10 "capricious" Hollywood stars who turned down multi-million dollar offers
Given the capitalist nature of the Hollywood film industry, it's always surprising to learn that there are actors for whom money doesn't mean everything in life. And we're not just talking about "money" here, but tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars.
The website Far Out writes: "Why is this happening? In fact, there are different reasons. Sometimes it's a different sense of artistic vision, sometimes it's a more prosaic reason, for example, an actor is busy with other projects and has no free time."
How do you solve the problem in this case? Directors or producers are looking for a replacement for the star who has "lost it," and usually find one. And then we are surprised to find out who could play the main character in a high-profile blockbuster.
And in order not to be unfounded, here is a list of the biggest offers turned down by famous Hollywood actors and the celebrities who took their places.
Stars for whom money doesn't matter
Let's start the review with Keanu Reeves, who decided not to return to the classic movie Speed, which cemented his status as an action star. Sandra Bullock returned for Speed 2, but Reeves was too busy with other (and more successful) projects, and even $12 million could not change his mind.
In addition to Reeves, Michael Keaton, who renounced the role of the Caped Crusader in Batman Returns, and Christian Bale, who played Batman in The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan, found themselves in a similar situation when actors do not want to return to the role they had. The latter is rumored to have lost $50 million as a result of the rejection.
However, a few years before that, Bale was in the exact opposite situation. In Mary Herron's film American Psycho, the role of Patrick Bateman was initially offered to Leonardo DiCaprio, but when he refused $21 million, Bale agreed to take the role for himself.
A similar case was with Keanu Reeves, as Will Smith could have played Neo in the Matrix. He was offered $35 million for this, but he was not impressed by Wachowski's vision of the project.
There were also rejections from the biggest movie franchises of all time. For example, Sean Connery didn't want to play Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings for $30 million. They say he just didn't want to go to the end of the world, to shoot in New Zealand. And Russell Crowe, who has just starred in Gladiator, also turned down Peter Jackson's offer to play Aragorn, despite the exorbitant sum of $100 million.
If Batman has had his share of rejections, so has his old friend Superman. We're talking about Josh Hartnett, who was offered the role of Batman along the way. And when it became known that he was paid $45 million for The Dark Knight, he may have been tempted but decided not to put on the superhero costume.
Tom Hanks was great in Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump, but he might not have gotten the job if John Travolta hadn't turned it down. He was supposed to earn $70 million playing a stupid but kind character, but instead decided to star in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, for which we are eternally grateful.
And our list of "losses" is completed by an actor who could have earned quite a lot of money from the movie. Since James Cameron's Avatar became one of the highest-grossing films of all time, anyone with a shred of sense could have accepted an offer of a percentage of the profits for a role in a sci-fi movie, but Matt Damon's loss of 10% of Avatar's box office became Sam Worthington's gain, and the rest is history.
10 actors who turned down big roles:
- Keanu Reeves - $12 million for Speed 2.
- Michael Keaton - $15 million for Batman Forever.
- Leonardo DiCaprio - $21 million for American Psycho.
- Sean Connery - $30 million for The Lord of the Rings.
- Will Smith - $35 million for The Matrix.
- Josh Hartnett - $45 million for The Dark Knight.
- Christian Bale - $50 million for Justice League.
- John Travolta - $70 million for Forrest Gump.
- Russell Crowe - $100 million for The Lord of the Rings.
- Matt Damon - 10% of the cost of Avatar
