SOMETIMES the stars align for celebrities when it comes to acting gigs – and other times, snagging a role is a bit too far out of reach for a myriad of reasons.
Here are 12 stars who gave up major roles, from Zendaya to Zooey Deschanel and beyond.
ZENDAYA
Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B
Zendaya certainly isn’t starving for roles, so that may be why she was comfortable removing herself from the 2014 biopic Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B.
She was originally cast to play Aaliyah, but exited the film in June 2014, a month before Nickelodeon actress Alexandra Shipp was announced as the lead.
In a series of since-delete videos, the Dune star revealed why she wasn’t comfortable working on the Lifetime project.
“Let me just explain something.
“The reason why I chose not to do the Aaliyah movie had nothing to do with the haters or people telling me I couldn’t do it, I wasn’t talented enough or I wasn’t black enough.
“It had absolutely nothing to do with that,” she stated.
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“The main reasons were the production value wasn’t there.”
She added that she tried reaching out to Aaliyah’s family to get permission to play the late singer, and received no response.
GILLIAN ANDERSON
Downton Abby and Game of Thrones
Apparently, X-Files star Gillian Anderson takes who she works with very seriously, which is why she turned down the role of Cora on the wildly successful British period drama Downton Abby and a part in Game of Thrones.
Speaking to the Daily Mail about her decision to walk away from the shows, she said: “My 18-year-old cannot believe that I would turn down Game Of Thrones or Downton, things she loves to watch.
“But if I am going to be spending that amount of time working on something I would rather be working with a director like Martin Scorsese.”
She would later accept a role on another historically-based show, The Crown, playing former Prime Minister of England, Margaret Thatcher.
CHRISTINA APPLEGATE
Legally Blonde
In 2015, Christina Applegate revealed to Entertainment Tonight that she turned down the iconic role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde.
“The script came along my way and it was right after I had just finished, Married […with Children], and it was a blonde who in that first script didn’t win it but ends up going to Yale, or Harvard, I don’t remember,” she revealed.
“I got scared of kind of repeating myself.”
She went on to say turning down the gig was probably not the best decision.
WILL SMITH
Django Unchained
During The Hollywood Reporter’s 2015 Actor Roundtable, Will Smith confirmed that he did indeed turn down the lead role in the 2012 Civil War-era action film.
“It was about the creative direction of the story,” he revealed.
“To me, it’s as perfect a story as you could ever want: a guy that learns how to kill to retrieve his wife that has been taken as a slave.”
He added that he and the movie’s director, Quentin Tarantino, couldn’t agree on the overall plot of the story.
“I wanted to make the greatest love story that African-Americans had ever seen,” Smith shared.
The Men in Black actor also famously turned down The Matrix.
SANDRA BULLOCK
The Matrix
It turns out that the producers had quite a difficult time finding a star for The Matrix before giving it to Keanu Reeves.
In fact, they were so desperate that they sent the script to Sandra Bullock with the idea they could turn the main character, Neo, into a woman.
However, she, too, turned down the offer.
“It just wasn’t something for her at the time.
“So really it didn’t go anywhere,” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told The Wrap in 2019.
The Wrap reached out to Bullock following this revelation, who said through a representative that Reeves was definitely the best person for the role.
LIAM NEESON
James Bond
Liam Neeson revealed he was being considered for the role of James Bond in a 2021 interview with James Corden.
However, his late wife, Natasha Richardson, said she wouldn’t marry him if he accepted the role.
There is no word on why she felt so strongly about this.
JOHN TRAVOLTA
Forrest Gump
It’s hard to picture Forrest Gump played by anyone else besides Tom Hanks, but it turns out that was almost a reality.
John Travolta was initially offered the lead role in the iconic film but turned it down for Pulp Fiction.
Of course, both movies went on to be huge successes and even landed Travolta and Hanks Academy Award nominations.
Hanks ended up taking home the prize for Best Actor.
In a 2007 interview with MTV, Travolta said he had no regrets about turning down the role.
“If I didn’t do something Tom Hanks did, then I did something else that was equally interesting or fun.
“Or if I didn’t do something Richard Gere did, I did something equally well.
“But I feel good about some I gave up because other careers were created,” he stated.
CLAIRE DANES
Titanic
Claire Danes famously starred opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in 1996’s Romeo + Juliet.
It turns out she was being considered to pair up with DiCaprio again for Titanic but told Dax Shepard on his Armchair Expert podcast that she “just didn’t have it in” her.
“And I could see he wasn’t sure, but he was like: ‘F**k it, I gotta do this thing,'” she recalled of DiCaprio’s initial hesitation to join Titanic.
“And I looked down on him, going, I totally understand why you are doing it.
“And I’m not ready for that. And I think I really wasn’t ready for it.”
Of course, the role of Rose went to Kate Winslet, and the film turned into one of the most successful movies of all time.
ZAC EFRON
Footloose
Zac Efron turned down the leading role of the 2011 Footless remake – the musical that originally put Kevin Bacon’s name on the radar – because he wanted to diversify himself as an actor.
“I’m sure Footloose would have been a huge challenge, but the actors that I love and the actors that work really hard in this industry are always shaking things up, trying new genres, acquiring new skill sets,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
“That’s what’s always going to appeal to me: the unknown.”
He eventually found himself back in the musical genre when he landed a lead role in the 2017 musical drama film The Greatest Showman with Hugh Jackman.
LEONARDO DICAPRIO
American Psycho
Leonardo DiCaprio may have pulled a “YOLO” moment for Titanic, but he pushed the breaks after he had already signed onto star in the 2000 film American Psycho.
He never confirmed what exactly happened, but one of the movie’s writers, Guinevere Turner, thinks she might have the tea.
“My friend, who had just spoken to Gloria Steinem, said that Gloria Steinem took Leonard DiCaprio to a Yankees game, I believe, and said: ‘Please don’t do this movie.
‘Coming off of Titanic, there is an entire planet full of 13-year-old girls waiting to see what you do next, and this is going to be a movie that has horrible violence toward women,'” she theorized to Vice in 2020.
Of course, this is simply hearsay, but DiCaprio hasn’t denied it.
DREW BARRYMORE
Scream
Child star-turned-award-winning actress and businesswoman, Drew Barrymore, turned down a lead role in Scream and instead opted to be the girl murdered at the beginning of the movie.
Why? She wanted to make a statement.
“In the horror film genre, my biggest pet peeve was that I always knew the main character was going to be slugging through at the end but was going to creak by and make it,” she said to Hot Ones host Sean Evans in 2020.
“What I wanted to do is to take that comfort zone away.
“I asked if I could be Casey Becker so we would establish this rule does not apply in this film.”
ZOOEY DESCHANEL
The Office
Zooey Deschanel was set to play a small character on The Office, but when she got hold of the New Girl script, she knew it was something special.
She explained on iHeartRadio’s Welcome to Our Show in January that she thought the opportunity to play a lead role in New Girl would be a better career move than having a “small story arc” on The Office, despite how popular the show was.
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