Actors/Actresses Who Turned Down Major Roles (Or Had To Be Recasted)

[Lord T]

He didn't really decline the role, but the part was recasted

Samuel L. Jackson as Alonzo Harris
Training Day

Did You Know…Samuel L Jackson Was Meant To Be The Lead In Training Day?

We all know Denzel Washington did a brilliant job in Training Day, which even lead to his first lead Oscar win, but can you imagine anyone else walking in detective Alonzo Harris’ shoes?

Well originally director Davis Guggenheim was all set to direct the film with Samuel L Jackson and Matt Damon in the two main roles. However, Denzel Washington signed on to the film and when this happened Guggenheim requested to be replaced (I guess he really wanted to direct Samuel L Jackson) This lead to Antoine Fuqua taking on the director role and the rest as they say is history.

So would the film have had the same impact, I think probably not, cause prior to this we had seen Samuel L Jackson play the baddie role. However this was a first For Denzel and I think that was a huge reason why the film did so well.

 

[Lord T]

Cuba Gooding Jr. as Cinque
Amistad

Cuba Regrets Saying No To Spielberg After Oscar Win

Cuba Gooding Jr. regrets turning down the chance to play "Cinque", a slave in Steven Spielberg's epic Amistad, admitting he was too bigheaded after his Oscar win to accept certain roles. The star accepts his career suffered as a result of the choices he made directly following his Best Supporting Actor Oscar victory in 1996 because he decided he should wait for the very best offers, and turn down everything else.

He recalls, "Steven Spielberg came to me and said, 'I want you to be in Amistad and I said, 'It's a slave role; show me the money. I'm so a big thing,' and he goes, 'I can direct you.' and I said, 'No, I have to pass.'"

He added, "To me, at the time, I remember this interview I read (with) Christopher Reeve talking about Superman. What other role could live up to being Superman; he was Superman. I bought into that. People were telling me (of Jerry Maguire), 'You're black, it's a comedy role, you're not gonna win this thing.' So, when I won it, it was like I had all these things in my life - 'This is what you are, this is what you've become... Now represent that. I have arrived and now I have to live up to this thing.' (I didn't know) the next day I should have rolled up my sleeves and said, 'OK, now let's continue on this journey.' Creatively, I stopped myself."

 

[Thumper]

Cuba Gooding Jr. as Cinque
Amistad

Steven fucking Speilberg asks you to be in a film and you turn it down?

 

[Lord T]

Steven fucking Speilberg asks you to be in a film and you turn it down?

Fam, Steven Spielberg PERSONALLY came to Cuba FIRST and said "I want YOU to play a major role in my upcoming film". Cuba was like "Nah...where them dollars at"!

This is just as bad as Gwyneth Paltrow turning down James Cameron and "Titanic". It's James Cameron!

 

[Lord T]

Steven fucking Speilberg asks you to be in a film and you turn it down?

Fam, Steven Spielberg PERSONALLY came to Cuba FIRST and said "I want YOU to play a major role in my upcoming film". Cuba was like "Nah...where them dollars at"!

This is just as bad as Gwyneth Paltrow turning down James Cameron and "Titanic". It's James Cameron!

 

[kenbgco68]

This whole thread has me thinking how incredibly stupid these fools are. Between turning down perfect roles cuz you put the paycheck first, or not understanding the fucking script...

A goddamn miracle any of em got as far as they did.

 

[Lord T]

This whole thread has me thinking how incredibly stupid these fools are. Between turning down perfect roles cuz you put the paycheck first, or not understanding the fucking script...

A goddamn miracle any of em got as far as they did.

 

[Lord T]

Don Cheadle as John Shaft
Shaft

After catching his breakthrough performance in Out of Sight, director John Singleton wanted Cheadle to fill Richard Roundtree's shoes in his big-screen reboot of Shaft. But producer Scott Rudin insisted on a bigger box-office draw, and the part went to Samuel L. Jackson.

 

[Lord T]

Sean "Diddy" Combs as Willie Beaman
Any Given Sunday

Controversial director Oliver Stone approached Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and had him cast as Willie Beamen, but Combs dropped out amidst rumors he could not throw a football convincingly. Publicly, Combs dropped off the project because of scheduling conflicts with his recording career. According to Cuba Gooding Jr., he met with Oliver Stone about playing the role of Willie Beamen but Stone turned Gooding down because he had already played a football player in "Jerry Maguire" (1996). Chris Tucker also turned down the role of Willie Beamen.

