Stars Who Turned Down Big Roles

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Woody Harrelson has shared why he turned down being part of The White Lotus's Season Three. The actor was set to play either the characters Rick or Frank, who are played by Walter Goggins and Sam Rockwell. The internet originally speculated Harrelson turned down the role due to the salary, but the actor broke his silence, explaining that he was meant to play Frank and a shift in filming conflicted with a preplanned family vacation. He told The Daily Beast, “Things must be meant to be though because I couldn’t have done as fantastic a job as Sam, who is killing it.”

On the Whiskey Ginger podcast, Eric Andre shared he was initially offered Kieran Culkin's Oscar-winning role in A Real Pain. The comedian turned down the character of Benji because he didn't want to go film in Poland where his ancestors "got cooked in the concentration camps." Andre further explained that, "I read the script and was like, ‘To go to Poland for six weeks and shoot a movie, where we’re just babbling about the Holocaust seems like a bummer.” He also joked that he doesn't get offered many roles and was in awe that the one he turned down won an Academy Award.

Kate Hudson almost played Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada, but walked away due to poor timing. 20 years later, she's confessed that she regrets the decision: “It was a timing thing, it was one of those things where I couldn’t do it, and I should’ve made it happen, and I didn’t. That was one where when I saw it I was like, ‘Ugh.’ It’s funny, it’s waves of things that are happening and people shooting at different times. It’s not like you don’t do them because you don’t want to do them. It’s like, oh, you’re doing something else. And it just sucked, you know?"

Sterling K. Brown revealed that he turned down a season-long character in the hit Amazon series, The Boys. The role was supposed to be a villainous one with an arc, but he turned it down due to the show's filimg location. He explained in an interview, “It think it was a bad guy [role], because it was very tempting. But a full-season arc, they are in Toronto — it’s tough. Listen, these are Champagne problems I’m talking about here! But because I’m blessed enough to already have certain things in place, I get a chance to be a bit more choosy.”

Billy Bob Thornton says he turned down two infamous villain roles, telling The Playlist's Bingeworthy podcast he said no to playing the Green Goblin in a Spider-Man film because he did not "feel like getting up at 4 a.m. for five or six hours of makeup." He said he also turned down playing arms dealer Owen Davian in Mission: Impossible III because he didn't want to be "the guy trying to kill Tom Cruise" -- saying, "If you’re the bad guy in a big movie like that, audiences remember it forever. I prefer to keep things looser and less predictable."

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Martin Lawrence claimed, "Jackie Chan asked me to star in Rush Hour with him, but I turned it down." When asked why he didn't take the role -- which ultimately went to Chris Tucker -- he simply responded, "Wasn't enough money."

Debi Mazar reveals she was offered to be in Adam Sandler's Wedding Singer, during an episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the actress reveals: "I'm kind of embarrassed because I wanted to do the Wedding Singer, and I got the part and I was so excited because I was a huge fan of Adam," she then says that her agent advised her not to take the role because she wasn't getting the right amount of money. "Ultimately I passed only because my agent told me 'just hang on, don't do it,' I regret it to this day."

Sherri Shepherd reveals she refused a to play a role where she would have had many sex scenes with Lenny Kravitz. Speaking with E! News the talk show host said, "I was a secretary that he was involved with, and when I tell you it was sex against the wall, sex in the apartment, it was sex everywhere. I told [Lee Daniels], I was like 'I cant do it,' and he called me a chickens--t, now I think, 'why didn't I take that role?'"

Jodie Foster told Jimmy Fallon why she turned down the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars, saying they were "going for a younger Princess Leia but I had a conflict. I was doing a Disney movie and I just didn’t want to pull out because I was already under contract." She added that "they did an amazing job" without her, saying, "I don't know how good I would have been,"

The View's Joy Behar revealed she turned down a role on Ted Lasso. While speaking on The View's Behind the Table podcast, Behar shared that she decided against starring as Dottie Lasso, the mother of Jason Sudeikis' Ted, on Season 3 of the Apple TV+ series due to a "heat wave" that was happening in London at the time. However, Sudeikis and fellow Ted Lasso co-creator Brendan Hunt later denied Behar was offered the role. "Respectfully, it would be news to us. We just work there," Hunt said.

