Actor's who turned down famous roles:

Actor’s? Oh, dear

[quote]Matt Damon turned down Batman so it seems Christian Bale was only third choice at best

Nolan wanted Damon for Two-Face not Batman. Aaron Eckhart played the role.

[...]

Doris Day turned down The Graduate — my favorite bit of film coulda-beens.

Kate Jackson had to turn down Joanna in Kramer vs,. Kramer, but even if she had taken the part instead of Streep would she have won an Oscar? Doubtful.

Nobody but Cranston should ever have been considered for Walter White.

OP, why the apostrophe?

Pretty Woman only works because of Roberts. Like her or not. It would have been a total bomb with Rimgwald.

Connery's other famous rejected roles included playing John Hammond in Jurassic Park, The Architect in The Matrix (again, he reportedly didn't understand the script), and Sybock in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

OP, try hitting the "return" key a couple times after each intended line in order to make your text readable. It's a fine selection (copied and pasted?) but PLEASE learn how to type in the DL.

I think Harrison Ford turned down Making Love.

[quote]Pretty Woman only works because of Roberts. Like her or not. It would have been a total bomb with Rimgwald.

I never thought that film worked at all, big BO or not. Embarrassing for all concerned.

From the Darling thread, Topsy Jane lost the role of Liz in Billy liar to Julie Christie. She allegedly had a nervous breakdown. She’d previously also dropped out of Schlesinger’s kitchen sink drama A Kind of Loving. Billy Liar helped to launch Julie Christie’S career and began a fruitful collaboration with John Schlesinger who also used her in Darling (she won an Oscar) as well as Far from the Madding Crowd.

Topsy Jane btw pictures in a scene from Billy Liar before she was replaced.

Sarah Miles said she was not able to accept the part in The Go-Between. The part also went to Julie Christie.

Far from the Madding Crowd is even more boring than the novel it's based on. If possible.

There are numerous threads on this subject matter.

In truth most roles have been turned down by more than one actor. Maybe a more interesting thread would be actors that were the first choice of the studio/director and actually accepted the role. There would be a lot less to list.

Emily Lloyd was replaced in both Mermaids (Winona Ryder), and Husbands and Wives (Juliette Lewis). She sued for the Mermaids loss, claiming it forced her to miss out on the role in Pretty Woman (Julia Roberts). She turned down Scandal (Bridget Fonda). She also claims in her autobiography that she lost out to Sadie Frost in Dracula,

Sometimes name actors don’t turn down roles so much as they turn down proposed salaries.

Wow, that's a string of amazing roles R18. Would make an interesting story. If you're more unstable than Winona Ryder and Juliette Lewis...

Babs passed on They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and Klute paving the way for Jane Fonda who passed on Bonnie and Clyde, The Exorcist and Chinatown. Natalie Wood priced herself out of Diary of a Mad Housewife and Rip Torn and Dennis Hopper did not get along and Jack Nicholson got Torn's part in Easy Rider.

Babs also passed on Cabaret but I think that was before Fosse was brought in as director. I doubt Fosse would have considered her.

"I think Harrison Ford turned down Making Love."

Wow. That's too bad. The thought of Harrison and either Michael Ontkean or Harry Hamilin makes mama's mussy moist!

Montgomery Clift was originally offered or cast in William Holden's part in Sunset Boulevard. I forget the details of how he came to drop out and Holden was cast.

In one of the Theatre Gossip threads, someone posted that Rosalind Russell was originally offered the part of Mame in Jerry Herman's musical version of Auntie Mame. "I don't eat yesterday's stew" she was alleged to have replied. There were a lot of posts denying it until someone posted the cover of a Life magazine issue with a story about how Angela got the role after Russell and others had turned down the part that included the exchange.

Meryl Streep turned down...

...wait. I guess nothing, ever.

Molly Ringwald has hardly had no career since then. I think she made a decision about how she wanted to proceed and she has been more about on stage and singing since then. and not unsuccessful. she turned down something that wasn't really in her interest. i applaud her...she's a pretty great stage actress and songstress.

