In the film industry, there have always been interesting stories about the choice of leading
and supporting actors and actresses by film producers.
Some roles become iconic largely because of who the actor was.
Some movies may flop for the exact same reason.
So here are 10 actors who said No to roles in major Hollywood films.
Matt Damon
The 2003 theatrical release of Daredevil starring Ben Affleck had some mixed reviews.
Some people loved it for its brilliant work with computer graphics, but there was also
lots of criticism, mainly because of its gratuitous bloodshed.
Its director, Mark Steven Johnson, had initially asked Matt Damon to come on board as the star.
Damon declined his offer saying he didn't know Mark Steven Johnson well enough and also
that the script didn't quite interest him.
This lead to Johnson settling for Ben Affleck.
This was not the first time that Matt Damon declined offers to star in bigshot movies.
He had been approached by Johnson James Cameron to be the lead actor in Avatar.
However, he declined this offer too, stating that his schedule at the time wouldn't allow
it.
He had been starring in Bourne Ultimatum at the time, but commended the Avatar script
as being well written.
The Star Trek producers had also invited Matt Damon to play the supporting role of James
T. Kirk's dad, but he declined the offer and it was taken up by Chris Hemsworth.
The producers said maybe it was a good call, for it would've been distracting for the famous
actor to take up a supporting role.
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Matthew McConaughey
In Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Kurt Russell was perfectly cast as Chris Pratt’s father
in the movie.
However, before Russell got the job, producer James Gunn had asked Matthew McConaughey to
play the role.
He declined, saying he felt that joining the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel would make
him feel like an amendment rather than being in a film from scratch.
He opted for the movie version of Stephen King’s series of books The Dark Tower instead,
where he starred as The Man in Black.
Unfortunately, The Dark Tower didn't gain as much popularity as Guardians of the Galaxy
did.
Interestingly, when Magic Mike XXL was released in 2015, it was to everyone's surprise that
McConaughey did not proceed with his role as Dallas like in prequel.
It's director, Greg Jacobs explained the reason why McConaughey dropped the role: he didn't
want to simply remake the previous film.
But there are suspicions that McConaughey was simply too busy for it.
Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington is famously known for his anti-racist attitude, which puts him in a
positive limelight, but has also made him decline a couple of questionable films.
Denzel has also declined acting as a detective in the movie Se7en, but this was for other
reasons; he claimed he wasn't familiar with the producer.
However, after the film gained popularity, he regretted his decision.
At the time, he had opted for Devil in a Blue Dress instead, written and directed by Carl
Franklin, and produced by Mike Bean.
In the neo-noir mystery movie, he plays a WWII veteran down on his luck who accepts
an offer from a stranger to find a woman.
In 2007, when George Clooney played the lead in Michael Clayton, word went round that Denzel
had been offered this role first but had declined.
This was confirmed by the production company, who said Denzel declined this offer for the
same reason he had given upon Se7en.
This too was a decision he later regretted.
Charlie Hunnam
Let's admit it, the Fifty Shades of Grey novel was a huge success.
Readers were extremely excited when the movie adaptation was announced in 2013.
However, despite what many people had expected, Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam did not
take the lead.
The role was filled by Jamie Dornan instead.
Hunnam had originally been signed to play Christian Grey in 2013, but as he explained
at the time, he was still hung up on Sons of Anarchy wherein he played outlaw biker
Jax Teller, in the FX drama that ran from 2008 to 2014.
He also had made a previous commitment to be in another movie, Crimson Peak for Guillermo
del Toro.
Between preparing for Sons of Anarchy, Crimson Peak and Fifty Shades of Grey, he had something
of a nervous breakdown and decided to withdraw from the movie.
In Pacific Rim, also directed by Guillermo del Toro, Charlie did a remarkable job, but
when the time for Pacific Rim 2 came, he opted out and chose Papillion instead.
Apparently, he loved the Papillion script, which was written by Aaron Guzikowski.
He said it was a matter of temptations and following his heart since Papillion had originally
been played by iconic actor Steve McQueen.
Additionally, he declined to play a role in the famous Game of Thrones because his schedule
was tight with shooting King Arthur: Legend of the Sword at that time.
This was viewed as a bad decision by many, but both of his films turned out to be quite
successful.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Once this name is mentioned, Titanic rings.
Released in 1997, Titanic gave Leonardo massive popularity in Hollywood and beyond.
At the time of shooting Titanic, he had been invited to star in Boogie Nights but recommended
his friend Mark Wahlberg in his place.
He saw it impossible to star in both films simultaneously and successfully.
However, upon watching the film later, he expressed that had he accepted this role,
it would've been a plus in his career path.
Once Titanic was out and a big success, Leonardo earned numerous invitations to other films
but declined what turned out to be an iconic role in The Matrix in 1999.
The production company confirmed it when Keanu Reeves was cast as the lead, which eventually
panned out pretty well for Reeves, acting as Neo.
Leonardo said he couldn't do The Matrix as he felt the graphical effects would be too
many and unnecessary.
Leo also turned down a role in Inglourious Basterds, which was offered to him by Quentin
Tarantino.
