Actors Who Almost Got the Part

Before Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Lopez landed the roles of Steve Edison and Mary Fiore in the 2001 romcom The Wedding Planner, a number of other notable stars were considered for the parts. 

In an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, director Adam Shankman said that British actress Minnie Driver was first up to play Mary. Later, when Sony Pictures acquired the rights to the movie, Jennifer Love Hewitt as well as real-life couple Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. were thought of for the lead roles. 

"Those actors were people who were talked about, but no one was ever officially cast," Shankman said.

George Clooney revealed that he almost portrayed Noah Calhoun in the 2004 romance movie, The Notebook, a role that ultimately went to Ryan Gosling. 

He also shared that Paul Newman was going to play the older version of his character, but that part ended up going to James Garner. Clooney said that he got cold feet after watching some of Newman's flicks in preparation for the project.

"He’s one of the handsomest guys you’ve ever seen," he said during the 64th BFI London Film Festival. "We met up [again] and I said, 'I can’t play you. I don’t look anything like you. This is insane.'"

The Sex and the City author revealed on The Bradshaw Boys podcast that she was asked if she wanted to play the role of Mr. Big's love interest, Natasha. "[Producer] Darren [Star] asked me 'Do you wanna play Natasha?' And I was like, 'No.'" Bushnell recalled on the podcast. "…They had an actress, she couldn’t do it. [Darren] was like, 'Come down here and play Natasha.' I was like, 'I’m busy, I cannot come to the set.'"

The role ultimately went to Bridget Moynahan.

Stanchfield revealed to ET while promoting her Netflix series, Locke & Key, that while she was testing for Scandal she also auditioned to play Cersei Lannister on Game of Thrones. "I would never want it, because [Lena Headey was] so amazing in the role, but it's fun to think,  'Oh you know'...She killed it and I worship her acting. But that's a fun one to say, right?"

In her memoir, Open Book, Simpson reveals that she read for "the most romantic movie in the world," The Notebook, but had her reasons for turning it down.

"They wouldn't budge on taking out the sex scene," she writes, adding that she wasn't thrilled about starring alongside Ryan Gosling after she heard that he and Justin Timberlake made a bet as to who would kiss her first (Timberlake won). 

The role in the 2004 classic ultimately went to Rachel McAdams. 

Chuck Russell, the director of The Mask, revealed that the model was considered for the role of Tina, the nightclub singer who catches the eye of Stanley (Jim Carrey) in the 1994 film.

"We met," he told Variety. "Anna was charming and bubbly, but did not have other qualities needed for the role. I never took the next step to run scenes with her."

The action star nearly nabbed his Interview With the Vampire co-star's role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. On Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast, director Quentin Tarantino revealed that he sat down with Cruise to discuss him playing the role of of stuntman Cliff Booth, which ultimately went to Brad Pitt.

"We talked about it," Tarantino shared. "We he's a great guy, and we really hit it off."

It's hard to imagine anyone else playing vampire Bill Compton on True Blood, but it turns out that the series' creator, Alan Ball, originally had a different British actor in mind for the hit HBO show. During the Vulture Festival Los Angeles in November 2018, Ball told fans that it was very difficult to find the right actor for the role, and while he was searching for the right guy, he headed to London, where he met Cumberbatch. Sadly, the showrunner didn't reveal why Dr. Strange didn't end up scoring the part.

During a Live With Kelly and Ryan interview, the Outlander star revealed that he was up for the role of 007. "I did audition for Bond a long time ago, when they were redoing it with Daniel Craig when he was Bond 21," the actor disclosed. Back in 2014, Heugen also shared with Vulture that he auditioned a whopping seven times for the part of Renly Baratheon in Game of Thrones. The role ultimately went to Gethin Anthony.

