10 Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Roles For Stupid Reasons

now there aren't many actors in the world who are lucky enough to be handed prized movie roles on a silver platter but sometimes an actor just can't appreciate the gift they've been given and throws the opportunity away now certainly there are examples where an actor was right to turn down a role that went on to become iconic Will Smith still gets plenty of flack for saying no to the part of neo in the matrix for instance but when you hear his side of the story it actually makes quite a lot of sense similarly John Travolta turned down Forrest Gump to do Pulp Fiction which is a win win and Kirsten Dunst said no to the Mina role in American Beauty because she didn't want to kiss a 40 year-old Kevin Spacey you can't really blame the decision making in each case however sometimes the reasoning behind turning down huge movie roles is flat-out stupid let's talk about it I'm will for culture and here are 10 actors who turns down iconic roles for stupid reasons number 10 Russell Crowe thought Wolverine was a quote Wolfman x-men the role was everyone's favorite mutant the superhero who made the cinematic x-men a thing Wolverine as so wonderfully played by Hugh Jackman for almost two decades across the x-men franchise but long before Jackman took the part and even before Dougray Scott was set to play Wolverine but had to back out due to scheduling conflicts Russell Crowe was actually director Bryan Singer's first choice hilariously Crowe felt that one aspect of the character was just too similar to his oscar-winning role as Maximus in Ridley Scott's gladiator which he finished filming a few months before x-men went into production Crowe said in an interview quote if you remember Maximus has a wolf as his companion at the beginning of the film which I thought was gonna be a bigger deal at the time so I said no because I didn't want to be Wolfie the general and then Wolfie that other bloke like now I missed a Wolfman I can only do movies that have something to do with wolves obviously Wolverine doesn't really have anything to do with wolves and he's certainly not a Wolfman so internees singer down Crowe forfeited some colossal future paydays number 9 Mark Wahlberg wasn't allowed to have a lisp Donnie Darko the role was for the titular protagonist of Richard Kelly's cult classic debut a troubled young man who receives disturbing visions of an impending apocalypse before Jake Gyllenhaal won the star-making role Kelly looked at numerous other actors including Jason Schwartzman a 30-year old Vince Vaughn and most bafflingly of all a 29 year old Mark Wahlberg born quite sensibly turned down the role because he appreciated that he was too old to play a 16 year old Donnie but that apparently wasn't a problem for Wahlberg the actor was quite keen to take the part though decided to walk away after Kelly rejected his insistent idea for the character that he played Donnie with a lisp it makes the brain hurt even trying to conceive how anyone could consider a 2000 era Wahlberg age-appropriate to play a high school student so while it would have been a fascinating curio there's a good chance it would have derailed the eccentric brilliance of Kelly's film Lisp or not number 8 Olivia Munn didn't want to be quotes I can be Deadpool too the role was for Deadpool's put-upon girlfriend Vanessa best remembered for treating Wade to a pegging session and getting put in harm's way quite often and Fox's first choice for the character was Olivia Munn shortly after Deadpool's release Munn was vocal about saying she turned the role down because she didn't want to play the girlfriend character yet again and was disappointed that Vanessa wasn't given any opportunities to be physical throughout the film so far so reasonable Fox was still interested in Munn and offered her a role in another x-men movie x-men apocalypse which was shooting at roughly the same time as Deadpool that role was super mutant psylocke which Munn contrasted with the role of Vanessa by noting the added physicality and the fact that she wasn't simply being used as quotes I can D accept anyone who's seen x-men apocalypse probably won't remember much about Psylocke as a character or a superhero and mostly just recall that she's featured in a skimpy outfit and a number of suggestive poses with camera setups designed to emphasize mums physical attributes in the end she was just eye candy the number 7 Will Smith wanted the role to be bigger Django Unchained the in question for this one was the protagonist of Quentin Tarantino's blood-soaked Western classic a freed slave who alongside German bounty hunter dr. Scholl's seeks to retrieve his wife from Hilde from southern slave owner Calvin Candie before Tarantino ultimately cast Jamie Foxx to play Django he came very close to casting both the wires Michael K Williams and Will Smith Williams ended up losing out in the final stretch but Smith was actually offered the parts in earnest before turning it down Smith is notoriously picky about his projects in one very specific way he doesn't do a lot of supporting ensemble work and likes to develop products that have focused around him as a star vehicle and even when it came to an awards friendly prestige project like a Tarantino movie he still wouldn't let this slide turning the part down because he felt that Django wasn't the true lead of the film Smith said in an interview years after Django's release quotes Django wasn't the lead so it was like I need to be the lead I thought it was brilliant not just for me while the film went on to receive five Oscar nominations including Best Picture Smith decided instead to co-star with his son Jaden in M night Shyamalan's atrocious after earth and one to Razzie award for worst Supporting Actor and worst screen combo number six Sean Connery didn't understand the script the matrix and Lord of the Rings two roles this time in the matrix Sean Connery was offered up the part of Morpheus which of course eventually went to Laurence Fishburne and because that's not bad enough Connery also rejected an offer to play Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings as was subsequently accepted by Ian McKellen amusingly the reason he turned both of them down is the same in both instances Connery didn't understand the scripts and passed on them Peter Jackson was so keen to have Connery be a part of his epic trilogy that he even convinced the producers to offer him 10 million per film as well as a 15 percent cuts of the trilogy's box-office this would have netted Connery approximately 400 million dollars and though the Bond icon is said to be worth north of a hundred million regardless that's definitely worth kicking yourself no matter how rich you might be granted Fishburne and McKown are so perfect as Morpheus Gandalf then it's tough to imagine Connery doing