There are plenty of iconic TV and movie characters where it's hard to imagine anyone else playing the role. However, a surprising number of actors have actually been hesitant to take on some of their most famous parts.
Here are 14 actors who initially turned down major roles (and why):
1. When director Francis Lawrence first offered Rachel Zegler the role of Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, she said she turned him down because "he told [her] that they were filming in Germany and in Poland and [she] had just gotten to London and [she] wanted to disappear because [she] was so far away from home for the first time ever."
On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, she said, "I was away from everybody that I knew and loved, and I said 'no.' And I regretted it the second I said it. I had another project lined up that fell through that got pushed into 2023, and I just kind of put my name back into the mix and got it, and I feel really bad for any of the girls…because I put my name back in, and they were just like, 'yup, OK, cool, we'll do it.'"
2. Once the offer to play the titular role in Wednesday landed in Jenna Ortega's inbox, she instantly rejected it because she "was scared that signing on to another television show could prevent [her] from doing other jobs [she] really wanted and cared about." She also thought the series "wasn't going to be watched."
She told the Times, "[Tim Burton] ] is such a legend, and we just happened to get along very well. But even then, I said, 'Ah, no — I think I'm OK,' a couple [more] times."
3. When Marvel invited Chris Evans to do a screen test for the titular role in Captain America: The First Avenger, he felt the moment was a "fork in the road" because of the anxiety he'd recently begun experiencing, which included "having mini panic attacks on set." So, he said no, but then the studio came back and offered him the role directly.
With the help of his family, therapists, and costar Robert Downey Jr., he realized he'd been "making decisions based on fear."
On the Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast, he said, "It was the best decision I've ever made, and I really owe that to [Marvel president] Kevin Feige for being persistent and helping me avoid making a giant mistake."
4. The first time the role of Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy was pitched to Chris Pratt, he said, "I don't think so" because he "just didn't picture [him]self getting the role" based on previous audition experiences.
He told Esquire, "I didn't want to go and embarrass myself like I did when I auditioned for G.I. Joe a couple of years previously. I went in there, and halfway through, I saw the director's eyes just glaze over. It made sense — I was a little heavy and out of shape. I was not gonna play someone from G.I. Joe. I did not look like a G.I. Joe action figure come to life."
5. Amanda Seyfried initially turned down the role of Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout because, at the time, she had COVID, and she didn't like the idea of leaving her family to go to LA to shoot. However, after her fever broke the next morning, she called her agents back and told them she'd changed her mind.
She told the Hollywood Reporter, "Listen, I was having a fucking moment, OK? I had COVID. I was isolating in the basement of a gross townhouse in Savannah, Georgia, because my husband was working on a movie there. And now an LA shoot? Pass!"
6. When writer/director Damien Chazelle first met with Emma Stone to discuss the possibility of her playing Mia Dolan in La La Land, she was "very sick" from doing Cabaret on Broadway and "the idea of doing another musical was like, 'You've got to be out of your mind.'"
She told the Hollywood Reporter, "My voice was gone, and I was struggling to get through the shows... After Cabaret, I wasn’t sure I would ever sing or dance again."
However, Damien was persistent, and after he met with her again in her dressing room to discuss his plans for the movie — and Ryan Gosling's casting — more in depth, she agreed to take the role.
7. Jet Li initially rejected the role of the Emperor of China in Mulan (2020) because of both the money he was offered and the script. However, his then-17-year-old daughter, Jada, asked him if he was worried about not being paid enough. When he said no, she then asked, "When a company like Disney wants to make a movie about Chinese culture, why don't you take part in it?"
His older daughter, Jane, agreed with Jada, so he ultimately decided to accept the role for them.
8. Ralph Fiennes initially planned to say no to playing Voldemort in the Harry Potter franchise. On Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, he said, "In my stupid ignorance I hadn't read the books, I hadn't seen the first movies, and I was, I have to say, a little snobby about it."
He continued, "Until the casting director, great lady, English Lady, Mary Selway sat me down — I mean, I've known Mary for many years. She could be tough, and very insistent, and she just said, 'You have to do this movie. Just do it, Ralph.' And she said it with such emphasis. My sister, Martha, who has children, said, 'You're not gonna do Voldemort? You're thinking of saying no?'"
9. Leonardo DiCaprio reportedly "didn't want to" play Jack Dawson in Titanic because he "thought it was boring."
Director James Cameron told People, "He didn't want to do a leading man. I had to really twist his arm to be in the movie."
He also said that Leo accepted the role "only when [James] convinced him that it was actually a difficult challenge."
10. Laurence Fishburne rejected the role of Ike Turner in What's Love Got To Do with It five times because he felt that "the writing was really strong with respect to Tina's character, and it wasn't strong enough with respect to Ike's character."
On Jemele Hill Is Unbothered, he said, "Once I recognized that Angela [Bassett] was gonna be playing Tina, I thought, 'Well, I have to do this now.' 'Cause I was a fan of hers. I had worked with her before."
11. When director James Cameron first met with Arnold Schwarzenegger to discuss The Terminator, he told the actor, "There's no one that will understand the Terminator better than you." However, Arnold replied, "Excuse me, but I don't want to regress in my career, because this guy only says, like, 27 lines." He wanted to play Kyle Reese instead.
He told journalist Graham Bensinger, "[James] says, 'Trust me. I will shoot the character so that you're not only the number one villain that they've ever seen, but the number one hero."
The director gave him a few days to think about it, then one day, he woke up and decided that the Terminator would be "the most memorable character if it's played right."
12. When Alan Rickman was first offered the role of Hans Gruber in Die Hard, he read the script and said, "What the hell is this? I'm not doing an action movie."
At a 2015 BAFTA Life in Pictures event, he said, "Agents and people said: 'Alan, you don't understand, this doesn't happen. You've only been in LA two days, and you've been asked to do this film.'"
He gave producer Joel Silver his notes on the character, which were incorporated into the new script.
13. Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpayee initially turned down the role of Srikant Tiwari in Prime Video's The Family Man because he was "pretty afraid" and "reluctant to be part of the template which [he] could see forming on the OTT platform."
At the International Film Festival of India, he said, "I was not clear as to what I wanted to be part of, but definitely, I was very clear about what I never wanted to be part of. At that time, a few of the series garnered quite a lot of curiosity and excitement from the audiences, but at the same time, there was a template that makers were following, which included blood, gore, and pistols."
14. And finally, at first, Lee Jae-wook turned down the role of Jang Uk in the South Korean fantasy series Alchemy of Souls because "it was too difficult and [he] wondered whether [he'd] be able to pull this project off well."
He told Xportnews, "However, I think I came to do it solely out of my desire to take on a new challenge. From the actor's perspective, I'm incredibly satisfied with the results. Also, isn't this a drama you don't know when you'll encounter again? I'm counting on the fact that I concluded well."