From Time Lords to zombie slayers, many actors are just never satisfied with their roles. Yet,
some come to regret their decisions later on in life.
"Doctor Who's" return to television in 2005 was rightfully met with much fanfare. It was
now a cinematic action spectacular, headlined by Scottish actor Christopher Eccleston as the
ninth iteration of the famous Doctor. But part of that excitement was dampened when
Eccleston decided to leave the show after just 13 episodes. The reason for the quick split:
creative differences with producers. Speaking to The Daily Record, Eccleston said:
"I’d had enough. I wanted to do it my way, they wanted something else.
We were never going to compromise so it was best to be straight about it and just go."
But maybe that wasn't the best move. A while later, Eccleston told the Australian radio
show Drive that he wishes he could have stayed on a bit longer. He expressed how he enjoyed
the character and believes a second season would have been better for his version of the Doctor.
Wil Wheaton scored two of the biggest and most impactful teen roles of the 1980s back to back:
Gordie in "Stand by Me" and the boy genius Wesley Crusher in "Star Trek:
The Next Generation." After four seasons on the show, Wheaton walked away from his job as
a regular cast member in 1990 — right around the time that he turned 18. He did, however,
return for the occasional guest spot until the show ended in 1994. It wasn't until 2012, during
a "Next Generation" cast reunion onstage at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, that Wheaton
let the world know just how much he regretted his decision to step off of the Enterprise. He said:
"I was 18 years old and initially I thought it was a really smart
business career move. In some ways it was and in more ways it wasn't. What
I wasn't prepared for was how much I was going to miss the people on this stage."
He explained how he was so devoted to forging his own way in the world that
he didn't see his co-stars for a while. He added how he felt embarrassed for his
behavior and didn't even invite them to his wedding. After he crossed paths
with his co-stars at fan conventions, he apologized and rekindled those friendships.
"I'm not done."
By its tenth and final season, "Beverly Hills 90210" was no longer set in and
around West Beverly Hills High School. Instead, it focused on the adult-ish romantic, social,
and professional lives of a bunch of SoCal friends. Many original cast members had long
ago moved on, including Luke Perry and Shannen Doherty. A few episodes into the ninth season,
the show's star, Jason Priestley, decided it was time to try something new as well. His character,
Brandon Walsh, took a job at the Washington D.C. bureau of a New York newspaper.
Speaking to CNN years later, Priestley explained how he felt he had done everything there was to
do with his character, and that there weren't more roads to travel down. That said, he did regret his
decision to depart since it didn't allow closure for Brandon and Kelly's romantic arc. He added:
"Understanding what I do now about story and character,
I believe that Aaron Spelling would have had Brandon and Kelly end up together at
the end of the show and I think I probably should have stuck around to its fruition."
"Grey's Anatomy" made Katherine Heigl famous, but it's also where she earned a reputation for
being reportedly difficult to work with. In 2008, she withdrew her name from consideration at that
year's Emmy Awards, releasing a statement explaining that she didn't believe the
material was good enough for her to receive a nomination. Eight years later, she explained on
"The Howard Stern Show" that it wasn't a slight against the writers or creator Shonda Rhimes;
she simply meant she didn't like her performance on "Grey's Anatomy." Heigl also explained that she
had personally apologized to Rhimes. In 2010, she left the show to spend more time with her family
and pursue a movie career, while the writers killed off her character, Dr. Izzie Stevens.
Just two years later, Heigl wondered if her exit had been premature. When asked
by Barbara Walters on a 2012 episode of "The View" if she
regretted leaving Grey's Anatomy, Heigl admitted she did. She added:
"I always felt that if they wanted me to come back and sort of wrap up that
storyline … I want them to know that I'm down with it if they want me to."
"Good Lord. What did I say?"
Matt Smith portrayed the 11th iteration of the titular Time Lord on "Doctor Who." Being 26 at
the time, he was the youngest actor to ever play the part, and he brought an infectious,
youthful energy to the role. It also turned the previously little-known British TV actor
into an international superstar who went on to an Emmy-nominated turn on "The Crown."
For most of his Who tenure, he co-starred opposite Karen Gillan who portrayed the
Doctor's time-and-space-travel companion, Amy Pond. Gillian left the show before Smith did,
and producers replaced her with Jenna Coleman as a new companion. The Doctor regenerated into a
new form that looked just like actor Peter Capaldi after Smith shared the screen with Coleman in just
12 episodes — a number Smith later said wasn't enough. At the 2016 New York Comic Con, he said:
"That's one of my great regrets that I didn't get a full season with Jenna."
But if you believe "Doctor Who" writer Steven Moffat, it's not just his short run with Coleman
that Smith regrets. Speaking to The Mirror, Moffat said Smith wishes he'd never left at all.
Intense actor David Caruso is certainly best known for his meme-inspiring performance as
crime inspector Horatio Caine on "CSI: Miami." That pushed the previous thing
that had made Caruso famous to the back of the collective consciousness. In 1993,
he vaulted from obscure character actor to TV superstar with a role in the smash
hit police drama "NYPD Blue." Caruso received an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe win for
his role as Detective John Kelly, but he still left the hugely popular show after
just one season. He thought he could make it in movies, though that didn't quite happen.
