Major Roles Rejected by Famous Actors
Mel Gibson – ‘Gladiator’
Playing the unhinged Detective Riggs in Lethal Weapon, we should have seen the potential for a public meltdown that awaited us when Mel Gibson was ostracized from Hollywood after antisemitic and racist rants were made public. But before all that happened, Gibson was a top-billing Hollywood star, which is why we aren’t surprised he was offered the lead in Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning drama Gladiator. Gibson was just in his early 40s at the time, but reportedly turned it down thinking he was too old for the battle sequences. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor. Would Gibson have won?
Molly Ringwald – ‘Pretty Woman’
Molly Ringwald was quickly becoming America’s sweetheart in the late 1980s thanks to her iconic roles in a series of John Hughes films, but the actress didn’t seem long for the limelight of Hollywood and moved to France and eventually into obscurity. Julia Roberts became our Pretty Woman and earned an Oscar nomination and a massively successful Hollywood career to boot.
Tom Hanks – ‘Jerry Maguire’
In 1996, Tom Cruise was already a bankable film star, but one of his most memorable roles was almost never meant to be. Jerry Maguire writer and director Cameron Crowe has said that he wrote the role with Tom Hanks in mind, but Hanks was busy with his first directorial role on That Thing You Do and couldn’t fit the role into his schedule. Nobody seems too upset that Hanks couldn’t take the role, even Hanks himself. Hanks told Access Hollywood, “I think you look at it now and it couldn’t have been anybody other than Tom Cruise. It’s the way the movie’s operated. I don’t think anybody would look at that now and say, ‘That movie was not perfect.’”
Julia Roberts – ‘The Blind Side’
Molly Ringwald’s loss was Julia Roberts’ gain for Pretty Woman, but Roberts’ loss was Sandra Bullock’s gain when the former turned down the role of Leigh Anne Touhy in The Blind Side. Bullock went on to win her first and only Oscar (so far) for the role. The Blind Side wasn’t Roberts’ only big acting regret: She also reportedly turned down the lead female role in Sleepless in Seattle.
Thomas Jane – ‘Mad Men’
Jon Hamm’s star-making turn as Don Draper in AMC’s Mad Men is another one of those characters where it’s difficult to picture anybody else in the role, but Hamm wasn’t anywhere on the casting director’s radar in preproduction. They reportedly wanted Thomas Jane, who at the time was coming off some recent buzz with The Punisher and The Mist. Hamm told Marc Maron on a WTF podcast, “The casting directors didn’t know who I was. I wasn’t on anybody’s lists. The funny thing was, I think they went to Thomas Jane for it, and they were told that Thomas Jane does not do television. Now starring in [HBO’s] Hung, by the way.”
Paul Giamatti – ‘The Office’
It almost seems blasphemous to picture anybody else as NBC’s most dysfunctional and beloved boss Michael Scott in The Office, but that’s almost what we got as producers on the show were eyeing Sideways’ Paul Giamatti fresh off his critically acclaimed role. Giamatti’s fine talents probably would have done well thanks to the incredible scripts, but Steve Carrell was born for that role.
Tom Cruise – ‘Footloose’
Years before Tom Cruise nearly missed an iconic role in Jerry Maguire, he almost stole one from another young actor. In 1983, Cruise had just wowed audiences in Risky Business, and producers on the upcoming Footloose were eyeing the young heartthrob (think the underwear dance scene). But Cruise’s busy schedule filming All the Right Moves and Legend meant he couldn’t sign on. Up-and-comer Kevin Bacon was happy to put his foot in the door for this one. And we’re happy he did so since the “Kevin Bacon Game” was officially born.
John Travolta – ‘Forrest Gump’
Oh, good god no! We just can’t see this and we’re eternally happy that Travolta was busy with his work on Pulp Fiction to ever make this a reality. Forrest Gump is a national treasure, … a three hours and change national treasure that we adore.
Michelle Pfeiffer – ‘The Silence of the Lambs’
Michelle Pfeiffer was one of the biggest leading ladies in Hollywood in the early ’90s and was highly coveted for several roles. Pfeiffer was offered the female lead in the film adaptation for The Silence of the Lambs, but reportedly turned it down after feeling the subject matter of the film too gruesome. (What, a guy who tortures women and cuts off part of their skin!?) Since Silence of the Lambs went on to become just one of three films to win the “Big 5” Academy Awards (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay), we can’t think of any good reason why we’d like to see Pfeiffer in the role. But this wasn’t the only huge role Pfeiffer turned down, as the next year she eschewed the female lead in Basic Instinct, not wanting to reveal so much skin.
