We all make mistakes! For this list, we’ll be looking at stars of the silver screen who passed up roles that could have completely changed their careers or altered those films.
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00:00What is he doing? He's beginning to believe.
00:04Welcome to Ms. Mojo and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 actors who regret
00:09passing on huge movies. How do you know my name? The world is too small for someone like Bruce
00:14Wayne to disappear. For this list we're looking at stars of the silver screen who passed up roles
00:19that could have completely changed their careers or altered those films. Did we pass on any big
00:25names on this list? Let us know in the comments below. Number 10. Bruce Willis. Ghost. Ghost,
00:32starring Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze, was the highest grossing film of 1990.
00:41Swayze was grateful for the part. After Dirty Dancing and Roadhouse, he was often typecast
00:46as a tough guy or a jerk. Ghost allowed him to show off his sensitive side and take his career
00:51in new directions. He almost didn't have the chance though. The role was originally offered
00:58to Demi's husband Bruce Willis. When asked in 1996 why he turned it down, Willis replied quote,
01:04''Hey, the guy's dead. How are you gonna have a romance?'' Famous last words. Maybe that lesson
01:09was still on his mind when he accepted the lead in The Sixth Sense a few years later.
01:21Number 9. Henry Winkler. Grease. Sometimes actors audition for roles and don't get cast.
01:38Other times they turn them down. John Travolta for example auditioned for Potsy on Happy Days,
01:44which of course starred Henry Winkler as Fonzie.
01:46On The Rich Eisen Show in June of 2022, Henry Winkler confirmed a rumor that had been
01:56circulating for years. Ironically, Winkler had been offered the role of Danny Zuko in Grease.
02:02Afraid of getting stuck playing another greaser character, Winkler said no.
02:16Although he admits that his decision was a mistake, there was one small wrinkle.
02:22Grease famously is a musical. Winkler by his own admission cannot carry a tune.
02:34Number 8. Josh Hartnett. Batman Begins. We all tend to look back on the careers
02:39of once young stars and starlets and think about what could have been.
02:46For starters, I'm unlucky. Do they regret the track their careers have taken?
02:53Do they wish they didn't miss that big payday? For Josh Hartnett,
02:56the answer is a little more complicated.
02:59The number of actors who turned down superheroes could fill a phone book.
03:03It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.
03:10Josh Hartnett is one of the more well known, having passed on Batman Begins.
03:14Though Hartnett may have made a great Bruce Wayne, he doesn't mind.
03:18As he tells it, his regret has nothing to do with the part or the money.
03:23He wishes he could have formed a working relationship with director Chris Nolan.
03:38Well, a key role in Nolan's Oppenheimer proves that for Hartnett, it's never too late.
03:43Number 7. Eddie Murphy. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
03:46In the days before ubiquitous CGI,
03:49there were only a handful of movies that combined live action and animation.
04:00One of the biggest was 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
04:04The film had the animated stars of Disney and Warner Bros. alongside live actors.
04:10Back in the mid-80s, the idea seemed insane.
04:13At least it did to Eddie Murphy,
04:14who was originally offered the lead role of private detective Eddie Valiant.
04:26The concept made no sense to Murphy whatsoever, and he turned the part down.
04:31They eventually cast Bob Hoskins, and it became the most recognizable film of his career.
04:41A toon killed my brother.
04:42A toon? No!
04:44Number 6. Dustin Hoffman. Taxi Driver.
04:47In film, certain actors and directors form bonds that can last for decades.
04:57One of the most famous partnerships in Hollywood is that of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro.
05:02They've worked together on several films spanning 50 years.
05:06It all began with Scorsese's Mean Streets in 1973.
05:10It may not have gone any further though, without the tremendous success of Taxi Driver.
05:15Originally, De Niro was not supposed to play the now iconic Travis Bickle.
05:19The part was first offered to Dustin Hoffman.
05:24When Scorsese pitched it, Hoffman had no clue who the director was.
05:28According to Hoffman, Marty seemed like a crazy man speaking a mile a minute.
05:33It was the first of many hit roles that Hoffman regrets rejecting over his long career.
05:46Fear of typecasting isn't limited to male actors.
05:49For 10 years, Christina Applegate co-starred in the hit comedy Married With Children on Fox.
05:55Well, now that Tony's worm food, I can get out of these funeral clothes.
