10 Actors Who Turned Down Roles That Became Legendary

01 Will Smith as Neo in The Matrix (1999)

By the late 1990s, Will Smith was arguably the biggest movie star in the world, fresh from Independence Day and Men in Black. The Wachowskis pitched him their mind-bending sci-fi project, The Matrix, but Smith struggled to see how its bullet-time effects and philosophical themes would come together on screen.

He chose Wild Wild West instead, a steampunk Western that was a critical and commercial disappointment. Neo went to Keanu Reeves, whose quiet, understated performance anchored a multi-billion-dollar franchise.

Smith has since said he would have “messed it up” and that Reeves was the right man for the part.

02 Sean Connery as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings (2001)

When Peter Jackson set out to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the studio wanted a marquee name to lead its costly fantasy gamble. Sir Sean Connery was approached to play Gandalf the Grey.

The reported offer was $10 million per film plus a 15% share of the box-office takings, a deal that could have been worth more than $400 million. Connery passed. He has said he never understood the script or the story, and he had no appetite for a long shoot in New Zealand.

Sir Ian McKellen took the role instead, earning an Academy Award nomination and one of the most beloved performances in fantasy film.

03 Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg thought they had found their hero for Raiders of the Lost Ark in Tom Selleck. His screen test, opposite Sean Young, convinced them that his easy charisma suited the swashbuckling archaeologist.

Selleck wanted the part, but CBS held the option on his pilot for Magnum, P.I. and refused to release him. The twist came later: a strike delayed production on the series, which would have freed him to make the film after all.

With time running out, Spielberg turned to Harrison Ford, then fresh from Star Wars, and the character became a pop-culture fixture almost overnight.

04 Al Pacino as Han Solo in Star Wars (1977)

After The Godfather and Dog Day Afternoon, Al Pacino could have had nearly any lead role in mid-1970s Hollywood. Among the offers was Han Solo in George Lucas’s space opera, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.

Pacino has said he turned it down despite the money on the table, because he simply did not understand the script. Harrison Ford stepped in and built the template for the wisecracking action hero that later generations of films would borrow.

05 John Travolta as Forrest Gump (1994)

Few years were as busy for John Travolta as 1994. He was offered the title role in Robert Zemeckis’s Forrest Gump, but chose to work with Quentin Tarantino on a low-budget crime film called Pulp Fiction.

Tom Hanks took Forrest and won his second consecutive Best Actor Oscar. Travolta has acknowledged that passing on the part was a mistake, yet Pulp Fiction revived his career and earned him an Oscar nomination. The two films went head to head at the Academy Awards that year.

06 Jack Nicholson as Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972)

Paramount initially resisted Francis Ford Coppola’s push to cast the relatively unknown Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather. The studio preferred established names such as Warren Beatty, Robert Redford and Jack Nicholson.

Nicholson has said he declined because he felt Italian-American roles should be played by Italian-American actors, and that Pacino was simply the right Michael. It is a rare case of a star passing on a role for reasons of authenticity rather than money or schedule.

07 Emma Watson as Mia in La La Land (2016)

Damien Chazelle’s Oscar-winning musical La La Land was once set to star Emma Watson and Miles Teller. Watson was already committed to playing Belle in Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast, and the demanding dance and vocal rehearsals for Chazelle’s film overlapped with that production.

She chose Disney. Emma Stone took on the role of Mia Dolan and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

08 Denzel Washington as Detective Mills in Se7en (1995)

David Fincher’s grim thriller Se7en is considered one of the defining neo-noir films of the 1990s. The role of the hot-headed young Detective David Mills was first sent to Denzel Washington.

Washington found the script too dark and nihilistic and passed. Brad Pitt took the part and delivered a raw performance that culminates in one of cinema’s most talked-about endings. Washington later said he regretted the decision after seeing the finished film.

09 Emily Blunt as Black Widow in Iron Man 2 (2010)

Marvel Studios originally lined up Emily Blunt to introduce Natasha Romanoff in Iron Man 2, a role that would have tied her to a long run in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

An earlier contractual commitment to 20th Century Fox obliged her to appear in the comedy Gulliver’s Travels with Jack Black, and the schedules could not be reconciled. Scarlett Johansson took over and played Black Widow for more than a decade.

10 Nicolas Cage as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings (2001)

Before Viggo Mortensen made Aragorn, the ranger who becomes king of Gondor, his own, Peter Jackson offered the part to Oscar winner Nicolas Cage.

Cage declined for family reasons. The production meant living in New Zealand for an extended period, and he did not want to be away from his son for so long. Cage’s intensity would have made for a fascinating Aragorn, but Mortensen’s grounded, dignified take remains a cornerstone of the genre.

At a Glance: The Famous Rejections