Wasn't Ringwald a well reviewed replacement in that late 90s Broadway revival of Cabaret? Or am I thinking of someone else?

Selleck didn't turn down Indiana Jones; he very much wanted to do it but CBS/the producers of Magnum P.I. wouldn't give him time off to film.

Clift decided to bow out of Sunset Blvd because he felt it mirrored his relationship with his mentor Libby Holman.

Tom Selleck did not turn down Raiders. He couldn't do it because Magnum PI got picked up to series.

I doubt Harrison Ford ever was in serious talks for Making Love.

And Molly Ringwald has had a shit career post-John Hughes.

R29 is absolutely correct.

Well, he's not absolutely correct. Magnum was not already running as a series, so it wasn't a matter of giving Selleck time off. The show was just starting to film its first season. There was no "giving him time off." They were shooting the first episodes of the series.

I can't imagine Molly Ringwald in the Pretty Woman role. I still don't see how she became so popular post-Facts of LIfe

Well, Lucas and Spielberg wanted Selleck so badly they offered a small fortune to Magnum PI's producers to hold of for a couple of weeks to start production. They wouldn't have it.

The sad thing is that Indiana Jones came in under budget and under time and that even if Selleck had been cast, he would have been available by the time Magnun PI started shooting.

Wasn't Ringwald sought before Garry Marshall came in and they totally revamped Pretty Woman into a feelgood comedy? I can't remember. I have read the script for $3000 and it's not as dark and gritty as legend would have it. There was definitely some romantic comedy element underneath. It's nowhere near the Disneyfied version that was released, but the biggest difference is that Vivian is a drug addict and Edward throws her out of the car at the end and leaves her on the asphalt with her money blowing in the wind. (And Kit ODs.)

R32 Why are you so bitter?

Were you beaten as a child?

Not beaten enough?

Selleck wanted to do the film. CBS/producers wouldn't release him from Magnum. He wasn't able to do the film because of that.

Why be such a cunt because I posted the info 42 seconds before you did?

Ringwald has had a successful career outside of mainstream film. i think she chose it...she has been on broadway quite a bit. i think she made choices close to her heart and what she wanted to pursue. i tried to post earlier but i saw her in cabaret in NCY and thought she was wonderful. her singing was on point as was her performance. she chose to go a different way than film. she's done well.

in an interview with Winona Ryder she said she auditioned for The Mosquito Coast, and Running on Empty, losing both times to Martha Plimpton. She also said she screen tested with River Phoenix for Lucas which means Phoenix lost out to Corey Haim for that one.

Claudette Colbert literally, physically broke her back filming Three Came Back, which required her drop out of filming All About Eve two weeks later. Gertrude Lawrence was on the short list to replace her but when her manager got the letter asking about her interest, her manager sent back a letter with Lawrence's multiple demands, including that Lawrence would never appear inebriated onscreen and that she would would sing sing a torch song during the party scene, Lawrence was immediately dropped from consideration.

But as it turned out, Lawrence's manager had never passed the producers' interest on to Lawrence and after the film came out and Lawrence learned about it she was furious.

I think you're a little overly sensitive R36. First of all, there was nothing bitchy in what I said. Second, the comment I made wasn't even geared towards you, it was made to R31. Calm yourself down.

And Martha Plimpton was a flash in the pan. i remember her being all over the teen magazines as the next big thing. she never did much beyond a few roles. it's unfortunate, she seemed to have a bit of talent that was wasted.

R26 Ditto De Niro.

And to go further into the Selleck thing- Spielberg could have offered the producers the moon, but it's CBS who would have had to agree to it, since they're the ones who contracted the production company (Universal) to provide the series. Keep in mind that the actor's strike had delayed the fall season by about 2 months already, so had Universal tried to delay Magnum PI any further (with no replacement), CBS would have gone ballistic.

The writer of Fatal Attraction wrote the screenplay with William Hurt & Theresa Russell in mind. That doesn't mean they were even offered the roles though.

So if River Phoenix had gotten the role of Lucas, Corey Haim would still be alive today?

R45 And for that matter would River Phoenix still be alive today?