them any better but in refusing to take the jobs he turned down literal mountains of money number five James Purefoy hated wearing the mask V for Vendetta the roll up for grabs was the titular anarchist terrorist whose face is obscured under a mask for the entirety of V for Vendetta identifiable only by his voice James wasn't only offered the role of V he actually initially accepted it and got as far as spending six weeks filming before being replaced by Hugo Weaving with a few of his physical scenes even included in the final cuts and redubbed later by weaving there are several different perspectives on what exactly went down though by far the most persistently cited story is that he quit the role due to discomfort over wearing a mask for the entirety of the shoot in an interview prior to leaving the film the actor said quotes that mask is the thing I'll be wearing throughout the movie we'll never see my face it's a great acting challenge wearing that thing takes a lot of takes weaving himself added later quotes I know the difficulties James was having and I was warned by other people certain difficulties with the mask I just think it can feel very hot you feel quite cut off though James has himself claimed creative differences was the reason that seems to be an explanation suggested only by himself number four Tom Cruise was worried about first time director Frank Darabont the Shawshank Redemption before Tim Robbins took the unforgettable role of wrongly imprisoned protagonist Andy Dufresne in the Shawshank Redemption the part was offered to on the rise Tom Cruise who ultimately said no Cruise wasn't keen on the prospects of the first-time filmmaker Frank Darabont directing meanwhile the production company Castle Rock Entertainment was busy trying to convince Darabont who wrote the film and had first refusal to direct to let someone else helmet instead enduro Braun's own words he was offered quote a load of dough to give the reins to someone else but stood firm causing crews to exit the project and instead leading to Robbins taking the parts now being weary of a first-time director isn't the dumbest thing an actor can do but when said movie goes on to receive seven Oscar nominations and Dara bons Best Director omission continues to be cited as one of the Academy's worst ever oversights in the category it's clear that he screwed up big-time it seems the crews attempted to rectify his skepticism of inexperienced filmmakers in recent years by starring in Alex Kurtzman The Mummy reboot but you know we all know how that went it's tough to imagine crews having the subdued qualities to make Andy work honestly at least in the deeply dignified and understated way that Robbins did number 3 Tim Roth quote wasn't ready to be on a lunchbox Harry Potter the role in this case was for the legendarily cold Hogwarts professor who despite his earlier animosity towards Harry Potter is ultimately revealed to be one of the sagas unsung heroes before Alan Rickman accepted the part and made it so dryly and wonderfully his own the role of Snape was first offered to Tim Roth Roth who steered clear of franchise fare and clung pretty aggressively to low-key indie drama through out most of the 1990s wasn't prepared for the commitment required of a large scale multi film production that ultimately spanned almost a decade roth elaborated quote if i had done it everything would have changed that's the nature of the randomness of life it would have been nice to have a seven-year gig that's a nice comforting space to be in but no I think the better man for the job did the job in a more recent interview he perhaps put it best quotes I wasn't ready to be on a lunchbox I really wasn't ironically rough turned down a colossal payday in order to appear in Tim Burton's much maligned Planet of the Apes reboot instead where any franchise potential was quickly stamped out due to critical disdain and Fox's dissatisfaction with the end results Rickman nailed it beyond any fans expectation of course but it's easy to imagine Roth giving his own remarkable rendition as well number two christina applegate was scared of being typecast legally blonde the role in this case is for the principle character a seemingly stereotypically dizzy sorority girl who in an attempt to win back her ex-boyfriend and be taken more seriously in roles at Harvard Law School the parts inevitably went to Reese Witherspoon for both theatrically released movies and she's set to reprise roll for an upcoming third film but it was previously turned down by the terrific Christina Applegate Applegate who had just spent a decade playing dumb blonde Kelly Bundy on the hit show married with children was worried that taking such a role would result in her being typecast in movies Applegate said quote the script came along my way and it was right after I just finished married with children and it was a blonde who in that first scripts didn't win it but ends up going to Yale or Harvard I don't remember I got scared of kind of repeating myself Matt of course entirely glosses over the fact that Legally Blonde is actually concerned with subverting expectations and making Elias smart resourceful and relatable character the actress has since expressed her regret adding quotes what a stupid move that was right number one Ralph Macchio thought it was about a kid a car and plutonium pills Back to the Future the role was up for the effortlessly charming teenage protagonists who ends up travelling back in time from 1985 to 1955 where he crosses paths with his own parents and risks are raising himself from existence though Michael J Fox was always the first choice to play Marty scheduling conflicts with Fox's TV show family ties initially prevented him from being cast the filmmakers consequently settled on Eric stalls to be his replacement who lasted just four weeks before being replaced with a now available Fox but the part was first offered to the karate kids Ralph Macchio who promptly said no makyo turned the part down after apparently misunderstanding the film's pitch and believing it to be about nothing more than quotes a kids a car and plutonium pills we're going to assume Macchio either didn't get a script before being offered the part or only bothered to read a few pages because that's quite the off bait assumption right there needless to say Macchio never quite managed to replicate the career success of the Karate Kid ever again though he's had a neat little comeback recently with the TV continuation Cobra Kai one post Back to the Future Fox became a megastar in both movies and TV and they have it folks ten actors who turned down iconic roles for stupid reasons feel free to drop this video a like if you enjoyed it feel free to drop this video I 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Length: 13min 31sec (811 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 15 2019