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15 Iconic Roles That Were Originally Offered to Completely Different Actors

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Almost a different movie.

Nazarii Verbitskiy

TV Shows & Movies - September 4th 2026, 17:00 GMT+2

Tiffany Maxwell Silver Linings Playbook — 15. Tiffany Maxwell — Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
David O. Russell wrote the role of Tiffany Maxwell with Anne Hathaway in mind, and she was attached before the project stalled for years. By the time Silver Linings Playbook actually got made in 2012, Hathaway had moved on and Jennifer Lawrence stepped in. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for it at 22 years old. Harvey Weinstein reportedly had to campaign hard to convince Russell she was right for the part. | © The Weinstein Company

Buddy The Elf — 14. Buddy the Elf — Elf (2003)
Jim Carrey circled Elf for a while before Will Ferrell ever put on the tights. James Caan ended up playing his father, and Ferrell has said in interviews he modeled Buddy's voice partly on his own childhood enthusiasm rather than any cartoon. The film made just over $220 million worldwide on a budget under $33 million. New Line Cinema had no idea they were sitting on a Christmas staple. | © New Line Cinema

Pretty Woman Vivian Ward MSN — 13. Vivian Ward — Pretty Woman (1990)
Molly Ringwald turned down Vivian Ward because the script, then called "3000," ended much darker than the version audiences got. Disney reworked it into a romantic comedy and handed the part to Julia Roberts in 1990. Roberts was 22 and had only a handful of credits before this made her a star. Pretty Woman went on to gross over $463 million worldwide. | © Buena Vista Pictures

Legally Blonde 2001 — 12. Elle Woods — Legally Blonde (2001)
Reese Witherspoon almost lost Elle Woods to Christina Applegate, who was in early talks before scheduling pushed her out. Witherspoon took the role in 2001 and reportedly studied real sorority culture at USC to get the tone right. Legally Blonde made $141 million against a $18 million budget. MGM had positioned it as a minor spring release before word of mouth turned it into something bigger. | © MGM

Forrest Gump — 11. Forrest Gump — Forrest Gump (1994)
Forrest Gump nearly belonged to John Travolta, who passed on the role before Tom Hanks signed on in 1994. Hanks has said he was drawn to the character's lack of cynicism, a rare thing in scripts he was reading at the time. The film won six Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Hanks and Best Picture. Travolta has since called turning it down one of his biggest regrets. | © Paramount Pictures

Andy Sachs The Devil Wears Prada — 10. Andy Sachs — The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Rachel McAdams said no to Andy Sachs twice before Anne Hathaway ever read the script. The role had already been offered around town, and McAdams reportedly turned it down over scheduling and a lack of interest in playing the ingenue again. Hathaway was mostly known for family films like The Princess Diaries at the time. Fox 2000 took the risk anyway, and Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly ended up carrying half the film's quotable lines. | © 20th Century Fox

Cropped Rose De Witt Bukater — 9. Rose DeWitt Bukater — Titanic (1997)
Gwyneth Paltrow's name came up early in Titanic casting discussions, back when James Cameron was still weighing his options for Rose. Kate Winslet, by contrast, reportedly wrote Cameron letters and phoned him under a fake accent to get an audition. She was 21 when filming started in 1996. Paramount released the film in December 1997, and Winslet's persistence became the stuff of studio legend. | © Paramount Pictures

Jack Dawson Titanic — 8. Jack Dawson — Titanic (1997)
Matthew McConaughey was in serious contention for Jack Dawson before Leonardo DiCaprio locked it down. Cameron reportedly tested several actors against Winslet to check chemistry, a process DiCaprio initially resisted joining. He was 22 during filming and already known for What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount split the massive budget between them, and the gamble paid off with an Oscar for Best Picture. | © Paramount Pictures / 20th Century Fox

Black Widow — 7. Black Widow — The Avengers (2012)
Emily Blunt turned down Black Widow before Scarlett Johansson ever put on the suit. Blunt was under contract for Gulliver's Travels at the time, a scheduling conflict that killed the deal outright. Johansson stepped into Iron Man 2 first, in 2010, then carried the role into The Avengers two years later. Marvel Studios has since built an entire solo film around a part that almost went to someone else. | © Marvel Studios / Walt Disney Studios

Cropped Clarice Starling — 6. Clarice Starling — The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Michelle Pfeiffer walked away from Clarice Starling, reportedly uneasy about the material's darkness. Jodie Foster wanted the part badly enough that she pursued it directly after finishing The Accused. She won the Oscar for Best Actress for the role in 1992. Orion Pictures released the film into theaters with modest expectations, and it went on to sweep all five major Academy Awards. | © Orion Pictures

Cropped American Psycho 2000 Patrick Bateman — 5. Patrick Bateman — American Psycho (2000)
Leonardo DiCaprio was attached to play Patrick Bateman before Christian Bale ever got the role in American Psycho. Studio executives reportedly wanted a bigger name after Titanic, and director Mary Harron initially left the project over the casting pressure. She came back once Bale was locked in for the 2000 film. Bale based Bateman's flat delivery partly on an interview with Tom Cruise, which makes the almost-casting stranger in hindsight. | © Lionsgate

Daniel Craig as James Bond in Casino Royale R cropped processed by imagy — 4. James Bond — Casino Royale (2006)
Before Daniel Craig signed on, Casino Royale's producers reportedly considered Henry Cavill for James Bond, who was in his early twenties at the time. Barbara Broccoli has said Cavill was on the shortlist but seen as too young to carry the role in 2006. Craig got intense backlash when he was cast, with fan sites calling him wrong for the part before filming even started. He stayed on for four more Bond films after that. | © Sony Pictures Releasing

Han Solo Harrison Ford Star Wars cropped processed by imagy — 3. Han Solo — Star Wars (1977)
Al Pacino turned down Han Solo before George Lucas ever cast Harrison Ford in Star Wars. Pacino has said in interviews he simply didn't understand the script when he read it in the mid-1970s. Ford, meanwhile, was originally hired just to read lines opposite other actors auditioning for the film. Lucas watched him do it enough times and gave him the part instead. | © 20th Century Fox

Edward Scissorhands — 2. Edward Scissorhands — Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Tom Cruise wanted to play Edward Scissorhands badly enough that he pushed Tim Burton for changes to the script. Burton has said Cruise asked for a happier ending, which killed the collaboration fast. Johnny Depp got the role instead in 1990 and reportedly based Edward's quiet mannerisms on Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. He wore the scissor hands for most of the shoot without a stunt double. | © 20th Century Fox

Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III — 1. Michael Corleone — The Godfather (1972)
Paramount executives wanted Jack Nicholson for Michael Corleone before Francis Ford Coppola fought to cast Al Pacino instead. Coppola has said the studio also floated Warren Beatty and Robert Redford at different points. Pacino was relatively unknown in 1972 and the studio worried he was too short and too quiet for the role. The Godfather went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture that year. | © Paramount Pictures

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Some of cinema's most iconic characters were nearly played by someone else entirely, a casting swap away from a totally different film. Here are 15 iconic roles originally offered to completely different actors.

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Some of cinema's most iconic characters were nearly played by someone else entirely, a casting swap away from a totally different film. Here are 15 iconic roles originally offered to completely different actors.