Pamela Anderson turned down X Files ? Travoltas career had stalled when Forrest Gump was filmed and released, I doubt he turned it down or had a serious offer for it.

[quote] And for that matter would River Phoenix still be alive today?

I doubt getting ass fucked by Charlie Sheen would make you decide NOT to do heroin, so no.

Will Smith is the perfect example of just having it. It was in the universe's plan for him to be a star. He also turned down Django.

One of the reasons Molly Ringwald doesn't work much because people can't stand her. I remember she did an off-Broadway play about 16 yrs ago w/ Jason Biggs and Craig Bierko and the entire cast and crew hated her. They celebrated when she left the cast.

There are several different versions of this story:

Cary Grant turned down My Fair Lady and said "and if Rex Harrison doesn't play the part I won't even go see it."

Frank Sinatra turned down The Music Man and said "and if Robert Preston doesn't play the part I won't even go see it."

There are other variants.

Despite much pleading from his friend George Cukor, Cary Grant turned down the part of Norman Maine in the Garland remake of A Star Is Born.

Several other stars did too, forcing Cukor to "settle" for James Mason, a small, nonathletic man cast as a big action star hero.

Mason, of course, turned in a brilliant performance and I doubt Cukor ever regretted ending up with him.

R41 I think Martha Plimpton didn’t get much work for a while because let’s face it, she’s a good actress but not very conventionally attractive. I think she’s doing pretty well now in character roles but she was never going to become a gen X icon like Winona Ryder. I think she had to wait until the character parts came her way and the Broadway plays... she seems more of a theatre type.

Robin Wright turned down some major roles in the 90s. I can’t remember all of them or if they were particularly good, but they probably would have raised her profile. Batman Forever was one of them.

I hope long neglected actresses like Martha Plimpton can have a revival now in a series. She really is very good in anything I’ve seen her in both drama and comedy.

In an interview Shirley Knight revealed that while making The Rain People in Nebraska, she turned down They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?. She said she was “too tired and pregnant”.

60s starlet Anjanette Comer claimed to have been scheduled to play the lead in Barefoot in the Park for Paramount (I wonder if her not doing it was connected to her dropping out of Funeral in Berlin also for Paramount). She also said that she turned down the lead in Bonnie & Clyde; both these films were stepping stones in the careers of Jane Fonda and Faye Dunaway.

Sally Kellerman has always claimed she turned down The Poseidon Adventure after her success in MASH. She also turned down the series.

Olivia Hussey said she turned down True Grit as well as Anne of the Thousand Days after Romeo and Juliet; both roles were successful for the actress who took the role.

Meryl Streep turned down the role of Precious. You don't remember her in Precious?! 20 year old fat, black girl. She could do anything!

R5 Kate Jackson is underrated. The fact that she landed that role on "Kramer vs Kramer" because director Robert Benton had seen her on „Charlie’s Angels“ speaks volumes about her great acting skills and charisma! The "Kramer" team wanted "somebody who has an enormous presence and skill“. Robert Benton: "In the spring of 1978, we had meetings with Kate Jackson [to play Joanna Kramer]. She was terrific, but the network began throwing up obstacles because of their scheduling for Charlie's Angels. We said, "Sooner or later, they are going to make it impossible.“ Which is exactly what the CA producers Spelling and Goldberg did… Creeps! Kate said in a documentary: "It doesn't mean that I would have done Sophie's Choice or won an Academy Award or anything else by having done Kramer vs. Kramer. But it was possible for me to do both."

NO APOSTROPHE YOU FUCKING IIIIIIIIIIIDIIIIIIOOOOOOT!

Penny Marshall turned down directing Forest Gump

Robert DeNiro turned down Big

I call BS on half of these claims that surface years after a successful movie was released. The actors may have been on some broad list of possible considerations early in a film's development.. But it's interesting no actor ever let it slip they were considered for or passed on a movie that was a bomb.

I can not IMAGINE Indiana Jones without Ford.

Grant and Cukor were both open about Grant's being first choice for Garland's A Star Is Born but Grant just didn't want to do it.

