13 Actors Who Turned Down or Missed Out on Famous Film and Television Roles

When a film or television project enters the production phase, the director often have certain stars in mind to play the main roles. However, some of these famous refuse the offer either because they already have other projects in hand or because they don’t pass the audition, losing the role.

Thus, producers have to replace them with lesser-known actors or actresses, and sometimes this turns out to be the best decision, as they manage to captivate the audience, turning the project into a real success.

We, from awesome.club, we’ve put together a list of stars from the big screen and small screen who almost brought iconic characters to life. Some of these roles were responsible for boosting the career of several of them.

Jennifer Lawrence is one of Hollywood’s highest-rated actresses, thanks to her role as Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games trilogy, which propelled her to fame, as well as her performance in Silver Linings Playbook. The actress is characterized by being very frank with the press and confessed in an interview that she felt very by not passing the audition for the movie Alice in Wonderland. Lawrence admitted that he couldn’t speak with a British accent, so director Tim Burton cast actress Mia Wasikowska in the role of Alice.

Nicolas Cage was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood in the 1990s. The actor confessed that could have played Aragorn, of the saga Lord of the Rings🇧🇷 when director Peter Jackson offered him the role, but decided to turn it down because he didn’t want to move to New Zealand and live away from his family for over 400 days of recording. The actor Viggo Mortensen he ended up with the role of Aragorn, which catapulted him to fame.

Emma Watson revealed in an interview that she was called to play Cinderella, but turned down the offer. “I didn’t know they were going to do Beauty and the Beast at the time. I refused Cinderella🇧🇷 But then I was offered the role of Bela.” Watson agreed to play Belle in flesh and blood, because she felt more identified with that character than with Cinderella. That role in the end went to the actress Lily James.

Slightly Pregnant was one of the highest-grossing films of 2007. The career-boosting role of Katherine Heigl was first offered to Anne Hathaway. Nonetheless, Hathaway refused the paper because she did not identify with the birth scene, as she had not yet gone through the maternity ward. Years later, the actress said that she should have taken the offer.

After the box office success obtained with Titanic, Leonardo DiCaprio was offered numerous roles, but rejected them all. Leo had the opportunity to bring Peter Parker to life, but declined as he was not attracted to the superhero role or wearing the masked Spider-Man outfit. So, who got the role was his friend, Tobey Maguire.

In the 1990s, Christina Applegate was a well-known figure on the small screen, thanks to her role as Kelly Bundy in A Family Love. Once the series came to an end, she received the offer to bring Elle Woods to life, in Legally Blonde. But, upon reading the script, she turned down the role because she didn’t want to continue playing a blonde girl. Years later, the actress spoke about the missed opportunity and admitted that it was a bad decision to give up the main role that made Reese Witherspoon famous.

In 1986, Carlos Téllez, writer and producer of the telenovela Ambição, offered the lead role to Angélica Aragón, but Is it over there declined the offer. That’s how the actress Diana Brachowho was quoted to bring Vilma de la Fuente to life in the same production, ended up playing the villain Leonora Navarro.

Perhaps it’s hard to imagine Don Armando de Betty, a Feia played by another famous telenovela actor. At first, the novel’s writer, Fernando Gaitán, had Guy Ecker in mind for the lead role, with whom he had worked in Café with a Woman’s Aroma. But during the casting phase, actor Jorge Enrique Abello was asked to help read the part of Don Armando alongside the actresses who were running for the character of Betty. And that’s how he got the role.

For the lead role of Teresa Mendoza in Telemundo’s telenovela A Rainha do Sul, actresses such as Salma Hayek. In the end, the chosen one was the Mexican actress kate del castillo🇧🇷 The telenovela broke audience records in the United States, Spain, Latin America and Mexico. The success was so great that in 2016 an English adaptation was released — which ended this year, in the fifth season — with Alice Braga as a protagonist.

Peruvian actor Jorge Aravena has a long journey on the small screen, but he has lived the melodrama in fiction and in real life. In 2012 he decided to abandon his participation in the telenovela A que não pode amar because “his character did not contribute anything to the story”. In 2013 he was fired from the soap opera Porque el amor manda when the lead actor felt that Aravena overshadowed him in the plot. Later he was offered the role of the villain in A gata, starring Maite Perroni and Daniel Arenas, but Aravena refused the paper and Jorge Poza was hired instead.

Angelique Boyer started acting at a very young age and decided, with her parents, to look for a job at Televisa when she was 8 years old. The actress said she made the audition for the soap opera Emeraldbut he didn’t get the role because in the test he was given bad milk and it hurt his performance. Natasha Dupeyrón won the role, playing Esmeralda as a child. Years later, one of his most desired dreams came true: sharing the screen with Letícia Calderón, who played Esmeralda in 1997.

In 1991 Valentín Pimstein, responsible for the production of the telenovela O Privilege de Amar, had in mind Veronica Castro for the character Luciana, but the producer abandoned the project to make the telenovela La pícara soñadora. Seven years later, director Carla Estrada resumed production and offered the role to Helena Rojo.

Coração Selvagem, one of the most remembered soap operas in history, could have had Érika Buenfil in the antagonistic role. José Rendón, producer and director of the telenovela, proposed the role of the villain Aimeé de Altamira, Monica’s sister. buenfil refused the offer because he wanted the lead role, but Edith González had already been cast in it. The character, in the end, was played by Ana Colchero.

Can you imagine these celebrities playing those lost or refused roles in movies or soap operas? Leave your opinion in the comments!