Matt Bomer reveals he did auditions for multiple versions of Ken in the Barbie movie, in a recent interview he shares: "I recorded it on my own, played a bunch of different Kens — and I dressed differently for all of them, I recorded the lines of the other person’s dialogue on my recorder and then gave myself space to respond." After speaking with Greta Gerwig he ultimately decided to turn it down because he didn't want to spend "extensive time away from his family."

Speaking with Vanity Fair, casting director Allison Jones revealed that Bowen Yang, Dan Levy and Ben Platt were all "really bummed they couldn't" play Kens in the new Barbie movie, while Jonathan Groff turned down the role of Allan. According to Jones, they couldn't commit to the film's three-month shoot in London.

Jon Hamm says he had to turn down Ben Affleck's role in Gone Girl, during an episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the actor revealed due to scheduling conflicts, he wasn't able to film: "I was down to the very end of that. It was meant to be me, but we had to film the continuing adventures of Mr. Draper."

Jack Dylan Grazer reveals he almost played the role of Ashtray in HBO Max's Euphoria, which was ultimately given to Javon Walten. On an episode of The Zach Sang Show the Shazam! star opened up saying, "I was supposed to be Ashtray on Euphoria, but I couldn't do it cause I did Shazam," he continued, "and I'm so glad about that, cause doesn't he die?!"

Bette Midler reveals why she turned down the role of Sister Mary Clarence who was played by Deloris Van Cartier. On an episode of the Just For Variety podcast Midler opened up, "They came to me with ‘Sister Act’ and I said, ‘My fans don’t want to see me in a wimple.’ Can you believe that?" Jeffrey Katzenberg called me every day: ‘Please, please.’” She said, "I stood my ground because I really was afraid of the costume..." Midler continued, “I just couldn’t. It was too violent, the character was so not funny, so without any qualities of redemption.”

Sissy Spacek's daughter Schuyler Fisk turned down her mother's role when asked to play Carrie in a reboot. In an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Fisk revealed "They did approach me. I don't remember which incarnation it was — I just knew it would be me reprising her role, it just didn't feel like the right thing for so many reasons, so it was never gonna happen. I feel like Carrie is such an epic film as it is, so the idea of trying to do anything else to recreate it just didn't feel necessary." She continued, "It was sweet that they thought of me. But it just wasn't the right thing."

Josh Hartnett was considered for the role of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain and would have appeared alongside Joaquin Phoenix. Speaking with Sunrise in 2021, Hartnett explained, "Unfortunately, I was going to do Brokeback Mountain and I had a contract with The Black Dahlia that I had to film, so I had to drop out of it." He joked he "always wanted to kiss Joaquin."

Billy Crystal admits, "I'm the schmuck who turned down Toy Story" while speaking to Yahoo Entertainment about his biggest career regret. "I didn't think I was the right voice for that [character]. And Tim Allen is great. He has this resonant, big voice of this character who's full of himself," he said.

On "The Tonight Show," Madonna told Jimmy Fallon how she once "turned down the role in The Matrix." "Can you believe that? I wanted to kill myself," she said." "That's like one of the best movies ever made," Madonna added, "A teeny-tiny part of me regrets just that one moment in my life"

Jessica Chastain opened up on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast about a conflict that caused her to turn down a major role. "I’ll give you one. I love David O. Russell… love, love, love, and I’ve always wanted to work with him," she said. "And I got offered American Hustle, the Jennifer Lawrence part. I wanted to do it. It conflicted with Liv Ullmann and Miss Julie. I had been attached to that for a long time and I worship Liv Ullmann, so I had to say like, ‘Sorry, there’s conflict.’ And it didn’t work out."