And it's very well known that the first choice of both Lucas and Spielberg for the first Indiana Jones film was Tom Selleck but his Magnum PI producers wouldn't give him two or three weeks off of his contract to shoot the film.

R62, however, makes an excellent, excellent point. Sometimes actors just brag about things they were briefly mentioned for but really weren't actually offered. And there are cases were the actors' agents and/or managers lied to them about what they were actually offered just to keep their clients happy and satisfied. And themselves employed.

Cher Adams Family Thelma and Louise

But Martha Plimpton IS a Gen X icon and of course she’s a character actress, always was. I’d love to see more of her. And whoever said Molly Ringwald has the career she wanted and stepped back, whatEVER. They all say that when their career sucks and they’re guesting on Saved by the Bell.

I wouldn't call Martha Plimpton a Gen X icon. How do you justify that claim? Because of Goonies?

Yes Goonies!!! Plus all her roles in the 80s and 90s.

I mean, yeah, she was in Goonies and that's about it for memorable, iconic Gen X movies. Anything else she did really didn't make much of a dent. Kerri Green was in Goonies, too, and I wouldn't consider her a Gen X icon, either. Chunk barely qualifies.

[quote]r39 Claudette Colbert literally, physically broke her back filming Three Came Back

Ha ha!

As opposed to figuratively, spiritually breaking her back?

R69 She dated River Phoenix. In Parenthood, her three dramas- mosquito, running empty, shy people. Definitely a gen x fav. Inside monkey zetterland! And more

Clearly you need Martha Plimpton to have happened, so you win.

R73 she was good but I think gen X icons were Winona Ryder, River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke... I think they had films tailored to them to a degree. I wonder if by the 90s Janeane Garofalo was getting the types of roles that would have previously gone to Martha. I could also see her playing a role like Marla in Fight Club.

Martha Plimpton's limitation (if you will) is she was not terribly physically attractive and she comes off as somewhat abrasive on film. That particular limitation somewhat softened as she got older (or she was able to hone it and use it to her advantage), but I remember seeing The River Rat as a kid when it came out (or when it was on cable) and I found her really irritating.

She's quite good on stage, where I think the limitations she has on film work better.

Ann Ramsey wanted to play Sandy in Grease.

Debbie Harry had to say no to playing Pris in BLADE RUNNER. Reportedly the director and screenwriter had her in mind while creating it, as a first choice. She claims she had to say no because her record company had forced her to go on tour for Blondie’s disastrous last album. The part then went to Daryl Hannah. Harry has said in numerous interviews it’s her biggest career regret.

Debbie is a weird actress and I’m not sure how well this would have worked. But it’s interesting to think about. I think it would have given the film even more notoriety. The look of Pris also seems an homage to Debbie in a way.

R4, I think about that one also. I think Doris Day as Mrs. Robinson would of been spectacular.

Doris Day wanted Janet Leigh’s role in Psycho too.

[quote]I hope long neglected actresses like Martha Plimpton can have a revival now in a series.

She's already had several in the last few years. Raising Hope, The Real O'Neals, an arc on The Good Wife, etc. She's working!

Doris Day wanted Janet Leigh’s role in Psycho too.

R79 But she didn't turn down the role because she was never under consideration for the role.

I believe the initial choice for Mrs. Robinson was Patricia Neal. She was pregnant at the time... tho I think it was also during this pregnancy she might have had her stroke (?) So there might have been some overlap of issues there??

Anne Bancroft replaced her in “7 Women” when she had her stroke... so they were up for the same type of roles.

Patricia Neal 1967

Mark Whalberg and Josh Hartnett : Brokeback Mountain

Jean Stapleton turned down the role of Jessica Fletcher on "Murder, She Wrote."

Jessica Lange turned down “Romancing the Stone,” which was written with her in mind. She also turned down “Gorillas in the Mist,” which was written “for” her.

Melania turned down DEBBIE DOES DALLAS.

She’s said she regrets it.

[quote] She also turned down “Gorillas in the Mist,” which was written “for” her.

Sure she did. Sure it was. Because she couldn't resist the role of "wife" in Everybody's All American.

