It’s hard to imagine a universe where Hugh Jackman isn’t Wolverine, or Ian McKellen isn’t Gandalf, but it almost happened. The Internet coughed up a list online of actors who turned down big roles for silly reasons.
Here are some highlights:
1. Anne Hathaway: She backed out of “Knocked Up” when she learned footage of a real birth would be used.
2. Jane Krakowski: She almost played a mean girl in “Sleepaway Camp”, but turned it down when she found out how the character dies . . . which is with a curling iron up her lady bits.
3. Tom Cruise: He could’ve been “Edward Scissorhands”, but he had too many questions about how Edward could do everyday things like go to the bathroom.
4. Pierce Brosnan: He could’ve been Tim Burton’s “Batman”, but he didn’t like the suit.
5. Will Smith: He wanted to change Quentin Tarantino’s vision for “Django Unchained”. He wanted to make it a love story with toned down violence, and he wanted Django to kill Calvin Candie.
6. Sean Connery: He turned down Gandalf because he didn’t understand “The Lord of the Rings” books or script.
7. Russell Crowe: He was the first choice to play Wolverine, but didn’t want take on too many “wolf”-related roles. In “Gladiator”, he has a wolf companion, and wolf symbol on his armor.
8. Leonardo DiCaprio: He was contacted to play Spider-Man in Sam Raimi’s trilogy, but wasn’t ready.
9. Eddie Murphy: Dan Aykroyd had him in mind to play Winston Zeddemore in “Ghostbusters”, but Eddie thought the movie sounded “like a crock”.
10. Jason Momoa: He turned down playing Drax in “Guardians of the Galaxy” because he didn’t want to be “a shirtless painted guy.” But then he went on to play Aquaman.
(You can read more here.)
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