05:58After the show ended, she looked to expand her horizons with other film and TV opportunities.
06:04A script came her way for a new movie called Legally Blonde.
06:07Though she appreciated the humor, she ultimately declined.
06:11I'll show you how valuable Elle Woods can be.
06:13Elle Woods, she thought, was way too similar to her character on Married With Children.
06:18She admitted in an interview with Andy Cohen that she thinks
06:21Reese Witherspoon ultimately crushed it.
06:23Reese Witherspoon did a much better job than I ever could,
06:26and she has now way more money than I do and way more success.
06:30And so why would I, why would I even regret that?
06:33Though Applegate undersells her own talents,
06:36she definitely has a point given the film's huge success.
06:42For an actor, working with a young or inexperienced director can be a real crapshoot.
06:48Some actors love the process, others absolutely refuse.
06:53Like I'm negotiating.
06:54The end product can often be so bad that stars are left wondering
06:58what they were thinking by saying yes.
07:00All those points were in Denzel Washington's head
07:03when he first read the script for Michael Clayton.
07:05Most important thing in business is honesty.
07:07According to Denzel, it was the best material he'd read in a long time.
07:11But since it was Tony Gilroy's first stint in the director's chair, Washington passed.
07:16I'm telling them everything's fine, you're fine,
07:18everything is gonna be fine, everybody's cool.
07:21The film went on to win multiple awards,
07:24including a BAFTA and an Oscar win for Tilda Swinton.
07:27Five years later, Washington confessed to GQ magazine that he made a mistake.
07:36At the end of the 1980s and the start of the 90s,
07:39Michelle Pfeiffer was at the height of her career.
07:41She was offered dozens of roles she decided to avoid.
07:44You want me to do it?
07:46The biggest by far was Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs.
07:50That part would ultimately net Jodie Foster an Oscar,
07:53though that's not the source of Pfeiffer's regret.
07:56The script was great, but as she put it,
07:58there was too much evil in the film.
08:00Oh Clarice, your problem is you need to get more fun out of life.
08:04Lecter escaping was too dark of an ending for her.
08:07As she put it, she quote,
08:09didn't want to put that evil out into the world.
08:11Having loved working with director Jonathan Demme before,
08:14it was a tough decision.
08:16She wishes she'd gotten a chance to reunite with him.
08:19I can't, Jenny.
08:26I'm sorry.
08:27Number two, Will Smith, The Matrix.
08:30All movies start with one thing, the pitch.
08:33What is real?
08:35How do you define real?
08:37If you're talking about what you can feel,
08:40what you can smell, what you can taste and see.
08:42For many actors, a decision to pass or move forward
08:46is based on the pitch rather than the script.
08:48For years, there were rumors and speculation
08:51about Will Smith turning down Neo in The Matrix.
08:54You take the blue pill, the story ends.
08:58You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.
09:00In 2019, Smith put out a YouTube video confirming them.
09:05It can be difficult years later to imagine the pitch
09:07for a modern classic like The Matrix.
09:09Smith gave us his perspective.
09:11The Wachowski sisters, fresh off their only film at the time,
09:15reportedly didn't focus their pitch on the story,
09:17but on the now famous bullet time action sequence.
09:20In 1998, their description made no sense to Smith.
09:24He chose to star in Wild Wild West instead.
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09:48Number one, Matt Damon, Avatar.
09:51In the late 2000s, James Cameron approached Matt Damon
09:54about a new project he was about to start.
09:56When I was lying there in the VA hospital,
09:58with a big hole blown through the middle of my life,
10:02I started having these dreams of flying.
10:06I was free.
10:07The film would be a sci-fi feature about blue aliens fighting human colonizers.
10:12During the pitch, according to Damon, Cameron was blunt,
10:15I don't need anybody.
10:16I don't need a name for this, a named actor.
10:19You know, I used to think it was benign neglect,
10:21but now I see that you're intentionally screwing me.
10:24He told Damon that if he turns it down,
10:26he would pluck someone out of obscurity for the role.
10:28But were Damon to take it,
10:30Cameron would offer him 10% of the box office.
10:33Matt Damon turned it down as he was busy at the time
10:37working on The Bourne Ultimatum.
10:39Had he accepted,
10:40Matt Damon would have raked in around $250 million.
10:50Do you agree with our picks?
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