The 1995 crime thrillers "Kiss of Death" and "Jade" both flopped at
the box office. After that, Caruso didn't book a gig for two years. He then starred
in a couple of forgettable movies and the quickly canceled CBS drama "Michael
Hayes." The actor finally returned to prominence with "CSI: Miami."
That long crawl back taught Caruso a thing or
two. Speaking to the Sioux City Journal about his "NYPD Blue" departure, he said:
"I've been pretty upfront about admitting I messed up on a great
opportunity. I didn't understand what the priority of the day is about."
"That's what happens when worlds collide."
Fans loved McLean Stevenson in his supporting role on "M*A*S*H" as the
laid-back Colonel Henry Blake. But in 1975, after three seasons on the show,
Stevenson got an itch to do something bigger. According to "M*A*S*H" writer Ken Levine,
Stevenson received many offers during that time to star in his own show, and so he
left. It wasn't widely done in the 1970s, but the writers simply killed off his character.
Stevenson then had to endure the "death" of his television career. After "M*A*S*H,"
he starred in one high-profile, quickly canceled flop after another,
such as "The McLean Stevenson Show" and the TV version of Dirty Dancing. In 1990, after that
streak's merciful end, Stevenson reflected on his TV career for the Baltimore Sun. He said:
"I made the mistake of believing that people were enamored of McLean
Stevenson when the person they were enamored of was Henry Blake."
Stevenson admitted that he hadn't worked with a group of people as
good as the "M*A*S*H" crew since he left the show.
"ER" slowly shed all six of its original cast members. Anthony Edwards left after season 8,
while George Clooney disappeared after season 5, only to make a special
appearance in season 6. And then there's Sherry Stringfield. She left "ER" early in its run,
and then came back as a full-fledged cast member a few years down the line.
From 1994 to 1996, Stringfield portrayed emergency physician Susan Lewis on the hit NBC medical
drama. She worked sporadically over the next few years. In 2001, she had a baby, which made
her long for and appreciate the schedule that comes with shooting a weekly television show.
Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, Stringfield revealed how she started to look for something
more consistent. Rather than find a new show, she thought it would be easier to go back to "ER," so
she spoke to executive producer John Wells about the possibility of coming back. Stringfield said:
"I met with John Wells and I was like, `I'd love to come back.' And he said, `OK,
we'd love to have you back.' That was it. Then I moved,
read the first script and showed up for work. It was really that easy."
As "Saturday Night Live" revolutionized TV with its first season, many of the original
cast of "Not Ready for Prime-Time Players" became overnight stars — particularly Chevy
Chase. After all, he was the one who played President Gerald Ford and hosted
"Weekend Update," where he coined the catchphrase, "I'm Chevy Chase,
and you're not." Like many "SNL" stars after him, Chase left the show to pursue a film career,
which proved successful with movies like "Caddyshack" and the "Vacation"
series. Unlike others, though, Chase left "SNL" ridiculously fast, exiting after about a year.
During the "SNL" 40th anniversary festivities in 2015, Chase told Carson Daly:
"I left after the first year because I thought this isn't going anywhere."
He admitted he enjoyed his time on the show and mostly missed being a part of the cast.
Ellen Cleghorne was an extremely talented part of the extremely overloaded "Saturday
Night Live" cast of the early 1990s. She had to compete for precious airtime each
week with the likes of Chris Farley, Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, David Spade,
and Adam Sandler, among others. Even so, she told VH1 that others advocated for her,
particularly Sandler and writer/performer Al Franken, who taught her how to write
sketches. During her time on the show, she developed two recurring characters:
Queen Shenequa and Zoraida the NBC Page. She also impersonated other newsmakers of the time.
In 1995, right around the same time "SNL" boss Lorne Michaels fired several cast members in
favor of new blood, Cleghorne quit the show. The reason? The WB picked up her sitcom,
"Cleghorne!" That show was ultimately canceled after just one low-rated season. Cleghorne
still has mixed feelings about her "SNL" departure, though. Speaking to VH1, she said:
"I wish I would have stayed at 'Saturday Night Live' but I'm so glad that I had the opportunity
to do 'Cleghorne!' It was important at the time for me, but I did miss being on 'SNL.'"
Andrew Lincoln was an original cast member of "The Walking Dead." When the AMC zombie drama began,
the first episode found his character, small-town police sheriff Rick Grimes,
awakening from a coma to discover a post-zombie apocalyptic wasteland.
Lincoln stayed with the show before deciding to move on during Season 9. In a 2018 episode,
Rick disappears after a bridge explosion, presumed dead to the rest of the show's main characters.
But he was actually hauled away in a helicopter belonging to the Civic Republic Military.
At the time, producers of "The Walking Dead" explained the subsequent absence
of Lincoln with the promise of standalone movies concerning the further adventures
of Rick Grimes. Those never came to fruition, canceled in favor of a limited series about
the post-apocalyptic adventures of Rick and his once-and-future partner, Michonne.
Lincoln returned to "The Walking Dead" proper just once, and briefly,
in the 2022 series finale. That was perhaps telegraphed by co-star Norman Reedus. While
promoting the Season 9 finale, the actor shared that Lincoln had some
regrets about departing "The Walking Dead" when it was hitting its stride.