Rachael Leigh Cook admits she "definitely did things for the wrong reasons" in her career. She told the New York Times that she turned down the role of Rogue in "X-Men" in order to "avoid acting on a green screen." "As soon as I saw the posters for it, I knew that I’d made a mistake," she said. The role eventually went to Anna Paquin.

Debra Winger was originally cast as Dottie in A League of Their Own and even trained with the Chicago Cubs for the part. When Penny Marshall cast Madonna in the film, however, Winger dropped out, fearing it would become "an Elvis film." She told The Telegraph, "The studio agreed with me because it was the only time I ever collected a pay-or-play on my contract." While she found the film "entertaining" and said Geena Davis "did OK," she felt it could have honored the real women more. Of Madonna's work, Winger added, "I think [her] acting career has spoken for itself."

Lil Nas X tells Variety that he was "actually going to do ‘Euphoria.'" "I didn’t want to take time away from finishing my album,” he said. “I definitely want to get into acting, but I feel I have to give it my all, and I want to focus on music for right now. I want my first movie to be amazing.”

"I flirted around with the idea of...I investigated the idea of Jennifer Lawrence playing Squeaky [Fromme]," Quentin Tarantino told Marc Maron on his podcast." "She came down to the house and I gave her the script and said, ‘Go in my living room or go outside by the pool and read it," he added. "So she read it, and afterward, we talked about it a little bit. She was interested in doing it, but something didn’t work out. But she’s a very nice person, and I respect her as an actress" The role eventually went to Dakota Fanning who Tarantino said was "one of the best performances in the movie."

Jean Smart told SNL's Bowen Young that her Emmy-nominated role in HBO's "Watchmen" almost went to someone else. "They hired me two days before I started," she said. "I'll be really honest: I had Sigourney Weaver to thank for turning down the role. So, thank you, Sigourney.""

"The Devil Wears Prada": Rachel McAdams turned down the chance to work with Meryl Streep (in one of her most iconic performances) because she wanted to do more serious work. Director David Frankel said, "We offered it to Rachel McAdams three times. The studio was determined to have her, and she was determined not to do it." Anne Hathaway stepped in and the rest is fashion history.

Dave Bautista recently told Collider that he turned down a chance to star in "Fast & Furious." Though he did not specify which Fast character he was in talks for, he admits he was "not interested." "I don’t make any pretense about it,” he said. “I had a chance to get a meeting at WB, they were talking to me about this and that and I said 'hey, let’s talk about Bane.' That happened to me one other time in my career. They wanted to talk to me about Fast and the Furious, and I said 'I’m not interested, let’s talk about Marcus Fenix.’”

Jason Biggs admits in a recent chat with "The Covino & Rich Show" that turning down the role of Ted Mosby in "How I Met Your Mother" is his biggest career regret. "It sounds so obnoxious to say right now – but at the time it was like, ‘okay, do I want to do TV?’ I don't know that I was quite ready to go that route," he said. “Big picture, I have no regrets. Right? I'm very lucky, very fortunate. I'm still here. That's number one. Great. But yeah, if I had to pick out something I wish I had done differently, I would've taken that gig for sure. Absolutely."

Rob Lowe opened up to Variety about turning down the role of Dr. Shepherd in "Grey's Anatomy." "This is what longevity, experience and recovery give you. There are no accidents," he said. "Whatever decision you come to, if you come to it from the right place, it's never wrong." He added that had he taken the role in "Grey's," he would have missed out on "Parks and Recreation." "That alone for me is enough."

Michelle Pfeiffer tells The New Yorker that she doesn't regret turning down some major roles. "But sometimes you just regret that you can’t maybe do both things," she said. "With 'Silence of the Lambs,' I was trepidatious. There was such evil in that film. The thing I most regret is missing the opportunity to do another film with Jonathan [Demme]," Pfeiffer added.

