25 Iconic Movie Roles That Almost Went to Different Actors

If you can believe it, Frank Sinatra was set to play Dirty Harry back in 1970, and he’s far from the only star who came within a contract, a salary demand, or a riding accident of an iconic role. This list sticks to near misses that are on the record, told by the actors and filmmakers themselves or reported in the trade papers at the time.Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967)Anne Bancroft in ‘The Graduate’ | Silver Screen Collection/GettyImagesMike Nichols won the Oscar for Best Director for The Graduate, the highest-grossing film of 1967, and its married temptress prompted one of AFI’s 100 greatest movie quotes: “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me. Aren’t you?” Doris Day turned down the alcoholic seductress who beds Dustin Hoffman’s Benjamin Braddock, saying the part “offended my sense of values.” According to the AFI Catalog, the trade papers also floated Patricia Neal, Deborah Kerr, Susan Hayward, and Ava Gardner before the role went to Anne Bancroft.Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry (1971)Clint Eastwood in ‘Dirty Harry’ | Silver Screen Collection/GettyImagesPauline Kael called Dirty Harry “fascist medievalism,” but the movie was a huge hit, and AFI now ranks its renegade inspector No. 17 on its list of the greatest screen heroes. Frank Sinatra was attached to play the San Francisco cop for much of 1970, with Irvin Kershner set to direct. That November, Warner Bros. announced that Sinatra had withdrawn because of complications from recent surgery on his hand, and a month later the studio named Clint Eastwood. Some later accounts say John Wayne was approached too, though the AFI Catalog attributes that only to “modern sources.”Father Karras in The Exorcist (1973)Jason Miller in ‘The Exorcist’ | Screen Archives/GettyImagesThe Exorcist pits a priest and psychiatrist in the middle of a crisis of faith against the demon possessing a young girl, and it earned 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and the No. 3 spot on AFI’s list of the most thrilling American movies. Legend says Stacy Keach turned down the troubled priest, which isn’t how he tells it: “I didn’t turn it down – I had the part.” Director William Friedkin agrees on that much, writing in his memoir that Warner Bros. signed Keach. Their stories split on what happened next: Keach blames his agent for asking for more money, while Friedkin says he read a review of Jason Miller’s play That Championship Season, and went looking for the playwright, who ended up with the part.Rocky Balboa in Rocky (1976)Sylvester Stallone in ‘Rocky’ | United Archives/GettyImagesRocky follows a sweet, slightly over-the-hill South Philadelphia boxer who lucks into a shot at the heavyweight champion, and it won Best Picture, with AFI later ranking Rocky Balboa No. 7 among the greatest screen heroes. Sylvester Stallone wrote Rocky and refused to sell the script, even with up to $275,000 on the table, unless he got to play the lead. (There’s a forthcoming biopic that tells the whole story.) According to producer Irwin Winkler, United Artists insisted on a bigger name, specifically Ryan O’Neal, James Caan, or Burt Reynolds, and Robert Redford was reportedly considered too. Stallone held out and got his way. (Bette Midler was offered Adrian and passed, leaving the role to Talia Shire, the younger sister of Francis Ford Coppola.)Danny Zuko in Grease (1978)John Travolta and cast of ‘Grease’ | Paramount Pictures/GettyImagesGrease, the musical about a Rydell High greaser and the girl he fell for over the summer, opened to mixed reviews in 1978 and was the top-grossing movie of the year and the biggest movie musical to that point. John Travolta played him, but The Hollywood Reporter said the role was first offered to Henry Winkler, who was at the height of his Happy Days fame as the Fonz and was afraid of getting typecast. “I was dumb,” he told People in 2023. “I spent so many sleepless nights thinking, ‘How do I not get typecast?’” Dr. Sam Loomis in Halloween (1978)Halloween was shot in four weeks on a $320,000 budget. Newsweek predicted in 1978 that it would become a cult film, and in 2006 it went into the National Film Registry. According to producer Irwin Yablans, John Carpenter originally offered Michael Myers’s psychiatrist to Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, and both of them turned it down. Donald Pleasence took the role, partly because his daughter liked Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13.Capt. Willard in Apocalypse Now (1979)Martin Sheen in ‘Apocalypse Now’ | Sunset Boulevard/GettyImagesFrancis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War epic follows an Army captain on a classified mission upriver, and in 1979 it shared the Palme d’Or at Cannes while critics split between calling it a masterpiece and a catastrophe; AFI now ranks it No. 30 among the greatest American movies. Harvey Keitel was the first actor to shoot as Willard, and he lasted four days of shooting. In April 1976, a Coppola spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that Keitel “wasn’t right for the role as it shaped up,” while Keitel’s agent pointed to contract and scheduling concerns. Jack Nicholson was approached to replace him and passed because of a scheduling conflict, and Martin Sheen arrived later that month.Rick Deckard in Blade Runner (1982)Harrison Ford in ‘Blade Runner’ | Warner Bros./GettyImagesBlade Runner, a noir about a cop hunting rogue replicants in a future Los Angeles, made $26 million in its summer 1982 run, not enough to turn a profit, but it’s now an all-time science-fiction classic and No. 6 on AFI’s list of the genre’s best. Ridley Scott was initially interested in Dustin Hoffman for the lead role, and producer Michael Deeley figured the actor would have been “a nasty, sinister little figure” as Deckard. It fell apart, the producer told The Malestrom in 2016, because “Dustin would simply not stop wanting to make changes. Three months into conversations he was starting to go on about, ‘Why don’t we start to introduce cryogenics?’ And it just got boring.” The part went to Harrison Ford.Louis Tully in Ghostbusters (1984)Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver in 'Ghostbusters' | Archive Photos/GettyImagesLouis Tully is the awkward neighbor who ends up possessed by a demon called the Keymaster in Ghostbusters, the top-grossing movie of 1984 at the domestic box office and No. 28 on AFI’s list of the funniest American movies. Ivan Reitman sent the very first script to John Candy, who, as Reitman put it at a 2020 virtual cast reunion, “didn’t really get it.” Candy kept wanting to play the nebbishy accountant with a German accent and a couple of big German shepherds, which Reitman thought would be confusing next to the demon dogs already on the roof. Rick Moranis read the script and called right away: “Boy, John just made a terrible mistake, I’m so happy.”John Bender in The Breakfast Club (1985)Reviews were mixed when John Hughes stuck five teenagers with nothing in common in Saturday detention, but over the years The Breakfast Club became a cult classic. According to the AFI Catalog, John Cusack was actually cast as the detention-hall burnout, with Molly Ringwald as Allison, the “basket case” role that ultimately went to Ally Sheedy. Then the production was delayed for Sixteen Candles, Judd Nelson replaced Cusack, and Ringwald insisted on switching to Claire, the prom queen.Vicki Vale in Batman (1989)Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger in ‘Batman’ | Sunset Boulevard/GettyImagesTim Burton’s Batman was the top-grossing movie of 1989, and while critics were mixed, they kept praising Jack Nicholson’s Joker and Anton Furst’s production design, which won an Oscar. But what about the female lead? Sean Young was cast as the photojournalist in 1988, and after she was hurt in a horseback-riding accident during rehearsals, Kim Basinger replaced her. When the sequel came around, Young turned up on the Warner Bros. lot in a catsuit to lobby for Catwoman, but the studio said she didn’t fit the filmmakers’ vision.Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman (1990)Julia Roberts in 'Pretty Woman' | Hulton Archive/GettyImagesPretty Woman, in which a Wall Street takeover artist hires a Los Angeles streetwalker as his paid companion for the week, was one of the year’s biggest hits and earned its star an Oscar nomination. Molly Ringwald passed on the part that went to Julia Roberts. “Julia Roberts was wonderful in it, but I didn’t really like the story,” she told The Guardian in 2023. “Even then, I felt like there was something icky about it.”Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ | Michael Ochs Archives/GettyImagesOnly two movies had won all five major Oscars before The Silence of the Lambs, about a top FBI Academy student who has to match wits with an imprisoned cannibal to catch a serial killer, and AFI ranks Clarice No. 6 among the greatest screen heroes. Michelle Pfeiffer was the frontrunner to play the FBI trainee in July 1989, and a month later she was out because, according to the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, her $2 million salary demands weren’t met. Jodie Foster was confirmed soon after.Selina Kyle in Batman Returns (1992)Michelle Pfeiffer in ‘Batman Returns’ | Sunset Boulevard/GettyImagesBatman Returns broke the opening weekend record and was one of 1992’s biggest hits, though critics were split on the sequel, in which Max Shreck’s secretary Selina Kyle becomes Catwoman. Annette Bening was cast as Catwoman at a reported $1 million, and then she got pregnant with Warren Beatty’s child and dropped out. Michelle Pfeiffer, two years after losing The Silence of the Lambs’ Clarice Starling over money, signed on in July 1991 for a reported $3 million.Dottie Hinson in A League of Their Own (1992)A League of Their Own, about a women’s pro baseball league, got mostly positive reviews and was a hit, and manager Jimmy Dugan’s “There’s no crying in baseball!” made AFI’s list of the 100 greatest movie quotes. Debra Winger was attached to play the Rockford Peaches’ star catcher in June 1991, and she was uneasy about the casting of Madonna: “I’m afraid of the press zoo,” she said. She was gone by the time filming started that month. Columbia insisted she hadn’t walked off, saying the studio had decided to take the film in a different creative direction. Geena Davis then got the part.Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act (1992)Whoopi Goldberg in ‘Sister Act’ | Afro Newspaper/Gado/GettyImagesSister Act was one of the year’s biggest hits, earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Musical or Comedy, and spawned a sequel and a Broadway musical. Disney and Touchstone originally developed the lounge singer hiding out in a convent for Bette Midler, but Midler wasn’t sold on the characterPaul Rudnick wrote in The New Yorker in 2009 that she worried her fans wouldn’t want to see her as a nun, and Whoopi Goldberg picked up the habit instead.Frank Farmer in The Bodyguard (1992)Critics were tepid on The Bodyguard, a romance between a pop star and the man paid to protect her, but it was an overwhelming commercial success, and its soundtrack had reportedly sold 28 million copies by 1994. Lawrence Kasdan conceived it in 1975 with Steve McQueen in mind for the lead, and Warner Bros. bought it in 1977 and slated it for 1979. McQueen died in 1980, and the script sat around for more than a decade before Kevin Costner played the part opposite Whitney Houston.Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story (1995)Woody and Buzz Lightyear in ‘Toy Story’ | © 1995-2006 Disney/PixarToy Story, the first entirely computer-animated feature, earned a spot on AFI’s list of the 100 greatest American movies and a special Oscar for John Lasseter, with Tim Allen voicing Buzz Lightyear, the action figure who thinks he’s a real astronaut. Billy Crystal saw a pencil test of Buzz at Jeffrey Katzenberg’s house and said no anyway. In 2001, he called it “the only regret I have in the business of something I passed on.” He gave two reasons: “it was a big business dispute,” and “I don’t think I was right for that.” Pixar got him for Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc., and as of 2021 he was still calling himself “the schmuck who turned down Toy Story.”Wolverine in X-Men (2000)Wolverine, the mutant at the center of X-Men, turned into a 16-year job: Hugh Jackman shares a Guinness World Record for the longest career as a live-action superhero, which ran from this movie through Logan in 2017. Dougray Scott was cast as Wolverine while he was also playing the villain in Mission: Impossible 2, and that shoot ran long. His version, as he told The Telegraph in 2020: “Tom Cruise didn’t let me do it.” Cruise wanted him to stay and finish the movie, Scott said he’d do both, and “for whatever reason he said I couldn’t.” Hugh Jackman got the claws…and the career. Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000)Christian Bale in 'American Psycho' | Hulton Archive/GettyImagesAudiences didn’t know what to make of American Psycho, a satire about Patrick Bateman, a “soulless yuppie” with a body count, when it opened in April 2000, and its cult status was still years away. Director Mary Harron wanted Christian Bale, but Lionsgate sent the script and a $20 million offer to Leonardo DiCaprio behind her back and announced him at Cannes in May 1998. Harron, who thought DiCaprio “wasn’t remotely right” and had “something very boyish about him,” was pushed out, and Oliver Stone came in. Then DiCaprio left to make The Beach, and Harron and Bale got the movie back.Shrek in Shrek (2001)Cameron Diaz posing with Shrek | NurPhoto/GettyImagesAll Shrek wants is to be left alone in his swamp, and his movie won the first Oscar ever handed out for Best Animated Feature and ranks No. 8 on AFI’s list of the best animated films. Chris Farley was cast as the ogre and, according to his brother Kevin, had recorded nearly all of his dialogue before he died in 1997. “Originally the Shrek character was a little bit more like Chris, like a humble, bumbling innocent guy,” Kevin said in 2015. Mike Myers took over the role, and Kevin has said, “Mike did a great job with Shrek.”Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was the top-grossing movie in the world in 2001, at nearly $975 million, and the part of Snape came with a whole series attached. Tim Roth was offered Snape around the same time Tim Burton wanted him for Planet of the Apes, and he went with the apes. “I just thought ‘I’ll be on every lunchbox or whatever it is, but that will be it really, I’ll be known for that,’” he said in 2019. Alan Rickman played him instead, and Roth says his kids still bring it up.Bill in Kill Bill (2003)Quentin Tarantino’s revenge saga came out in two volumes, and David Carradine, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for the part, played Bill, the man the Bride spends both of them hunting. The title villain was originally given to Warren Beatty, according to Carradine, who said Tarantino told Beatty to play the part like Carradine. He waved off the rumors that Beatty was fired or walked off the set, and Carradine himself had been the inspiration for Bill in the first place: “Then the part comes to me and it fits like a glove because it’s actually written about me.”Regina George in Mean Girls (2004)Rachel McAdams in ‘Mean Girls’ | CBS Photo Archive/GettyImagesMean Girls sets a new girl against Regina George, queen bee of the high school clique known as the Plastics, and its Broadway adaptation tied for the most Tony nominations of 2018, with 12. Lindsay Lohan was the movie’s star, but she wanted to be its villain. “I wanted to play Regina,” she told Vogue, but director Mark Waters and writer Tina Fey insisted on her as Cady: “They were like, ‘No, no, no you’re the lovable one, you have to play Cady.’” Rachel McAdams got Regina.Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada (2006)The Devil Wears Prada earned Oscar nominations for its costumes and for its fierce fashion editor, Miranda Priestly, whose new assistant is the role in question. Two years after Mean Girls, 20th Century Fox wanted McAdams for Meryl Streep’s overworked assistant, and she turned it down three times before the part went to Anne Hathaway. “The studio was very determined to have Rachel star in that movie,” director David Frankel said at a 2021 cast reunion. “And she was very determined not to do it.”