Six iconic movie roles that almost went to someone else

Some actors become so identified with the roles they play that we can’t really imagine anyone else playing them.

Can you really think of anyone other than Keanu Reeves playing Matrix hero Neo? Or a different actress to Kate Winslet perched on the tiny raft with Leonardo DiCaprio at the end of Titanic?

But there are lots of times when an actor has almost been cast in a major role only to see it go to someone else - who then goes on to have huge success with it. We take a look at how some hit movies might have turned out if the casting had gone a little differently.

Julie Andrews was almost Eliza Doolittle (My Fair Lady, 1964)

My Fair Lady is one of the best loved musicals of all time. When it premiered on Broadway in 1956, Julie Andrews dazzled audiences in the role and played it for three years. But when the show was adapted for film, the studio wanted a more famous star, and cast Audrey Hepburn, much to Andrews’s disappointment.

“I did, at that time, hope that maybe when the film was made, I’d be asked to do it,” she later said. “I didn’t really think that I was that important to warrant being used. But, you know, there was a fantasy of what a thrill that would be.”

The film turned out to be a huge hit. But happily for Andrews, shortly after losing the role, she was cast in another iconic movie musical - Mary Poppins.

Timothée Chalamet was almost Spider-Man (Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017)

By 2017, when director Jon Watts came to make Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man had already been played by both Tobey Maguire and then Andrew Garfield. But Watts wanted a new boy-arachnid for his reboot, and would eventually settle on Tom Holland.

But before Holland was cast, young actor Timothée Chalamet was keen to get the job, though according to him his audition didn’t go well.

“I read twice and I left sweating in a total panic,” Chalamet said. “I called my agent, and I said, ‘I have to go back and knock on that door and read again,’ and he told me the story of Sean Young and how in an attempt to become Catwoman had scared everyone away when she showed up at the studio gates in costume.”

Thankfully Chalamet’s career took off soon after, with roles in Wonka (2023) and Dune: Part One (2021) making him a household name.

John Travolta was almost Forrest Gump (Forrest Gump, 1994)

The movie Forrest Gump won Tom Hanks an Oscar for best actor back in 1995. The story struck a chord with audiences and helped cement Hanks as one of the greatest Hollywood stars of his generation. But the role almost went to John Travolta.

Travolta was in contention for the part, but finally turned it down in order to appear in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction instead.

When asked if he regretted it in 2007 he told MTV reporters, “No, because if I didn't do something Tom Hanks did, then I did something else that was equally interesting or fun […] But I feel good because other careers were created."

Clare Danes was almost Rose (Titanic, 1997)

The scene at the end of Titanic (1997) with Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) clinging to the tiny life raft is one of the most emotional in modern movies.

But if things had gone just a little differently it might have been Clare Danes perched on the raft with swoonsome Jack.

Danes turned the role down, with one reason being that she’d just shot Romeo + Juliet (1996) with DiCaprio in the same location that Titanic was set to be filmed.

“I’d just made this romantic epic with Leo in Mexico City, which is where they were going to shoot Titanic, and I just didn’t have it in me,” she said of deciding not to play Rose.

Madonna was almost Catwoman (Batman Returns, 1992)

Batman Returns, the sequel to Tim Burton’s smash-hit Batman (1989), was one of the most eagerly awaited films of 1992 and the question on everybody’s lips was who would play Batman’s arch-nemesis Catwoman.

In the end the role went Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) star Michelle Pfeiffer, but it was almost played by musical megastar Madonna, who was then trying to forge a film career. Eventually, though, she turned the part down.

“I regret that I turned down Catwoman,” Madonna admitted. “That was pretty fierce.”

Will Smith was almost Neo (The Matrix, 1999)

The Matrix (1999) was one of the most influential movies of its decade, and Keanu Reeves became an iconic sci-fi figure in the role of Neo.

The part, however, almost went to Will Smith, who turned it down. His reason? The Matrix’s directors, Lana and Lilly Wachowski, known together as the Wachowskis, were then unknowns, and their pitch to him seemed to be all about special effects.

"I’m not proud of it but it’s the truth,” he later said. “I turned down Neo. The Wachowskis had only done one movie […] it turns out they were geniuses, but there’s a fine line in a pitch meeting between genius and what I experienced in that meeting.

“But Keanu was perfect.”

This article was published in November 2024