10 Celebs Who Lost Now-Iconic Roles For Ridiculous Reasons

Christian Bale

His lead role in American Psycho didn't come all that easy for Christian Bale: there was a real struggle between the director Mary Harron and the movie producers who preferred to cast a higher-ranking star. Harron was counting on Bale as the script was adjusted specifically for him, but the producers thought Leonardo DiCaprio would look better as Patrick Bateman, so Bale was fired from the project. However, the Titanic star was reluctant to play a negative hero, and besides, he was then planning to star in The Beach by Danny Boyle. As DiCaprio didn't sign the contract, the producers had to turn to Bale once again. Fortunately, Christian was waiting for the offer and happily returned.

Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling is commonly viewed as Hollywood's favorite darling: he seems to easily get the brightest roles and looks great in any era and with any acting partner. But Ryan has also had dark streaks in his career. One of these is the dismissal from the set of Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. Jackson and the actor did not agree on what Gosling's character should look like: the director asked Ryan to put on weight, but the day before filming, the actor showed up for a rehearsal looking as athletic as usual. Peter Jackson hurried to find a replacement, and Gosling ceded the role to the much stockier Mark Wahlberg.

Nicole Kidman

Director David Fincher takes casting very seriously and likes to form his cast well in advance of shooting. Initially, Fincher invited Nicole Kidman to star in his Panic Room, and they even had a few meetings to discuss the details. Eventually, however, the film came out with Jodie Foster as the lead. What happened? Kidman dropped out because of a ridiculous knee injury she got on the set of Moulin Rouge! by Baz Luhrmann. Curiously, the actress was injured at three in the morning after filming a few dozen takes of the same scene.

Rachelle Lefevre

Canadian actress Rachelle Lefevre may have grown into a big star, but she fell into the trap of poor time management. Lefevre played the antagonist Victoria in the first two Twilight movies, and in the third part, she was supposed to take the leading role. However, the actress got bogged down in side projects and consequently failed the Twilight team. When they learned that Rachelle was going to be absent on the key shooting dates, the producers of The Twilight Saga immediately handed the role over to Bryce Dallas Howard. Today, only the most loyal fans of Lefevre know what the actress is doing now, while the name of Bryce Dallas Howard is still on everyone's lips.

James Purefoy

James Purefoy was originally confirmed for the role of the mysterious justice fighter in V for Vendetta. Purefoy signed the contract, attended rehearsals, and even had some of the scenes filmed before he suddenly demanded to change the script so that his face was revealed on the screen. The Wachowski and James McTeigue preferred not to bicker: they simply kicked James Purefoy out and invited Hugo Weaving to play the part.

Dougray Scott

While it's hard to imagine Wolverine played by any actor other than Hugh Jackman, the role was initially offered to the Scottish actor Dougray Scott. However, Scott ran into timing problems in the production of Mission: Impossible 2. At some point, there was a clash in the production schedules for Mission: Impossible and X-Men, so the actor had to choose between the action movie or the superhero film. Scott chose, as he thought, the more prominent villain character, and the mutant superheroes required an urgent replacement. That's when the Australian actor Hugh Jackman joined Bryan Singer's team.

Will Smith

It is well known that Quentin Tarantino invited Will Smith to play the lead in Django Unchained, but the reason why the actor refused the role is not widely discussed — although it's actually quite funny. So, Tarantino offered Smith the role of Django, but after seeing the script, the actor turned it down because he thought the leading character was not Django but Schultz! The film's screenwriter and director tried hard to change Smith's view on the plot, and eventually, Tarantino just gave up and proposed the role to Jamie Foxx. You know the rest of the story: Django received five Oscar nominations.

Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Stallone's well-deserved Oscar for Best Original Screenplay hasn't made him untouchable in Hollywood — on the contrary, the actor once had to pay a price for making edits to the script. At some point, Stallone was involved in the comedy action movie Beverly Hills Cop, but he did not like the script so he sat down to rewrite it. That put the producers in an awkward position: they didn't really want to change things, and there wasn't much point in keeping the actor who hated the original script so much. As a result, the studio chose to part amicably with Stallone, and his version of Beverly Hills Cop was sent to the trash can.

Miles Teller

Working together on Whiplash was a remarkable experience for director Damien Chazelle and actor Miles Teller. It was in fact so great that Chazelle also offered Teller the title role in La La Land. Why didn't he accept it? Rumor has it that Teller wanted six million for his songs and dances, but he could only get four. Unwilling to negotiate or sell himself too cheap, Teller ceded the role to Ryan Gosling. When this rumor first popped up, the actor published a refutation, which indirectly confirmed the gossip — if nothing happened, why the excuse?

Megan Fox

It's easy to lose your head when you're the lead in a franchise that grossed billions at the box office, but Megan Fox, the star of the first two Transformers, has really crossed the line of what's acceptable. In one of the interviews, the actress compared director Michael Bay to Adolf Hitler and criticized his authoritarian directing style. Obviously, the young actress did not realize it is Bay, not her, who is the main star of Transformers. The director won't leave his throne, but he can and does change his actors.