 

[Lord T]

Tupac Shakur as Malik Williams
Higher Learning

After earning rave reviews for his performance in Poetic Justice, Shakur was ready to tackle the role of a Black college student on a track scholarship in John Singleton's Higher Learning. Unfortunately, he was sentenced to jail before shooting began and had to be replaced by his Juice co-star Omar Epps.

John Singleton: He was a sensitive guy. He didn’t know if he wanted to be a thug or revolutionary. I still dream about the movies me and Tupac would have made. I wrote Higher Learning for him. He was playing the Omar Epps role. The original cast to Higher Learning was supposed to be Tupac, Leonardo Dicaprio, Gwyneth Paltrow and Juliette Lewis. ‘Pac ended up getting in trouble and then all that stuff happened in New York. It was logistically impossible

 

[kenbgco68]

^^^ That would've been a hell of a movie.

 

[shaddyvillethug]

Man niggas be tweaking man

 

[Mentor B]

Tupac Shakur as Malik Williams
Higher Learning

Interesting. From what I've read, Ice Cube originally had the role for Lucky in Poetic Justice but turned it down because he didn't feel right playing a romantic interest.

But it would have been dope seeing Pac and Cube playing opposite each other in Higher Learning.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[Lord T]

Eddie Murphy as Eddie Valiant
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

The '80s were Murphy's golden years, but his first self-admitted misstep was passing on the role of Eddie Valiant in Robert Zemeckis's groundbreaking caper film. Claiming he thought the film would be a "disaster", Murphy now says he "feels like an idiot" every time he sees it.

 

[Lord T]

Liam Neeson as Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln

For many months, Liam Neeson was scheduled to play Lincoln in this epic Steven Spielberg biopic of the inspirational American President. However after hours and hours of research into the role, Neeson (mistakenly) determined that he was too old to do the heroic American leader the justice he deserved. There is also evidence to suggest that Neeson was frustrated with the tardiness nature of the project, as he had been ascribed to the film since 2005 and by 2010, it still looked no closer to being made.

So with regret, he decided to leave the film, and instead it was offered to Daniel Day-Lewis, (a man who is only three years younger than Neeson), who miraculously accepted the role. Now of course, he is a shoe-in for yet another Oscar win. Should Neeson have accepted it, the role could well have been a welcome return to the Oscars for Neeson, who hasn’t been nominated since his landmark role of Oskar Schindler, in Schindler’s List.

Whether Neeson goes on to regret turning down this opportunity to reunite with Steven Spielberg, it’s too early to tell, but he has publicly given his full support to his friend Daniel Day-Lewis, and in fact it’s a true fact that after Neeson decided to leave the project, he personally rang up Day-Lewis to ask him to consider the role.

 

[Lord T]

Tom Cruise as Edwin Salt
Salt

The script for which was originally titled "Edwin A. Salt" had the lead role originally to be played by Tom Cruise. He turned it down as reportedly being too close to the character of Ethan Hunt played by Cruise in the "Mission Impossible" movies meant that Cruise was unable to commit to the project. Columbia Pictures Executive Any Pascal suggested Angelina Jolie for the role having spoken to her in the past about possible ideas to create a female spy franchise.

Jolie, having read the script and liking it was now on board and Edwin Salt became Evelyn Salt.

 

[kenbgco68]

Liam Neeson as Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln

I heard it was Leo DiCaprio who called up Lewis after dinner with Spielberg, who told him Lewis was his 1st choice for his dream project. But Lewis turned down another Spielberg film role, so he didn't want to ask him about another. DiCaprio called Lewis' manager, said Spielberg really wanted Lewis as Lincoln, and you know the rest.

 

[Lord T]

Helen Mirren as Mrs Weiss
Precious

Mirren passed on the role of social worker Mrs. Weiss in Lee Daniels' 2009 dark flick "Precious" and was replaced by Mariah Carey. To everyone's shock, Carey was riveting in the unglamorous role and won major critical praise. Interestingly, Daniels appeared on "The Jon Stewart Show" in 2010, and said Mirren called him three days before shooting to say "I can't do it; I have a real job, a paying job" and claimed she could do Carey's role "in her sleep." Yikes!

 

[Lord T]

Michael Richards as Adrian Monk
"Monk"

Michael Richards (the always around, but uninvited Kramer on "Seinfeld") was asked to play Adrian Monk when "Seinfeld" was coming to an end. Richards wasn't interested and without him, ABC passed on the show. USA picked it up and cast Tony Shaloub as the OCD detective on "Monk," a role that won him three Emmys.

