We tend to associate certain characters with the actors who played them in movies. For example, can you imagine anyone else in the role of Dumbledore except for Richard Harris in the first 2 parts of the Harry Potter movie franchise? And it’s worth mentioning that he didn’t want to take on this role, but his granddaughter talked him into it. And this is not the only time when an actor turned down a role in an iconic movie but eventually gave in and never regretted it afterward.
Robert Pattinson almost missed his chance to play in Twilight. As he revealed later, after having a few less-than-ideal auditions, he began to develop a fear of them. In fact, he was so paralyzed with fear that he nearly opted out of his Twilight audition. But he managed to overcome his anxiety. Besides, Kristen, who had been approved as Bella earlier than him, insisted that Pattinson should play the role of Edward Cullen.
Also, Robert thought it was pointless for him to audition for this role because Edward was almost perfectly beautiful in the book, and the actor didn’t think that he looked the part. But he eventually accepted the role because he thought it would be a good opportunity to teach himself how to act.
The romantic comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days gave a great start to the careers of Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. But it’s interesting that this Hollywood male heartthrob didn’t really want to play this role.
He made this pivotal decision thanks to a stranger who was something like a fortune teller that McConaughey accidentally met while walking around town. This guy came up to the actor out of nowhere and said, “There’s a movie you’re considering right now. It’s a romantic comedy. You have to do this or it will be one of the biggest regrets of your life. It is going to be a blast, it is going to be an incredible experience and it is going to make a bunch of money.” Matthew later said, “I remember thinking, ’Did the studio hire this guy?’”
Whoever this guy was, McConaughey accepted the offer the next day. By the way, the fortune teller turned out to be right — the movie became a box-office hit and made Matthew a star.
The Dirty Dancing star, Jennifer Grey, didn’t consider playing in this movie because she didn’t want to act opposite Patrick Swayze again.
The duo worked together on the movie Red Dawn before that. And according to Grey, she couldn’t stand Patrick’s behavior during filming. “He played pranks on me on set, and it was just like macho and I just couldn’t take it,” she said.
But the actor begged her with tears in his eyes and asked her to forgive him. So, she changed her mind, and they became one of the greatest on-screen couples of all time.
The Game of Thrones star took some time to accept the offer to play the punk queen Pamela Rooke, also known as Jordan, because this character was supposed to strip in the series.
The actress still believed that she was the best candidate for the role, and this is why she decided to wear a sheer top while auditioning over Zoom with the film’s director Danny Boyle. This dedication immediately flattered the filmmaker, and she got the part.
Michael Caine, who was already super famous at the time, agreed to be in the Jaws sequel, which was later panned by both critics and audiences, for a very simple reason. He needed the money.
In an interview, the actor revealed his motives, “I have never seen the film, but by all accounts, it was terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.” At the time, Caine and his family were preparing to move from Los Angeles to Oxfordshire, England, and were having a house built. Unfortunately, the building costs turned out to be way more than anticipated, and the actor hadn’t filmed much during that period, so things were getting worrisome. So, Michael was more than happy when he was asked to appear in Jaws: The Revenge, where he made around $1.5 million for a week’s work.
Richard Harris turned down the offer to play the headmaster of Hogwarts 3 times. He believed he was too old (he was 71 at the time), and his health wasn’t in the best state.
The Irish actor said he had never read the J.K. Rowling books when he was approached about taking a role in the film. “All I knew is that they kept offering me the part and raising the salary every time they called. I kept turning it down,” he said. Harris revealed that he didn’t want to get involved in the sequels because that was not how he wanted to spend the last years of his life.
But his 11-year-old granddaughter, Ella, talked him into it. “She said, ‘Papa, I hear you’re not going to be in the Harry Potter movie,’ and she said, ‘If you don’t play Dumbledore then I will never speak to you again,’” said Harris. What else could he do? He could turn down the film producers, but he couldn’t let his granddaughter down. Unfortunately, Richard Harris managed to only appear in the first 2 films of the series because he died not long before Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released.
