Actors Who Refused Roles In Tom Hanks Movies

No matter their personal tastes, affiliations, or walk of life, pretty much anybody who enjoys movies of any kind, and has done so for the past 40 years, can all agree on Tom Hanks. He's one of the most successful and acclaimed actors of this era, or any era, and nearly any film in which he appears is an event. It's hard to imagine anybody but the charming, likable, and avuncular Hanks starring in any of the entries in his varied canon, like "Apollo 13," "Sleepless in Seattle," "Philadelphia, "The Da Vinci Code," "Big," "Catch Me If You Can," "Forrest Gump," "Saving Private Ryan," and "A League of Their Own."

A Tom Hanks movie is almost guaranteed to be a critical or commercial hit, and most any professional actor in the world would thank their lucky stars at an offer to appear alongside America's middle-aged sweetheart in a major motion picture. But for whatever reasons, several stars — many of them as famous or even more famous than Hanks — had to pass on the chance. Here are some casting near-misses, brought about by rejection, polite or otherwise, from movies featuring Tom Hanks.

Unlike other top-selling musical superstars of the 20th century, like Elvis Presley or Barbra Streisand, country icon Garth Brooks didn't do a lot of film acting beyond cameos and in his own music videos. But it might not have been for a lack of trying. 

According to Billboard, in 2013, Brooks's former production partner and de facto talent agent Lisa Sanderson filed a suit against the singer, alleging she lost money because Brooks turned down every role in every movie and TV show he was offered. Sanderson claimed that Brooks could've starred in "Twister," but didn't, because he didn't want the CGI tornado to pull focus from him. He also allegedly rejected a role in the ensemble cast of "Saving Private Ryan," the 1998 World War II blockbuster epic starring Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Vin Diesel, and Edward Burns, among others, because it was an ensemble cast. Brooks wanted to be the clear star, not just one of the guys. In a statement to E! News, Brooks denied all of Sanderson's legal claims.

While simultaneously building a career in stand-up comedy — in which he'd one day dominate and then land an extremely popular sketch series, "Chappelle's Show," on Comedy Central — Dave Chappelle, barely in his early twenties, landed supporting roles in a number of high-profile films in the 1990s, such as "Robin Hood: Men in Tights," "Undercover Blues," and "The Nutty Professor." When Tom Hanks was ready to follow up his dramatic turn in "Philadelphia" with the American history epic "Forrest Gump," (which would win him his second consecutive Oscar), Chappelle was on the very short list of actors that producers wanted to play the title character's best friend, Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue, a man even more kind-hearted and less intelligent than Hanks' title character. They meet while fighting in the Vietnam War, and after Bubba's death in combat, Forrest goes on to start a shrimping company in his honor.

"Forrest Gump" would earn $678 million, win a bunch of Academy Awards and dominate the 1994 film awards circuit, but did so without Chappelle. Mykteli Williamson played Bubba instead, because Chappelle said no. "They tried to get me in 'Forrest Gump,'" Chappelle said in a stand-up set (via Comedy Hype). "I must have read the wrong script. This script stunk when I read it," he added, suggesting that he took offense at playing a Black character presented as so wildly unintelligent. Four years later, however, he'd finally appear in a big movie with Hanks, co-starring in "You've Got Mail."

After starring in back to back, high-grossing, Academy Award nomination collecting movies with "Philadelphia" and "Forrest Gump," Tom Hanks made it three in a row with "Apollo 13." The harrowing docudrama was based on the true story of the team of Americans astronauts on a moon mission in 1970 whose flight goes horribly awry and the small crew must somehow safely navigate themselves back to Earth.

