I have no power in Hollywood yet. I’m not even the most popular name in my apartment (Pete’s Q-rating dwarfs mine.) Someday I will however, and when I do, I hope to steer my career correctly and not turn down great roles like the following bunch, including the dozen or so who declined the lead role in Misery:
Warren Beatty: the lead in Misery, one of the leads in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Burt Reynolds’ role in Boogie Nights, Nick Nolte’s role in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Sean Connery’s role in The Rock, Robert Redford’s role in The Sting, and Gordon Gecko in Wall Street.
Dustin Hoffman: the lead in Misery.
Robert De Niro: the lead in Misery, and wanted too much money for the lead in Big.
Al Pacino: the leads in Misery, Kramer vs. Kramer, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Pretty Woman and Taxi Driver. Turned down Han Solo, and Gene Hackman’s role in Crimson Tide. He lost out on the lead role in Slapshot because he thought director George Roy Hill was being "facetious" when he asked if he could ice skate.
Kurt Russell, Nick Nolte, and Christopher Walken all also turned down Han Solo in Star Wars.
Harrison Ford: the leads in Misery, Big, JFK and Jurrassic Park; George Clooney’s role in The Perfect Storm, and Nicholson’s role in Terms of Endearment.
I think you get the Misery riff, but for the heck of it, the role was also turned down by Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Michael Douglas and Kevin Kline. And Anjelica Huston turned down the Kathy Bates role.
Mickey Rourke: Nick Nolte's role in 48 Hours, Tom Cruise's part in Rain Man, Eliot Ness in The Untouchables and Bruce Willis' part in Pulp Fiction.
Molly Ringwald: Vivian in Pretty Woman and Molly in Ghost.
Mel Gibson: Maximus in Gladiator, and the lead in The Terminator. Shockingly, he wanted the lead in Schindler’s List, but Spielberg thought a major star would be too distracting.
Melanie Griffith: Thelma in Thelma and Louise.
Will Smith: turned down Neo in The Matrix to star in Wild Wild West.
Cary Grant: declined the chance to be the original James Bond.
Dave Chappelle: turned down the role of Bubba in Forest Gump.
Burt Reynolds: the lead in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.
Blazing Saddles was originally supposed to star John Wayne and Richard Pryor instead of Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little.
Steve McQueen: turned down a role in Butch Cassidy because costar Paul Newman refused to give him top billing. Declined the lead in The French Connection (Gene Hackman won an Oscar for it) and had a non-negotiable asking price of $3 million for the lead in Apocalypse Now.
Sean Connery: Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, Morpheus in The Matrix.
John Voight: the lead in The Shining.
Robert Redford: the lead in The Graduate.
Michelle Pfeiffer: the leads in Pretty Woman, Silence of the Lambs and Bugsy.
Val Kilmer: turned down Denzel’s role in Crimson Tide, the lead in Dirty Dancing, and Neo and Morpheus in The Matrix.
