20 Actors Who Missed Out On Epic Film Roles

Great characters require great actors to play them. But in a world like ours, full of amazing stories and talented artists, the perfect role might slip away. Sometimes it works out for the best, but there have been many cases in which actors seriously regretted their choices.

Whether the choice was right or not, it’s fun to wonder about the interpretations we never got to see, and Bright Side listed some iconic parts that could have gone to completely different actors.

1. Christina Applegate as Elle Woods (Legally Blonde)

2. Emilia Clarke as Anastasia Steele (Fifty Shades of Grey)

3. Mark Wahlberg as Ennis Del Mar (Brokeback Mountain)

4. Julia Roberts as Viola De Lesseps (Shakespeare in Love)

5. Albert Brooks as Harry Burns (When Harry Met Sally)

6. Anne Hathaway as Alison Scott (Knocked Up)

7. Reese Witherspoon as Sidney Prescott (Scream)

8. Tom Hanks as Jerry Maguire (Jerry Maguire)

9. Leonardo DiCaprio as Dirk Diggler (Boogie Nights)

10. Denzel Washington as Detective David Mills (Se7en)

11. Harrison Ford as Alan Grant (Jurassic Park)

12. John Lithgow as The Joker (Batman)

13. Nicolas Cage as Aragorn (The Lord of the Rings)

14. Christopher Plummer as Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings)

15. Henry Winkler as Danny Zuko (Grease)

16. Johnny Depp as Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)

17. Jake Gyllenhaal as Jake Sully (Avatar)

18. Warren Beatty as Bill (Kill Bill)

19. Selena Gomez as Mitchie Torres (Camp Rock)

20. Angelina Jolie as Dr. Ryan Stone (Gravity)

Which movies do you think could have been improved with the artists on this list? And which ones would’ve turned out way worse?