Djimon Hounsou has a long filmography under his belt, he’s starred in various dramatic movies by Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, and Jim Sheridan. This is why he was quite reluctant to play Korath in the superhero movie Guardians of the Galaxy.
But eventually, Hounsou accepted the offer and it was not because of the money they paid him or because his colleagues convinced him. He had a more noble motive. According to him, he wanted to show his son that African-Americans could also be superheroes. He got this idea after his 4-year-old mentioned that there was a lack of diversity in superhero movies. And this shocked the actor. He took on the role, voiced Black Panther for an animated series, and actually did everything in his power to make his son proud.
Donnie Yen is a family man and a great father. When the production of Rogue One started, many actors wanted to appear in it, but not Donnie. Actually, he didn’t even want to take on the role of Chirrut Îmwe because it meant he’d have to spend 5 months apart from his family.
But it turned out that his 3 kids didn’t mind him leaving them for a little while as long as he had a part in the famous Star Wars movie. “I asked them, ‘How do you feel about daddy doing Star Wars?’ and they flipped out,” the actor said with a laugh.
Something similar happened to Viggo Mortensen. The actor wasn’t sure whether he wanted to play in this trilogy because he didn’t want to be apart from his family for a long time.
Originally, Stuart Townsend was approved for the role of Aragorn, but eventually, the studio decided that he was too young for the part. After that, film director Peter Jackson had only 3 options: Russell Crowe, Jason Patrick, and Viggo Mortensen. Crowe and Patrick turned down the offer, so Mortensen was given a call.
It’s worth mentioning that the actor hadn’t read J.R.R. Tolkien’s original books, but his 11-year-old son Henry had. When producers called Viggo, he was next to him. And when he found out that his father was invited to be in The Lord of the Rings, he was exuberant. His son’s enthusiasm convinced Mortensen to accept the offer, and he flew to New Zealand the following day.
It’s funny, but Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t want to be in the movie that later became one of the greatest films of all time and made him an international star.
The young actor hesitated because he thought his character was too boring. He was accustomed to playing contradictory parts, and Jack was rather boring compared to them. Eventually, DiCaprio accepted the offer after James Cameron convinced him that it was actually a difficult challenge. Apart from that, he was promised a base salary of $2.5 million, plus a 1.8% share of gross revenue backend points, making Leo’s total take on Titanic $40 million.
By the way, according to Cameron, Leo, who had just been nominated for his first Oscar, had quite a temper. When he was asked to read his lines together with Kate, he said, “Oh, I don’t read.” The film director shook his hand and said, “Thanks for coming by.” DiCaprio was so shocked that he immediately changed his mind and did a great job during the reading.
Filmmakers chose Craig as the new Bond after his appearance in the 1998 historical drama Elizabeth. However, the actor wasn’t really excited about this idea, saying, “I thought the casting director was probably seeing 50 people. I’m on a list. I’ll go in, do the interview, say, ‘Hello,’ and that’ll be it. I’d be that old bloke in the pub: ‘Yeah, I was considered for Bond once.’”
So, Craig was really surprised when he landed the part. But despite the fact that he’d been a big fan of this character since the age of 5, he wanted to turn down the offer. The actor believed that this was not the way he wanted to build his acting career. However, after reading the script, he changed his mind. He was amazed by how different this character was presented in it — it was a total reset. And now we know quite well that Daniel Craig played James Bond like no other.
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I loved Daniel Craig as James Bond! He's my favorite Bond. I've seen all of the Bond movies and am an avid fan. Until Craig, it was a struggle for me to choose a favorite between Connery and Moore, but he became the tie breaker. I sincerely hope that the next Bond has the charisma, energy, and powerful screen presence as the previous actors before them. I also loved the other actors characters in the movies listed as well. I don't know that I could imagine others in their places in many cases. Unfortunately, we had to witness a change due to the very sad loss of Richard Harris, his replacement, but Sir Michael Gambon did do an excellent job as well with the character. Richard Harris was truly missed as he was a phenomenal Dumbledore and will never be forgotten as the character in the two films that he was in.