James Marsden told James Corden that he tured down a role in "Magic Mike." "I had the fear that I would be edited out of the movie, all my lines would be cut out and I would be an extra running around in a G-string," he said to the host. "This is Soderbergh, you should have just done it. I have friends and family who still think it was wise of me not to do it, because they don’t want to see me like that."

Gloria Estefan tells Andy Cohen on "Watch What Happens Live" that she turned down Julia Roberts' iconic role in "Mystic Pizza." "I didn't even have to audition for it, but at the time I felt like I was not a good enough actor and I wanted to cement my career in music," she said. "I thought, one day I will do acting but I'm not going to throw myself into this and not be good at it."

"Almost Famous" director Cameron Crowe said that there were plans to cast Brad Pitt as Russell Hammond. "We spent about four months working on it. He read with Natalie Portman," he said on the "Origins: Almost Famous Turns Twenty" podcast. Pitt ultimately dropped out because he "never fully [fell] in love with the character." The role eventually went to Billy Crudup.

Jessica Simpson writes in her book, "Open Book," that she turned down the chance to play Allie Hamilton. She was on a flight and, "then they announced that the movie we all had to watch was The Notebook. Oh God, I thought. The most romantic movie in the world, and I was leaving Nick. I knew exactly what the movie was about because I had read the script but turned it down because they wouldn’t budge on taking out the sex scene. And it would have been with Ryan Gosling, of all people. The movie was on every screen, and I was swept up into it, wishing I had that great love that would be forever."

Clare Danes remembers being offered the lead in "Titanic" shortly after the success of "Romeo + Juliet" (also starring Leonardo DiCaprio. "I'd just made this romantic epic with Leo in Mexico City, which is where they were going to shoot Titanic, and I just didn't have it in me. And I remember, Leo and I shared a manager at the time, and we were there at the office. I was on a balcony, which is funny [because of Romeo + Juliet]... and Leo had this rental red convertible, some, like, hot rod-dy car. And he was kinda going in circles in the parking lot. And I knew he was wrestling with the decision to do that movie or not and he just looked up at me, and he said, ‘I’m doing it. I’m doing it.’ And I could see he wasn’t sure, but he was like, f*** it, I gotta do this thing.’ And I looked down on him going, like, I totally understand why you are doing it. And I’m not ready for that" she told Dax Shepard on his "Armchair Expert" podcast.

Brad Pitt admitted to turning down a role in "The Matrix." He told People at the Santa Barbara Film Festival that "I'll give you one, only one, because I really believe it was never mine. It's not mine. It's someone else's and they go and make it. I really do believe in that. I really do. But I did pass on the Matrix. I took the red pill."

Josh Hartnett told Variety he turned down the starring role in 2006's "Superman Returns," but not Spider-Man or Batman. "I don't know where that came from. I'd only turned down Superman as a straight-up offer. But I was, at that time of my career, where a lot of people were asking me to do those types of movies," he said, admitting he had a conversation with Christopher Nolan about Batman Begins. "That was a very privileged place for a young man to be in. I'm a little bit outside of the box and had the leverage to do that, and that’s the direction I chose," he added.

Jennifer Lopez was originally offered the lead in "Unfaithful," that eventually went to Diane Lane. "There was a movie called Unfaithful. And it was offered to me and the script, for me, wasn’t all the way there. I should have known that Adrian Lyne was going to kill it, but I didn’t. Diane Lane was so perfect for it, and it was obviously meant to be her, but when I think about that…I want to literally, like, shoot my toe off. I do."

Christian Slater tells Kevin Nealon on "Hiking with Nealon" that he turned down a chance to work with Francis Ford Coppola. "I had worked with Francis Ford Coppola before and he was getting ready to do Dracula and you know my thought was because he was offering me the Jonathan Harker role, I was like, if I’m not gonna be Dracula then what’s the point. Keanu Reeves very kindly stepped into that one…. Those are the moments where you look back and you go boy, you know it would’ve been nice to get out of my own way."

