Most of the time, when an actor declines or gets turned down from a role, it's simply because they weren't the right fit. Sometimes, however, the reasons for rejection can be a little more...complicated.
Here are 17 actors who turned down or lost out on roles for shady reasons:
1. Michelle Pfeiffer was in the running for the role of Vicki Vale in Batman (1989), but Michael Keaton, her ex-boyfriend and would-be onscreen love interest, prevented her from getting it because he was trying to get back together with his ex-wife at the time.
However, she ended up playing Selina Kyle/Catwoman in the sequel, Batman Returns.
The role of Vicki Vale went to Kim Basinger.
2. Robin Williams was reportedly used to bait Jack Nicholson into taking the Joker role in Batman. From his perspective, when he was offered the role, they had no real intentions of casting him.
According to Dave Itzkoff's 2018 biography, Robin, the actor said, "I replied, but they said I was too late. They said they'd gone to Jack over the weekend because I didn't reply soon enough. I said, 'You gave me till Monday, I replied before the deadline.' But it was just to get Jack off the pot."
3. Similarly, John Leguizamo had finished negotiations with Marvel and was about to play the Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming when "they said that Michael Keaton wanted it back, and they asked [John] if [he] would give it up."
He told Comicbook.com, "I said, 'Well, okay I guess.' They said, 'No, we'll work with you again, we're gonna...' That's what happened there...[Later] they offered me something tiny. I went, 'Nuh-uh.'"
4. According to former Disney casting director, Jen Rudin, Beyoncé lost out on the role of Princess Tiana in The Princess and the Frog because she refused to audition, expecting to receive an offer instead.
In her book Confessions of a Casting Director, Jen alleged that Tyra Banks, Alicia Keys, and Jennifer Hudson all auditioned for the role.
The part went to Anika Noni Rose.
5. According to director Bill Condon, Beyoncé turned down an offer to play Plumette (the feather duster) in Beauty and the Beast (2017) because "it wasn't a big enough part."
The role went to Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
6. Jenna Fischer filmed a pilot for the Matt LeBlanc-led sitcom Man With a Plan, but she was recast because test audiences didn't "believe Pam [from The Office] would marry Joey [from Friends]."
The role went to Liza Snyder.
7. Richard Gere was initially cast as Chico Tyrell in The Lords of Flatbush, but he was fired after spilling mustard and chicken grease on costar Sylvester Stallone during a lunch break, which instigated a physical altercation.
In a fan Q & A, Sylvester said, "The director had to make a choice: one of us had to go, one of us had to stay. Richard was given his walking papers and to this day seriously dislikes me."
Richard was replaced with Perry King.
8. When Meryl Streep auditioned to play Dwan in King Kong (1976), she overheard producer Dino De Laurentiis say to his son (who'd suggested her for the role) in Italian, "Why do you bring me this ugly thing?" He didn't realize that she understood Italian.
On The Graham Norton Show, she said, "It was sobering as a young girl. So I said to him [in Italian], 'I understand what you say. I'm sorry I'm not beautiful enough to be in King Kong.'"
The role went to Jessica Lange.
9. Paul Bettany was considered "too British" for the role of Emmett Richmond — whom the screenwriters called "the Luke Wilson character" while they were writing the script — in Legally Blonde.