The four main astronauts were all played by major actors of the mid-1990s, such as Tom Hanks as Commander Jim Lovell, Bill Paxton as Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise, and Gary Sinise as grounded pilot Ken Mattingly. Kevin Bacon rounded out the headliners as Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert, with the established actor from "Footloose" and "The River Wild" winning the part over perhaps the biggest new star in Hollywood: Brad Pitt. According to FilmInk, "Apollo 13" filmmakers approached Pitt for the role of Jack Swigert. He passed on it, to make a different iconic and frightening 1995 release. "I was talking to my mom the other night and she said, 'I just saw the best movie called 'Apollo 13,'" Pitt told The Morning Call. "She said, 'You have to do more movies like this.' I said, 'Mom, I turned that down for 'Seven.'"

One of the biggest box office hits of 1992 was a period sports dramedy about an obscure historical footnote — the brief run of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, a women's sports league that operated during World War II. Though it didn't seem like it would be an enormous hit out of the gate, naysayers were proven wrong, and "A League of Their Own" attracted huge audiences because of its star power with a cast that included Tom Hanks (as grouchy alcoholic coach Jimmy Dugan), and Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, and Lori Petty as some of the players of the Rockford Peaches. One big-name member of that cast is precisely why another major performer passed on "A League of Their Own."

According to TheWrap, Debra Winger — star of massive '80s movies like "Urban Cowboy," "An Officer and a Gentleman," and "Terms of Endearment" — enthusiastically signed up for the movie, and spent three months in rigorous baseball training with the Chicago Cubs. Winger was ready to film her scenes as catcher (and lead character) Dottie Hinson, until she learned that director Penny Marshall had cast Madonna in the film. And with that, Winger was gone, telling The Telegraph that she felt like the movie's bent had evolved into a pop star showcase, akin to an "Elvis film," and that few of the other actors had prepared as extensively as she had. In the end, Geena Davis played Dottie instead.

"Catch Me if You Can" boasted a pretty enormous level of talent. Based on the unbelievable yet true memoir of master con man Frank Abagnale Jr., the 2002 movie was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale with Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, and James Brolin in minor roles, along with Tom Hanks as Carl Hanratty, the perpetually foiled and apoplectic federal agent who just always almost manages to catch Abagnale during his jet-set, mid-century criminal escapades. Plenty of Hollywood big-shots similarly just almost missed being a part of "Catch Me if You Can."

In 2001, The Hollywood Reporter (via IGN) revealed that Gore Verbinski ("Pirates of the Caribbean") was set to direct with DiCaprio starring, until overages on "Gangs of New York" precluded the latter's involvement, causing the production to temporarily cease. Due to other scheduling commitments, previously cast and signed actors had to bail, including Chloe Sevigny ("Boys Don't Cry"), Ed Harris ("Pollock," "The Abyss"), and James Gandolfini ("The Sopranos"), who was supposed to play an FBI agent named Joe Shaye. When "Catch Me if You Can" resumed production, with DiCaprio and new director Spielberg, Gandolfini was out, and the role of Joe Shaye would be rewritten as Carl Hanratty, and offered to Hanks.

Around the mid-2000s, comic actor and writer Ricky Gervais was in huge demand in the U.S. and U.K. entertainment industries after co-creating and starring as odious, cringe-inducing boss David Brent on the original BBC version of "The Office." He followed that elevating project with another TV series, "Extras," and starring roles in high-concept film comedies like "Night at the Museum," "Stardust," "Ghost Town," and "The Invention of Lying." Gervais also entertained an offer to play Rèmy Jean, assistant to villain Sir Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen) in "The Da Vinci Code," the screen adaptation of Dan Brown's mega-bestseller directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks as historical mystery-solving professor Robert Langdon. Ultimately, the role of Remy went to French actor Jean-Yves Berteloot.

Gervais declined the opportunity for reasons of self-deprecation and quality preservation. "I was offered the part of the butler," Gervais told The Daily Mirror (via DigitalSpy). "I told director Ron Howard 'I will ruin your film. The number of times I've sat down for a great film by a great director and a British actor pops up and ruins it for me; I don't want to be that bloke.'"