R88 She was the first choice to play the part. She turned it down because she was pregnant.

It’s even on the gawddamn IMDb page for the film.

Weaver was perfect though.

Martha Plimpton and sexy Garrett Dillahunt were hilarious on Raising Hope. I loved that show.

I can write on IMDB that Divine was offered the role of Dian Fossey first and they would post it. And where do you think the Tampa Bay Times got it.

So fuck off, Jabba.

Oh, it’s the Faye Trump retard over at R92. It supports homophobia and Capitol terrorist attacks and just haaaates Jessica Lange.

What a portfolio.

I swear to god, always Jessica Lange this or that. She looks like a real bitch with awful surgery (look at her in Wender’s “Don’t Come Knockin’”, nightmarish monster lion) that she tried to fix but the fix equaled old and ugly. And angry mean drunk lady.

So mean.

Kevin Bacon was so good in American Beauty.

R96 😂

[quote] Oh, it’s the Faye Trump retard over at [R92]. It supports homophobia and Capitol terrorist attacks and just haaaates Jessica Lange.

, please stop breathing.

R98 Self-projection is quite the high, huh Matt- Jabba? You would be scary if you weren’t so hilariously pathetic.

Michael Sarrazin turned down the Joe Buck role in Midnight Cowboy to make In Search of Gregory instead. With the one-two punch of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and Midnight Cowboy, it seems likely the academy would have rewarded him.

Susan Strasberg turned down her Broadway acclaimed role of Anne Frank in the big screen version. She also claimed to have turned down/ her mother turned down the role of Alison in the film version of Peyton Place and the daughter role in Friendly Persuasion

[quote] Damon for Two-Face

How appropriate.

Cicely Tyson turned down Claudine. Although to my knowledge she never mentioned the title, in interviews she says after the success of Sounder she turned down a role of a black single mother with five kids to different fathers. She said the actress who took the role was Oscar nominated (Diahann Carroll).

[quote]R101 Susan Strasberg turned down her Broadway acclaimed role of Anne Frank in the big screen version.

No, she wanted to do it, but the offer never came.

Her friend Shelley Winters encouraged her to fly to L.A. and pitch herself to director George Stevens for the role, as Winters knew he’d like that. But Strasberg was having her first big affair (with Richard Burton) and couldn’t bring herself to leave New York.

The strangest thing I ever read was Barbra Streisand being offered THE EXORCIST.

Really, I don’t see her as a mother shepherding her child through a life saving Catholic rite!

[quote] Cicely Tyson turned down Claudine. Although to my knowledge she never mentioned the title, in interviews she says after the success of Sounder she turned down a role of a black single mother with five kids to different fathers. She said the actress who took the role was Oscar nominated (Diahann Carroll).

She's full of shit. Diana Sands was the first person offered the role and took it, but had to drop out due to her cancer coming back. She suggested Diahann Carroll.

Molly was considered for both versions of Pretty Woman if I'm not mistaken. As mentioned above it's a movie that only worked because of the actress. It would've been worse than shit with anyone else. It's a whore fairy tale. Its a movie completely dependent on the strength of the leading performance.

Gene Siskel on Roberts Oscar nomination "This woman lit up the screen in the most remarkable way. I thought she would get the nomination and she absolutely does deserve it"

Yes. When you look at Julia's Oscar nominations, some of them I believe were given purely due to the fact that she was the only one who was responsible for the success of the film. She didn't do much in the way of great acting in Pretty Woman, but she was a movie star. It was a movie star performance in the same way that Audrey Hepburn's was in Roman Holiday, yet no one complained when she won the Oscar (like they did when Julia won for Erin Brockovich). I'm one of the minority that felt Roberts 100% deserved that Oscar for Brockovich. It was a movie star performance in the best sense of the word and absolutely trumped anything else that year (especially Ellen Burstyn's scenery chomping embarrassment of a ham sandwich in Requiem for a Dream).

R106 I don’t know. It’s entirely believable. I think Cicely would have been more likely to play the mother on welfare than Diahann Carroll.

