15 Actors Who Nearly Missed Iconic Roles (For Stupid Reasons)
![15 Actors Who Nearly Missed Iconic Roles (For Stupid Reasons)](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/5/767825_320x180.jpg)
When you think of reasons why an actor might come close to losing a role, money and bad behavior are probably what first pops into your head. Turns out, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, these reasons can be much, much dumber. Like, maybe the casting people think your mouth looks like a butthole when you scrunch it all up. Maybe you prematurely shaved your head because you thought you bombed the audition (doesn’t the film industry use wigs like, all the time?). Or, perhaps, they saw you in another movie and just assumed you’re exactly like the character you were pretending to be? Like, you know, what an actor does? Regardless, it seems that like many of the other things that go on behind the scenes, casting is just as subject to the weird whims of the people in charge over there in Tinsel Town.
So, here are 15 actors that came really close to losing huge roles for really dumb reasons:
![TERRY GILLIAM THOUGHT BRUCE WILLIS'S FACE LOOKED LIKE A RECTUM. 12 MONKEYS Gilliam says he was hesitant to cast Willis because he hated the lip expression the actor would make in all of his movies. For a moment it goes all Trumpian. Rectal. It's like I'm looking at somebody's asshole,](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/2/767842.jpg)
![MERCEDES VARNADO ALMOST MISSED A VERY IMPORTANT DM. THE MANDALORIAN Varnado (better known as Sasha Banks in the WWE) says she was randomly scrolling through her Instagram DMs one day- something she usually never does - when she found a message from the casting director that said Jon Favreau wants to](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/9/767839.jpg)
![SARAH JESSICA PARKER DIDN'T WANT TO DYE HER HAIR. FOOTLOOSE Parker initially turned down playing Rusty because the role required her to cut and dye her hair red. something she had no intention of doing as her hair had just grown back after years of playing Annie on Broadway. At](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/8/767838.jpg)
![MICHAEL BIEHN AUDITIONED WITH A SOUTHERN ACCENT. TERMINATOR Because he was reading for a play that required a Southern accent earlier in the day, Biehn decided to keep it for his Teminator audition. James Cameron loved his acting but turned him away because of the accent. He was hired once](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/0/767840.jpg)
![JULES WASN'T WRITTEN FOR SAMUEL L. JACKSON. PULP FICTION Quentin Tarantino says he originally wrote the part for Laurence Fishburne but that the actor rejected it because it wasn't a lead role. However, Fishburne says that Tarantino's version of events isn't true and that he rejected the part because the](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/1/767841.jpg)
![ROBERT PATTINSON TOOK TWILIGHT TOO SERIOUSLY. TWILIGHT Pattinson says he took the film way too seriously at first and that he was almost fired for butting heads with the filmmakers over how his character should behave. His agents eventually got involved and convinced him to get in line.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/7/767837.jpg)
![REESE WITHERSPOON WAS LABELED AS A SHREW. LEGALLY BLONDE According to Witherspoon, she almost didn't get to play Elle Woods because studio executives thought she was a shrew due to her role in Election. In order to change their mind, she was told to dress sexy for a meeting about](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/6/767836.jpg)
![PAUL RUDD PREMATURELY SHAVED HIS HEAD. CLUELESS After auditioning for the movie, Rudd was so convinced that he wouldn't get the part that he moved on with his life and buzed his hair. It turned out that he nailed the audition, but almost ended up losing the part because they](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/2/767832.jpg)
![MARTIN FREEMAN ALMOST HAD TO PASS ON BILBO BAGGINS. THE HOBBIT Freeman was about to drop out from the project due to prior commitments to Sherlock when a last-minute director change saved him. Guillero del Toro was replaced by Peter Jackson who decided to push the filming schedule to accommodate](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/4/767834.jpg)
![HEATH LEDGER WASN'T CONSIDERED MACHO ENOUGH. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN Producer Diana Ossana says even though she badly wanted Ledger for the role, the studio didn't want him because he wasn't macho enough. They even went with another actor at first, however, after that actor dropped out, they settled for Ledger. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/3/767833.jpg)
![GEMMA WHELAN WAS ALMOST FIRED FOR LEAKING HER ROLE. GAME OF THRONES When the actress secured the role of Yara Greyjoy, she naively thought it was like any other role and decided to share it on her public acting resume. One of the producers immediately called her into his office,](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/1/767831.jpg)
![BEN AFFLECK CURSED WAY TOO MUCH. MALLRATS Kevin Smith revealed that a producer told him not to cast Affleck in his movie because he had a reputation for his out-of-control potty mouth - which was a problem for a movie that was already filled with an obscene amount of profanities. However,](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/0/767830.jpg)
![ALAN RICKMAN DIDN'T WANT TO DO ACTION MOVIES. DIE HARD What the hell is this? I'm not doing an action movie. Rickman said after reading the script for Die Hard, despite never appearing in a movie before. Thankfully, he took the role after his agents convinced him that it was](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/9/767829.jpg)
![PARK SO DAM WAS SCONVINCED THE OFFER WAS FAKE. PARASITE Director Bong Joon Ho personally texted So Dam an offer to be in the movie because she didn't have a manager at the time. She, however, thought that somebody was pranking her and ignored the message. Thankfully, Joon Ho didn't](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/5/767835.jpg)
![Chris Hemsworth’s Dancing With The Stars appearance nearly cost him big.
Thor
Kevin Feige told Hemsworth that his 2006 appearance on the Australian version of DWTS](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/8/767828.gif)