 

[Lord T]

John Hawkes as The Governor
The Walking Dead

A rare case of honesty in Hollywood: Actor John Hawkes turned down a big role as The Governor on the upcoming third season of "The Walking Dead because, as he said, "I just felt there would be someone else who could do it better." David Morrissey is the lucky guy.

 

[J.E.T.S]

This thread is super interested

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

[Lord T]

Tom Hanks has had a very lucky and successful career! Getting fired off this film was one of his best career moves!

Tom Hanks as Mario
Super Mario Bros

Tom Hanks briefly signed on to play Mario, but some executives thought that Hanks was asking for too much money, so they fired Hanks in favor of English thespian Bob Hoskins. Hoskins was hot off the success of films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook, and the producers felt that he would be a more bankable star. Within a matter of years, Tom Hanks would win Oscars for both Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, becoming one of Hollywood’s most respected actors. Hoskins is now best known for his television work.

 

[RepostKing]

not sure why I care, but I do.

 

[Lord T]

Jim Caviezel as Cyclops
X-Men Series

While Patrick Stewart was understandably the only actor considered for the part of wheelchair-bound Professor Xavier in Bryan Singer’s X-Men, the early contenders for the role of Scott Summers (aka Cyclops) were said to be Thomas Jane, Johnny Lee Miller, Eric Mabius, Owen Wilson, Edward Burns, Edward Norton and Jude Law, with Jim Caviezel actually winning out.

However, much like Dougray Scott, Caviezel was forced to drop out due to a prior engagement – Frequency with Dennis Quaid. The role of Cyclops then went to James Marsden, and with it, platform shoes so Marsden wouldn’t look so short in comparison to the likes of Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Tyler Mane (Sabretooth).

Caviezel probably didn’t miss much – and may have been the one who dodged the bullet – considering that Scott Summers/Cyclops’ involvement in the X-Men series diminished more and more with each film, though his lack of screen-time in X-Men: The Last Stand was the result of Marsden’s own decision to switch comic book camps – from the Marvel universe to DC – to play Lois Lane’s fiancee in Superman Returns.

Ironically Caviezel would eventually play a ‘superhero’ of another kind – Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, which in turn led to director Bryan Singer to disqualify him from the race to play the Man of Steel in Superman Returns. Apparently Singer didn’t want Jesus playing Superman.

Caviezel said as much in a recent interview:

“I first saw Superman with Christopher Reeve and I just thought that he set the standard there. The first one, the (Richard) Donner film, was amazing. But (Caviezel’s involvement in Singer’s new Superman) just never came to be … I think that by playing Jesus made them stay away from that, as there was too much attention drawn to it.”

 

[Lord T]

Harvey Keitel as CAPT. Benjamin Willard
Apocalypse Now

Some roles are so iconic, you can scarcely imagine anyone else doing them. But do them they did, in the case of Apocalypse Now. Harvey Keitel spent two weeks filming in the Philippines with Francis Ford Coppola as Captain Benjamin L. Willard. He was a few down the line too, with McQueen, Redford, Nicholson and Pacino all turning down the role. Checking the rushes, Coppola was unhappy with Keitel’s performance, so he called on Martin Sheen to take the role, after seeing him read for the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather. He had lost out to Pacino on that occasion, but scooped the role of a lifetime instead.

 

[Lord T]

Jim Carrey as Captain Jack Sparrow
Pirates of the Caribbean Franchise

The role of Captain Jack Sparrow was initially offered to Jim Carrey but he turned it down for Bruce Almighty.


Picture Jim Carrey as Captain Jack Sparrow…Does it figure, really? Well, had Carrey not turned down the role to appear as Jack Sparrow on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Johnny Depp wouldn’t be the man he is today. That’s what you call the butterfly effect.

Carrey was considered for the role of Jack Sparrow along with the likes of Christopher Walken and Michael Keaton. The problem arose because the production schedule for Pirates would have conflicted with Bruce Almighty’s, the role Carrey opted for instead.

The latter has been one of Depp’s biggest successes, and it was a project that would test his distaste for sequels, with the Pirates franchise managing to clock almost a decade still going strong.

 

[Lord T]

Chris O'Donnell as Agent J
Men In Black

Chris O'Donnell was first offered the role of J, but he turned it down because he thought it was another "new recruit" role like his performance of Dick Grayson from "Batman Forever" and "Batman & Robin".

Will Smith, after reading the script, did not want to accept the role, but his wife Jada Pinkett Smith convinced him to take the part.

 

[Lord T]

Tim Roth as Professor Snape
Harry Potter

Tim Roth turned down the role of Professor Snape in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in order to appear in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes. At the time Tim Roth turned down Snape because he reportedly thought the role was under-developed. Apes was a flop.