Meg Ryan dropped out of Steel Magnolias to do When Harry Met Sally opening a door to Julia Roberts.

I've never understood the brouhaha over Cicely Tyson. She's a competent actress, nothing more, and she's certainly not any sort of a legend or icon. She's had two good roles in her lifetime, the mother in Sounder and Miss Jane Pittman (which was for television). Everything else has been in forgettable dreck or in something where she had a negligible role. When they gave her an honorary Oscar a couple years back, I thought it was ridiculous. For christ's sake, one of her biggest films was The Concorde: Airport '79. If they were after diversity, surely they could have found someone more worthy. (Of course, they make you show up and dog & pony yourself or else you can't have one, which tells you why the pickings are so slim).

Michelle Pfieffer famously turned down Silence of the Lambs. Ever a class act she's openly admitted it was one of the biggest mistakes of her career.

[Quote] Michelle [] Pfeiffer

R105 speaking of The Exorcist, Dana Plato was offered the role of Reagan, but her crazy religious nut mother forced her to turn it down. Linda Blair ended up winning an Oscar for it.

Cillian Murphy was offered the James Franco role in 127 Hours but turned it down. He is (IMO) a brilliant actor, but makes the most awful career choices. Then again, he hates fame and promoting so he probably turns down big roles on purpose.

[quote]Linda Blair ended up winning an Oscar for it.

Tatum O'Neal won that year. Linda did win a Golden Globe though.

Scorsese wanted Sarah Polley for Gangs of New York but he was forced to go with marketable Cameron Diaz.

Kevin Bacon won an Oscar for American Beauty. I think it was the scene where he was shot by John Lithgow for dancing in his town that convinced the Academy.

R117 that makes sense. Diaz was awful in ‘Gangs’. Her accent was crap and she isn’t a great actress. She was so in over her head.

I read that Sarah Michelle Gellar turned down ‘Gangs of New York’ too when Buffy was renewed at the last minute. I wonder what her film career would have turned out like had she gotten to do it.

Never realized Kevin Bacon was even in American Beauty.

Polley, like Wright, could have been a bigger star. They have strong inner saboteurs.

After not getting the role in Gangs of New York, Sarah Polley went on to do the remake in Dawn of the Dead....what a comedown

I think Margot Robbie turned down Don’t Look Up and Netflix got JLaw instead.

R117: Supposedly Diaz fucked Weinstein to get the part.

r123 Dawn of the Dead is one of the best remakes and zombie films ever made.

I don't know about all that, but it's a very good remake and definitely one of Snyder's better films. Arguably his only quality one.

It would make sense that Diaz fucked for the part. Polley also wrote the times op-ed about rejecting Weinstein advances around the time of Gangs NY.

Polley would have been excellent in the film. She and Day-Lewis would leave DiCaprio in the dust, though. Leo's lucky Cameron was embarrassing in the role.

R123 the opening sequence had to be one of the scariest of any horror movie

Armie Hammer turned down the role of Hannibal.

R131 please, they wouldn’t even cast him in fifty shades because he couldn’t play himself convincingly

R124 it's weird to think that JLaw was once the princess of Hollywood. Crazy how much her career has fallen so quickly.

R133: It's simple: a talent free bitch who rode Harvey the whale. Either she gets anything that Margot Robbie turns down or she found a new cock to suck.

R112. Happy now?

Monica Potter turned down Weinstein's advances and thus lost a role in The Cider House Rules. Charlize Theron fucked and got the part.

I'm surprised no one mentioned that Frank Sinatra's first choice to play Eleanor Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate was Lucille Ball, but she turned down the role and it went to Angela Lansbury instead (who was sublime as the right-wing horror mother from hell).

^^^^ Another reason to thank Gary Morton.

[quote] But it's interesting no actor ever let it slip they were considered for or passed on a movie that was a bomb.

Haha, true, r62. However, I don’t think that has much to do with stretching the truth about great roles you supposedly turned down or weren’t allowed to do. I’d guess that even actors who really did miss out on great roles they were first choice for are not forthcoming about bombs they narrowly avoided.