• Slide 1 of 31: Some of them are kicking themselves now, while others took it with a grain of salt. The best-known characters in American film are forever linked to the actors who portrayed them, but those actors weren’t always the studio’s first choice.
    • Slide 2 of 31: When Vulture asked why she turned down the roles of Natasha Alianovna Romanova (aka Black Widow) and Peggy Carter in the popular Avengers franchise, Emily said, “It was never the right time, really, and it just didn’t work out scheduling-wise with those two. It’s always a difficult thing to talk about, because it’s not fair to the actresses who ended up playing them, you know? It just wasn’t the right time.”Who got the roles: Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) and Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter)
    • Slide 3 of 31: When the first Star Wars movie came out in 1977, Harrison Ford was still relatively unknown. George Lucas had wanted to cast the more experienced Reynolds, but he wanted nothing to do with it. “I just didn’t want to play that kind of role at the time,” he told Business Insider. “Now I regret it. I wish I would have done it.”Who got the role: Harrison Ford
    • Slide 4 of 31: The secret agent with a licence to kill has been played by many actors over the years, but Burt Reynolds isn’t one of them. He declined the role of Bond following George Lazenby’s mediocre performance in the 1969 Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. At the time, Reynolds didn’t think an American could pull off Bond. “I think I was putting myself down in a way, because I think I could have done it very well. Though once you do something like that and it’s successful, you’re bound to play that part for a long time. I think I would have liked it. I like that kind of tongue-in-cheek humour,” said Reynolds.Who got the role: Sean Connery
    • Slide 6 of 31: Director Bill Condon had already worked with Beyoncé in the musical Dreamgirls, but when he offered her the part of the Featherduster in the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, she passed. “It wasn’t a big enough part. She would have been a good Featherduster,” said Condon.Who got the role: Gugu Mbatha-Raw See photo on Instagram
    • Slide 7 of 31: “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. I got scared of kind of repeating myself,” Applegate told Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet for her new movie, Vacation.Who got the role: Reese Witherspoon
    • Slide 8 of 31: “The script was really funny. It just didn’t feel like the right time for me. A franchise is a big commitment—it’s a whole thing. I think maybe I need a minute before I dive back into that water,” said Stone about her decision to turn down a part in the all-female reboot of the 1980s comedy.Who got the roles: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon
    • Slide 9 of 31: A scheduling conflict forced the star of the Harry Potter films to turn down the lead in director Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, since she was already committed to Beauty and the Beast. “I knew I had horse training, I knew I had dancing, I knew I had three months of singing ahead of me, and I knew I had to be in London to really do that, and this wasn’t a movie I could just kind of parachute into. I knew I had to do the work, and I had to be where I had to be, so you know, scheduling conflict-wise, it just didn’t work out,” said Watson on the SiriusXM program Town Hall.Who got the role: Emma Stone

Slide 17 of 31: McConaughey had the thankless task of choosing between Marvel and Stephen King. In the end, he went with the latter, co-starring with Idris Elba in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. “I like Guardians of the Galaxy, but what I saw was ‘It’s successful, and now we’ve got room to make a colourful part for another big-name actor.’ I’d feel like an amendment,” said McConaughey. Who got the role: Kurt Russell

    Slide 1 of 31: Some of them are kicking themselves now, while others took it with a grain of salt. The best-known characters in American film are forever linked to the actors who portrayed them, but those actors weren’t always the studio’s first choice.

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    30 actors who rejected big roles

    Some of them are kicking themselves now, while others took it with a grain of salt. The best-known characters in American film are forever linked to the actors who portrayed them, but those actors weren’t always the studio’s first choice.

    30 actors who rejected big roles (msn.com)