Woody Harrelson revealed he turned down a role that later went to Tom Cruise. "I was offered—what's the 'Show me the money' movie? Jerry Maguire? I was offered Jerry Maguire," he told Esquire. "I said to [James L. Brooks, who produced the movie], 'Nobody is going to give a s--t about an agent.'"

Halle Berry tells Entertainment Tonight, "I don't know if you know this, but I was offered 'Speed' before Sandra Bullock. I stupidly said no. But in my defense, when I read the script the bus didn't leave the parking lot."

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told The Wrap that Sandra Bullock was offered the role of Neo in "The Matrix." He says, "We went to Sandy Bullock and said 'We'll change Neo to a girl.' We sent her the script to see if she was interested in it. And if she was interested in it, we would try to make the change." It wasn't the right fit for her, so it was then offered to Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Will Smith -- who all accepted, before they each dropped out. Pitt was "too exhausted" post-"Seven Years in Tibet" and Leo didn't want another special effects film following "Titanic."

As for why Will Smith turned down the role of Neo: The Wachowskis' pitch just didn't land with him. "So I made 'Wild Wild West,'” Will admitted, "I'm not proud of it!" He added that had he accepted, Val Kilmer would have played Morpheus.

"10 Things I Hate About You" casting director Marcia Ross told The New York Times that Kate Hudson was offered the role of Kat Stratford in the film, "But her mom [Goldie Hawn] didn’t like the script for her, so she passed." The part went to Julia Stiles.

Macaulay Culkin revealed he was pursued heavily for a role on "The Big Bang Theory" before its premiere, telling Joe Rogan, "The way the pitch was it was like, these two astrophysicist nerds and a pretty girl lives with them, yoinks! That was the pitch," he said. "I was like no, I'm cool, thanks. They came back at me again, but again, flattered, no." He said he knows he passed up "hundreds of millions of dollars" but he's okay with the decision.

Gus Van Sant, the original director of "Brokeback Mountain," told IndieWire, " I felt like we needed a really strong cast, like a famous cast...I asked the usual suspects: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Ryan Phillippe. They all said no." Ang Lee would eventually direct and Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger earned Oscar noms for their performances.

Denzel Washington told Jamie Foxx that he passed up the leading role in "Seven," which ultimately went to Brad Pitt. "I thought the script was too demonic! Then I saw the movie, and I was like, ‘Ah, I blew it,'" Washington said on an episode of "Off Script"

When Jimmy Fallon asked Evan Rachel Wood on "The Tonight Show" if the rumors that she auditioned for "Mean Girls" were true, the actress replied, "It's even worse -- I turned it down." Wood explained that at the time, she was already committed to doing a film called "Pretty Persuasion" that was also set in a high school and was "very similar" to Tina Fey's 2004 rom-com. "But Tina, if you're here, I'm so sorry we got off on the wrong foot!" Wood said. (April 19, 2018)

"Clueless": Sarah had to turn the part down because of scheduling conflicts with her daytime soap "All My Children." Alicia Silverstone ended up turning Cher into one of the most iconic teen characters ever.

"The Blide Side": Julia Roberts said she turned down the part to focus on her family. Sandra Bullock also turned it down initially, but eventually came around and won the Oscar for her troubles.

"Beetlejuice": Jennifer Connelly, Sarah Jessica Parker and Winona Ryder all turned down the part of Lydia. Luckily, Winona reconsidered and it became one of her most famous performances.

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Stars Who Turned Down Big Roles

"American Pie": Jason Biggs revealed that Jonathan Taylor Thomas passed on his role in "American Pie." I never talked to JTT before or after, but I am incredibly grateful because I think he passed," he told Us Weekly. "... READ MORE

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