Norton played a crazy guy in Fight Club, but we could have all seen him play a way different type of crazy if things had gone the way American Psycho director Mary Harron originally intended. Norton was reportedly Harron’s first choice to play Patrick Bateman in the film, but when he reportedly passed, she offered the role to Christian Bale. The film’s studio, Lionsgate, wasn’t too keen on this choice, so they hired Leonardo DiCaprio to star instead. Harron resigned in outrage, and Oliver Stone was brought in to replace her until DiCaprio eventually turned down the role for fear it would ruin his status as a dreamy teen star. Harron was brought back on to the project, and she brought Bateman with her.

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It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the Terminator, but the former Governor of California almost wasn’t cast in the role. Reportedly, Sylvester Stallone was originally offered the role. He turned it down, as did Mel Gibson, and the role eventually went to Stallone’s The Expendables co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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Marvel’s current superhero movie franchise could have looked a lot different if things had worked out the way they were originally supposed to. Before Scarlett Johansson was cast as The Black Widow in Iron Man 2, the role was originally actress Emily Blunt’s for the taking. She reportedly was forced to turn it down because of scheduling conflicts, and in 2009 she commented that “it’s a shame the two of them couldn’t work together.”

In 2012, after it was reported that she also turned down the role of Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger, Blunt told Vulture: “Usually the female parts in a superhero film feel thankless: She's the pill girlfriend while the guys are whizzing around saving the world…I didn't do the other ones because the part wasn't very good or the timing wasn't right, but I'm open to any kind of genre if the part is great and fun and different and a challenge in some way.”

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Matthew Broderick is a legend in John Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but things could have turned out a lot differently if Johnny Depp, who was originally offered the part, had accepted before Broderick was cast. During an interview on Inside the Actors Studio, Depp explained that he was offered the part as Ferris, but couldn’t accept due to scheduling conflicts. Ever the good sport—also because he’s really famous regardless—Depp commented that Broderick did a “great job” with the role.

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Jodie Foster was iconic as Clarice in 1991’s Silence of the Lambs, but she wasn’t director Jonathan Demme’ ideal actress. Reportedly, Demme wanted Michelle Pfeiffer to take on the part, but she turned it down due to the film’s high violence content. Probably something to do with the fact that the lead antagonist likes to eat people, or something.

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Jack Nicholson absolutely kills it in every role he’s cast in, but he reportedly didn’t think that would be the case if he portrayed Michael Corleone in The Godfather. Apparently, before Al Pacino was cast in the role, Nicholson was offered the part. He turned it down because, as he once said, “I knew The Godfather was going to be a great film, but at that time I believed Indians should play roles written for Indians and Italians should do the same.”

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Before Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis were cast as the three-fourths of a wolf pack in The Hangover, director Todd Phillips reportedly considered dozens of other actors for the roles. According to Phillips, before Cooper was cast as the immature high school teacher Phil in the film, Paul Rudd was offered the part, but he ultimately turned it down. Bonus: Jack Black also turned down the role of Alan, which eventually went to Zach Galifianakis.

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It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Aaron Eckhart portraying Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, but, apparently, that was almost the case. In a 2009 interview with MTV to promote  Invictus, Matt Damon revealed that he was actually offered the role first. “I couldn't. There was a scheduling thing,” Damon explained in the interview. “Look, Aaron is a great actor, so the movie didn't suffer for it…every now and then you get one and you can't do it.”

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Before Kate Winslet learned how to fly in Titanic, a number of actors were on the short list for the part of Rose, including Homeland star Claire Danes and French-born actress Gabrielle Anwar. Apparently, actress Gwyneth Paltrow was actually director James Cameron’s first choice, but when she was offered the part, she turned it down because it wasn’t her “cup of tea.” This isn’t to say it didn’t work out well for her. Though Winslet secured an Academy Award nomination in 1997 for portraying Rose, Paltrow actually won an Oscar the next year for her role in Shakespeare in Love.

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Much like Gwyneth Paltrow was considered for Kate Winslet’s career-launching role as Rose in Titanic, Winslet was first offered the role of Viola in 1998’s Shakespeare in Love before it went to Paltrow. Winslet reportedly turned the part down because she wanted to focus on independent films; Paltrow eventually went on to win an Oscar for the role.

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Little known fact: Though Jamie Foxx seemed perfect to play Django in Quentin Tarantino’s most recent work, Django Unchained, the part was actually written with Will Smith in mind. When time came to cast the film, Smith was immediately offered the part, but he turned it down because he claimed the filming schedule conflicted with Men In Black III. However, he later revealed that the main reason he didn’t join the film was because “Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to be the lead. The other character was the lead!”

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This piece of trivia is actually fairly new. During a recent event in London, Al Pacino revealed that, before Harrison Ford was ultimately given the part of Han Solo in the Star Wars films, he was offered the legendary role first. His explanation? "It was mine for the taking but I didn’t understand the script." The force is strong, here.

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