13 Actors Who Said “No Thanks” To Famous Roles
Some famous Movies could have been much different if the original actors agreed to star in. In fact, most major movie roles have gone through at least one or two actor changes before they could start making the movie.
From scheduling to differences of opinion, many actors had to turn down significant roles from big projects. While some express deep regret for the chance, others are still happy with their decision and glad that casting directors cast the right actor.
Below are 13 actors who said no to roles from popular movies.
#1. Gal Gadot – Barbie
Source: Taylor Hill / Getty Images
The actress was first supposed to play Greta Gerwig's highly anticipated movie Barbie, but she declined for her scheduling conflicts.
In an interview with Vogue, Margot Robbie said, “Gal Gadot is Barbie energy. Because Gal Gadot is so impossibly beautiful, but you don’t hate her for being that beautiful, because she’s so genuinely sincere, and she’s so enthusiastically kind, that it’s almost dorky. It’s like right before being a dork.”
#2. Amy Schumer – Barbie
Source: Jamie Mccarthy / Getty Images
Amy Schumer was also tied to Barbie at one point, but left the movie due to “creative differences.”
She told The Hollywood Reporter, “The studio definitely didn’t want to do it the way I wanted to do it. The only way I was interested in doing it, … The idea that that’s just what every woman must want, right there, I should have gone, ‘You’ve got the wrong gal.’”
#3. Kate McKinnon – The Dropout
Source: Rob Kim / Getty Images
Kate McKinnon was invited to play Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout but she decided to leave the show after being cast as Carole Baskin in the Peacock limited series Joe vs. Carole.
Eventually, the role went to Amanda Seyfried and she ended up winning an Emmy Award for the role.
#4. Michael Keaton – Groundhog Day
Source: Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images
The lead role in Groundhog Day was first given to Michael Keaton but he declined because he couldn’t get it.
Bill Murray went on to star and even Michael agreed that no one could've played the role better. He told EW, “This guy sounds like the kind of wry, sardonic, glib young man I've played — and it ended up being so great. But you can't do it better than Bill Murray did it.”
#5. Matt Damon – Avatar
Source: Jamie Mccarthy / Getty Images
Matt Damon was originally offered to star in Avatar and James Cameron swear to give him 10% of the movie’s profits, which would've been about $250 million. However, he turned it down and Sam Worthington took on the part.
Matt Damon then admitted that it was “the dumbest thing an actor ever did in the history of acting.”
#6. Jackie Chan – Everything Everywhere All At Once
Jackie Chan refused to be a part of Everything Everywhere All At Once. Even the director Daniels visited to China to persuade him to sign onto the movie but he passed.
Michelle Yeoh, who won an Oscar for her performance in the movie jokes that Jackie still teases her about him being offered the role first. “Jackie actually texted me,” she said. “And he says: ‘Wow, I hear amazing things about your movie. Did you know that the boys came to see me in China?’ And I said: ‘Yes, your loss, my bro!'”
#7. Jessica Simpson – The Notebook
Source: Amy Sussman / Getty Images
Due to a sex scene with Ryan Gosling, Jessica Simpson refused to star in the movie. “I knew exactly what the movie was about because I had read the script,” she wrote in her book, adding that when she asked to cut the sex scene the studio execs “wouldn't budge.”
#8. Cate Blanchett – Being the Ricardos
Source: Marc Piasecki / FilmMagic
Initially, Cate Blanchett was invited to star as Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos but the actress said no and Nicole Kidman got her role.
Cat shared, “It became the movie it needed to be, … Those things happen in the right way, at the right time. In the best possible way, you don’t always envisage the same thing; and then it goes on to become a different entity.”
#9. Henry Winkler – Grease
Source: Santiago Felipe / Getty Images
Henry Winkler was initially tapped to star as Danny Zuko in Grease but he turned it down for fear of being typecast after playing a similar role as the Fonz on Happy Days.
“I am a damn fool,” he told CNN's Chris Wallace. “I only realized years afterward. I thought, I’ve played the Fonz, I don’t want to do it again.”
#10. Madonna – Matrix
Source: Kevin Mazur / WireImage
Madonna never stops regretting her decision to refuse to play a role in Matrix. She told Jimmy Fallon, “Can you believe that? That's one of the best movies ever made… A teeny-tiny part of me regrets just that one moment in my life.”
#11. Emma Watson – La La Land
Source: Jamie Mccarthy / Getty Images
Emma Watson confessed that she was invited to star in La La Land but at that time, she said yes to Beauty and the Beast.
She said, “It wasn’t a movie I could just sort of step into… I knew I had horse training, I knew I had dancing, I knew I had three months of singing ahead of me and I knew I had to be in London to really do that. This wasn’t a movie I could just kind of parachute into. I knew I had to do the work, and I had to be where I had to be. So, you know, scheduling conflict-wise, it just didn’t work out.”
#12. Matthew Modine – Top Gun
Source: Neil Mockford / FilmMagic
Before Tom Cruise, Matthew Modine was offered to play Pete "Maverick" Mitchel. Matthew then explained the reason why he say no to the role that he didn’t want to endorse militarism and he doesn't regret passing on the movie.
#13. Halle Berry – Speed
Source: Arturo Holmes / Getty Images
The role in Speed, which boosted Sandra into stardom, first was given to Halle Berry.
Halle told ET, “I stupidly said no. But in my defence, when I read the script the bus didn't leave the parking lot. I was like no, no, no, no.”
Who else do you think we missed? We’d be glad to hear from you in the comments!