Before she was casting spells in the Netflix original series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, star Kiernan Shipka almost ended up as a major player in a different Archie Comics-based TV series -- Riverdale. According to Riverdale and Sabrina creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Shipka was originally considered for the role of Betty Cooper -- a part that eventually went to Lili Reinhart. "Kiernan was iconic in Mad Men, and I had even thought about her, I was like, 'Oh I wonder if she’d ever do Betty,'" Aguirre-Sacasa told Entertainment Weekly on Oct. 12, referring to the actress' acclaimed performance as Sally Draper on the celebrated AMC drama. However, when the opportunity to write Sabrina came along, the creator says he immediately decided, "I’m writing this for Kiernan!"

The controversial actor has had, despite his tumultuous and scandal-filled past, an undeniably successful and storied career in both film and television. However, there are two roles that Sheen says he passed on that could have bolstered his early fame significantly -- and both roles went to Woody Harrelson! Sitting down on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, an Australian morning radio program, on Oct. 2, Sheen said he first passed on the starring role in the 1992 basketball dramedy White Men Can't Jump, as well as the one in the 1993 drama Indecent Proposal. "My friends tell me that Woody should send me roses for creating his career," Sheen quipped during the interview. Although his standout role on Cheers may have also played a part in that.
 

The Saved by the Bell star came very close to starring as Rachel Green on the hit sitcom Friends. Thiessen was a guest on comedian Nikki Glaser's SiriusXM radio show on Oct. 1, and she revealed that she auditioned and was screen-tested for the role. However, being 20 at the time, Thiessen said they felt she was "just a little too young" to be paired with the other castmembers, and a then-25-year-old Jennifer Aniston got the role instead.

Chris Evans' performance as Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, is now solidly part of the Marvel cinematic canon. However, it turns out there was almost another Boston native wearing Cap's classic stars and stripes: John Krasinski! The Quiet Place director star revealed in an interview with Variety that he actually found out he had been passed over for the origin story part in Captain America: The First Avenger on wife Emily Blunt's birthday, back in 2010. “My agent called and said, ‘They’re going to go with Chris Evans,’” he recalled. “And I remember I said, ‘Yeah, look at him. He’s Captain America.’” According to Krasinski, Blunt offered to cancel their evening plans in the wake of the disappointing news, but he rallied for the celebration. “I said, ‘It’s Chris Evans. Of course we’re going to dinner.’”

While Haddish has been enjoying meteoric success following her breakthrough role in Girls Trip, and several well-received appearances, including hosting Saturday Night Live and presenting at the Oscars. However, she revealed during her sit-down with Seth Meyers on April 9 that she turned down the chance to audition for Jordan Peele's groundbreaking horror film, Get Out, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture and earned Peele the coveted trophy for Best Original Screenplay. Haddish, who previously worked with Peele on his film, Keanu, said the director asked her to audition for a role in Get Out, but she turned it down because she didn't want to be in a horror movie. "He let me read it and asked me to audition, [and] I was like ‘Aw, man. Look, I don't do scary movies, dog. I don't do that. You know, that's demonized kind of stuff. I don't let that in my house,'" she told Meyers. She went on to say that she had heard of horror movie sets being cursed in the past, and didn't want any part of it. "I don't want to get no curses," she said. "People already curse me out enough as it is."

The X-Files star revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live that he auditioned for all three leading man roles on Full House, which ultimately went to John Stamos (Uncle Jesse), Dave Coulier (Uncle Joey) and Bob Saget (Danny Tanner).

"I had great disappointment because I had auditioned for a show called Full House," he shared. "They could not figure out how to use me. All they could figure out was how they did not want to use me."

While on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Kate Winslet revealed that Leonardo DiCaprio wasn't the only A-lister up for the part of Jack in the 1997 classic film Titanic.

"I auditioned with Matthew [McConaughey] -- isn't that weird?" she shared. "Never said that in public before!"

During The Hollywood Reporter's annual Actress Roundtable, Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone talked about competing for the role of Olive Penderghast in Easy A.

"I auditioned for Easy A. I wanted it so bad," Lawrence revealed. 
"Well, guess what? You didn't get it," Stone quipped back. "You didn't get it because you suck!"
"Outside!" Lawrence fired back.

Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon told Yahoo Entertainment  that he offered Beyonce the role of Plumette the feather duster in Disney's live-action movie. 
"It wasn't a big enough part," Condon confessed. "She would have been a good feather duster."
The role ultimately went to Beyond the Lights star Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Hocus Pocus director Kenny Ortega revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the Oscar winner auditioned for the part of Max in the 1993 movie but was too busy at the time to join the cast. Needless to say, DiCaprio left a lasting impression on Ortega.
"He’s just the most sincere and most centered and a wild child at the same time," he recalled. "He was feeling awkward. He was like, ‘I just feel really bad being here because I’m up for two other movies and I really want them both and I don’t want to lead you on.’"
Those two movies were What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and This Boy’s Life, both of which put DiCaprio on the map. 

The actress revealed on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen that she went out for the leading lady role in the 1984 movie Footloose.
"It was between me, Lori Singer and Jennifer Jason Leigh," she shared. The part ultimately went to Singer, and for good reason. "I can't dance," she confessed.

In the latest big screen adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ iconic jungle man, Tarzan, Alexander Skarsgard plays the titular hero, showing off his ripped abs and long blond locks as he swings from vines and punches gorillas in the face.



However, if the late producer Jerry Weintraub had gone with his first choice, fans could have seen Olympic superstar Michael Phelps running around the jungle sans shirt.



According to an interview with The Legend of Tarzan's Margot Robbie in Vanity Fair, Weintraub would often rave about Phelps, and told the actress, "It's going to be like Johnny Weissmuller!" referring to the original star of the Tarzan series in the 1930s, who was also an Olympic swimmer and five-time gold medalist.



Weintraub, who was instrumental in pushing The Legend of Tarzan through development and onto the big screen, reportedly decided against casting Phelps when he watched the swimmer's less-than-impressive performance hosting an episode of Saturday Night Live in 2008.



Sadly, Weintraub died on July 6, 2015, while The Legend of Tarzan was in post-production and almost exactly one year before the film hit theaters.

While the role of Amy Dunne in Gone Girl ended up going to Rosamund Pike, the film's producer Reese Witherspoon told The Hollywood Reporter that she was open to playing the part.



The Oscar winner explained that director David Fincher didn't think she was the right fit to play Ben Affleck's missing wife. "We had a long conversation where [Fincher] was like, 'You're not right for it. And this is why,'" she revealed to THR. "And I actually completely agreed with him."



Reese added that Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt and Natalie Portman were also considered for the role.

That could have been Mindy Kaling pooping in the street wearing a wedding gown! The Mindy Project star revealed on Watch What Happens Live that she was up for a role in the 2011 comedy Bridesmaids.



"No one ever calls me into to audition for things because I’m so specific," she told host Andy Cohen before going into her story of almost landing the role of bride Lillian. "Oh, you know what it was? Bridesmaids. Which was a movie I loved. It was for Maya Rudolph's part. I practiced it so much and I was so into it. I loved that whole cast. That was one that was a heartbreaker.”

Dawson's Creek star James Van Der Beek admitted that he lost out to Edward Norton for the role of Aaron in the 1996 film Primal Fear.



"I remember I auditioned for this movie way back when I was doing theater in New York and the Albee play that I had done. I met this guy after one performance who said, ‘You know, I really wanted to play this role, but they told me I was too old,'" Van Der Beek recalled to Entertainment Weekly. "This guy had actually read the play when nobody had seen it and wrote Edward [Albee] all these letters saying, 'Why aren't you doing this in New York?' And Edward actually wrote him back and said, 'I did, you should come audition,’ and so this guy did -- but he was too old and didn't get it. Turns out that was the guy who got Primal Fear, and it was Edward Norton! He was phenomenal. I remember really thinking, 'Wow, this is a career-maker,' and I was really happy for Edward. It's so funny: For years it was the big joke in Hollywood that every young actor claims they were second choice for Primal Fear. I know so many guys for whom that was a conversation, like, 'Yeah, I was second choice for Primal Fear.' I was definitely not second choice. I must have been way down the list because I remember thinking I botched that audition."