Tarantino wanted him to play the Nazi Colonel Landa.
He also turned down a role offered by Tom Hanks, with whom he had starred in Catch Me
if You Can.
Hanks offered him the role of the Camerlengo Patrick McKenna in Angels and Demons that
eventually went to Ewan McGregor.
Tom Selleck
One of Lawrence Kasdan's best scripts was Raiders of the Lost Ark, directed by Steven
Spielberg and produced in 1981.
It cast Harrison Ford as the lead after he had become wildly popular as Han Solo in Star
Wars in 1977.
However, Tom Selleck of Magnum P.I., Three Men and a Baby, Jesse Stone and Blue Bloods
had been sought after initially to play the part of Indiana Jones.
It was a tussle and argument between the producer and production company at the time as to whether
Selleck should be cast or Ford should.
Selleck made their decision easier when he was caught up in contractual obligations for
the TV program Magnum P.I. that he had just filmed the pilot for and signed a contract
to appear in the show.
The production company wouldn’t let him out of the contract, so the role went to Ford.
The director at the time was Ray Austin and he confirmed this contractual obligation Tom
had consented to.
Selleck is also rumored to have turned down the role of The Terminator, but again, contractual
obligations to Magnum, P.I. kept him from the taking the role that eventually went to
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Harrison Ford
After the tussle between whether Harrison Ford or Tom Selleck would play the lead in
Raiders of the Lost Ark, Harrison Ford gained even more fame and popularity with that role.
He was thereafter pursued to star in Jurassic Park by Steven Spielberg, but he declined
this role and it was taken up by Sam Neil instead acting as Allan Grant.
Jurassic Park was released in 1993.
Harrison Ford did not explain why he made this decision and avoided any press questions
about it.
However many speculate that he did not like the director's style in movie production.
Also, Ford had been pursued about taking up a role in Alien as Captain Dallas, which was
eventually played by Tom Skerritt.
Later on, he refused the offer to take the starring role in Die Hard, which was directed
by John McTiernan and written by Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart.
The role of John McClane was taken up by Bruce Willis eventually, a decision Bruce has never
lost sleep over as it led to several other follow up Die Hard movies.
Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas quickly rose to fame after being cast in Wall Street as Gordon Gekko,
The Game as Nicholas Von Orton and Disclosure as Tom Sanders.
He has won numerous accolades including MTV movie awards and People’s Choice awards.
Long before he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2010, he had been requested to play the
role of Homer "Ike" Eisenhower Graham in Runaway Bride but declined it, just like Ben Affleck.
The role of Ike was given to Richard Gere who was nominated Best Actor in the comedy/romance
category of the Blockbuster Entertainment awards.
Michael most probably regretted his decision privately, more so because the Blockbuster
Entertainment award was the in-thing back then.
However, when Michael declined to play the role of Zach in Making Love in 1982, this
might have been a blessing in disguise because the film had some mixed reactions due to its
content.
Michael Ontkean was the actor cast as the lead, and the film was nominated for a Golden
Globe award.
Burt Reynolds
In the film Terms of Endearment, James Brook wrote the supporting role of Garrett Breedlove
with Burt Reynolds in mind, but Reynolds declined the offer, so it was taken by Jack Nicholson
and released 1983.
He later regretted his decision explicitly after Jack won an Oscar Award for it, yet
Burt had never garnered his own Oscar award at the time.
Later on, Burt was invited to succeed John Lazenby as the first American James Bond after
Lazenby got a more lucrative job elsewhere and the producers weren’t that impressed
with Lazenby’s performance.
Burt declined it, believing that an American couldn’t convincingly play the British spy,
but regretted this decision later as well.
He said that he was being down on himself in that he didn’t think he could pull off
the role.
The Bond role eventually was taken up again by Sean Connery.
Based on his performance in Deliverance and his popularity from The Longest Yard, he was
called upon to play Han Solo in Star Wars, created by George Lucas, but he declined this
as well.
When asked about this, he said this was a bad decisions period in his life, but at the
time he simply didn’t want to make that type of movie.
Later, Burt Reynolds was riding high on his Academy Award nomination for his role in Boogie
Nights
Jim Carrey
This guy has had equal amounts of good and bad publicity over the years.
He was slated to appear in Elf as the star from the beginning, but dropped out when production
of the movie stalled and didn’t get off the ground for close to another 10 years and
Will Ferrell was eventually cast.
One released, Elf did well at the box office but Jim did not regret his decision to quit
as lead.
The same thing happened in the Get Smart film when Jim Carrey left his role as Maxwell Smart
after production of the film halted.
In the meantime, Carrey was offered the role of the Grinch in the movie in 2000, based
on the popular Dr. Seuss book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
He took it up but nearly quit a month shy from shooting the film for he didn't like
all the makeup he had to put on.
The producer eventually convinced him into staying.
Later on, Jim had signed on for the lead actor in The Beaver after Steve Carell and his director
Jay Roach both opted out.
After some shooting took place, Jim opted out as well and Mel Gibson took up this role
to completion and won for Best Actor in Movies for Grownups award presented by the AARP.
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