Alan Rickman made Prof. Snape a beloved anti-hero in "Harry Potter", which was a massive success.

Tim Roth Upset His Family With 'Harry Potter' Snub

Actor Tim Roth once sorely disappointed his two young sons - by turning down a role in the Harry Potter franchise.

Roth, 46, was offered the role of Severus Snape in the hit boy wizard series - but rejected it for a chance to work with filmmaker Tim Burton on the 2001 remake of Planet Of The Apes. And his children Cormac, 11, and Hunter, 12, were less than pleased with their father's choice.

He says, "My kids were pissed with me about that. If you're prepared for it, that's okay. But they were planning to fly me back and forth between Tim Burton's set and the Harry Potter set to film. Just the idea of that was silly. So I thought, 'Okay, I've always wanted to work with Tim.'"

Tim Roth Has No Regrets After Missing Out On 'Harry Potter' Role

British tough guy Tim Roth refuses to regret not grabbing a lead role in the Harry Potter movie franchise - because countryman Alan Rickman is the perfect Professor Severus Snape. Roth was offered the dark role before Rickman but turned it down because he thought the character was "under-developed."

The Reservoir Dogs star reveals, "There were only a couple of Harry Potter books out at that point, and Snape seemed under-developed. I've watched the films, and Alan Rickman does a good job. If you pass on a project and it turns out well, then it was probably the right thing to do, but, at that point, I didn't really want to be on a lunch box."

 

[godofwine]

interesting stuff here

 

[shaddyvillethug]

Planet of the apes over Harry potter?

U dumb muthafucka

 

[silentking]

You lost all respect for an actress doing her job? I haven't seen the movie but did see that scene. I seriously doubt that one scene was so pivotal that it had to be included and I believe that someone like Angela Basset could have gotten that written out of the movie.

I don't see nudity and sex scenes progressing any movie and I'm sure can be modified for a great actress if she refuses.

u should see the movie. it's...interesting. I was upset about it at first...but after seeing it a few times...i can see that those scenes are actually pivotal to the film. it's a movie about desperation and the need to feel something...anything...other than the hell that your life is. Halle actually delivered in that role. the film grew on me over the years.

 

[Lord T]

Keanu Reeves as Pvt. Chris Taylor
Platoon

Keanu Reeves was up for the role of Chris in Platoon, but as director Oliver Stone revealed in a 2011 interview with Entertainment Weekly, "Keanu turned it down because of the violence. He didn’t want to do violence."

The role went to Charlie Sheen, who had auditioned for the film in 1984 as "a dumb-struck 17-year-old." When he came back in to read again in 1986, "he’d grown and seemed perfectly wide-eyed and had a vaguely privileged look." Platoon would go on to win 4 Academy Awards, and be nominated for 4 more.

 

[Lord T]

Craig T. Nelson as Jay Pritchett
Modern Family

"Modern Family" patriarch Ed O'Neill wasn't the show's first choice, "Parenthood's" Craig T. Nelson was originally offered the role of Jay Pritchett.

"When I read it I thought, 'Oh boy, this is pretty good,'" O'Neill told E! Online. "And I called my manager and he said, 'Well, they're out to Craig T. Nelson.'"

Casting director Jeff Greenberg said it came down to Nelson and O'Neill, but the offer ultimately went to Nelson. "And so the first offer went out to Craig and we couldn't make a deal," Greenberg said. "He wanted to do it, but financially we were just too apart."

Nelson told Access Hollywood it was about the money. "I'm old enough to say it, I guess. That was it," Nelson said of the money issue in 2011. "I really wanted to do 'Modern Family' and I really liked the script and I liked the people. I just said, 'You know what? I’ve been doing this too long.' We’re in the middle of a cutback here, ladies and gentlemen, in Hollywood and salaries have gone way, way down."

“I just felt disrespected to tell you the truth,” he added.


When Nelson's deal fell apart, producers came calling for O'Neill. He told them to make the deal. Nelson went on to join NBC's "Parenthood" and the rest is history.

 

[Lord T]

Halle Berry as Annie
Speed

Halle Berry turned down the lead role of Annie, and a starring role opposite uber-thespian Keanu Reeves, in 1994′s “Speed.” The thrilling part went to Sandra Bullock instead.

“We offered it to everybody but Keanu Reeves. We desperately wanted Billy Baldwin and Halle Berry,” producer Mark Gordon revealed at a conference.

"Speed" would go on to launch Sandra Bullock's career.

 

[(0_0)..l.. finger]

interesting thread!