Roles that were offered and refused by other actors.

K

Kousik

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Pretty Woman.
In the movie that made Julia Roberts a household name, the role she played had been offered to Daryl Hannah, Michelle Pfeiffer and Meg Ryan. The Richard Geer role was offered to Christopher Reeve and Al Pacino. At one point early in development, Sylvester Stallone was reportedly in consideration for the role played by Richard Gere.


) Mel Gibson as the Terminator or as Batman or even Two Face. He had turned down all these roles but I am sorry to have Mel versus Arnold as the Terminator nope Arnold wins, and even though I thought Micheal Keaton's version of the Batman was fair, I think Mel was right to turn it down, now he may have been a good Two face but Tommy Lee Jones played an excellent two face in that version of Batman.
 
Sylvester Stallone was lined up to play Det. Axl Foley in Beverly Hills Cop,with obviously a lot less comedy.

Michael Keaton turned down the role of Brundle in the remake of The Fly.

The Ghostbusters actors were initially different.John Candy was lined up to play Peter,as was Eddie Murphy who was lined up to play Winston but turned it down for the rubbish Best Defense (1984).I bet he regretted that one.

Christopher Lee turned down the role of Dr Sam Loomis in Halloween.He has said it was his biggest mistake in acting.
 
Yes, I believe that's true. It's certainly well-documented Harrison Ford was not the first choice for the part.

Cary Grant was offered or approached to play James Bond but didn't want to commit to several films. He was probably a bit too old to play Bond so it was wise they went with a relatively unknown actor: Sean Connery.
 
i watched that will smith turned the part as neo in the matrix due to accepting the role in wild wild west which was a mayjor flop which he even said sorry to his fans for making
 
Micky Rourke turned it down before Stallone



Actually John Candy was going to be Louis. It was John Belushi who was going to be Peter. Also Eddie Murphy was filming Beverly Hills Cop not Best Defense
 
Suburban Commando was turned down by De Vito and Schwarzenegger for Twins. If they had done Suburban instead of Twins then Christopher Lloyd and Hulk Hogan would have done Twins.

Antonio Banderas was first choice for Maximus in Gladiator, Mel Gibson possibly turned the role down after that too.

Al Pacino turned down the role of Kujan in The Usual Suspects - De Niro possibly did as well.

Harrison Ford turned down George Clooney's role in Syriana, and Michael Douglas's role in Traffic
 
John Rhys Davies tried to turn down Lord Of The Rings, but his agent wouldn't let him

I might be remembering this wrong, but didn't Christopher Walken turn down the role of Han Solo?
 
Ah,thanks for clearing that up.Rourke turned down a bunch of hit movies during the 80's.I guess Eddie wasn't so bothered then as it was BHC and not Best Defense.

Belushi died well before Ghostbusters went into production didn't he so I guess Bill Murray was lined up well in advance of filming.I guess if Murphy did play the part,the Winston character would have been much more heavily featured.
 
Pretty much spot on there. The roles where written specifically for Belushi, Candy and Murphy. Belushi died during the writing of the screenplay, and yes Winston would have come in much earlier.
 
Bruce Willis turned down Terry Benedict in Ocean's 11
Aaron Eckhart turned down the lead in Memento
Tom Hanks turned down Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption
Tom Cruise turned down the role of Donnie Brasco
 
I believe the role of Han Solo was written with James Coburn in mind but for some reason he was unable to do Star Wars.

And the lead in Dirty Harry was offered to Steve McQueen, John Wayne and Frank Sinatra before Clint Eastwood. AIUI, McQueen and Wayne turned it down; Sinatra accepted by injured his hand shortly before filming commenced so had to withdraw.
 
Im surprised Jack Nicholson isnt on that top 20 list. Hes turned down many roles such as Michael Corleone in the Godfather,
Johnny Hooker in The Sting,
Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind,
Caligula in....Caligula lol
Richard Nixon in Nixon,
Willie in Bad Santa,
Sy in One Hour Photo and not to mention loaRAB of other roles he was considered for over the years.
 
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