Movie Roles These Actors Regret Turning Down

No matter how hugely successful or influential a movie star becomes throughout his or her career, most of them have at least one project that got away. In the midst of award-winning performances and unforgettable, scene-stealing turns, some actors made the mistake of a lifetime when they turned down specific roles.

Whether or not this decision seriously affected the trajectory of that particular actor's career, it can still be a tough break to sit down and watch a movie in which you could have starred — and some actors have been pretty open about wishing they could go back and claim certain roles they passed on. Though many have been magnanimous about these missed opportunities, praising the stars who went on to define the roles, watching those performances had to have been tough. From Will Smith's alternate reality and Eddie Murphy's cartoon caper to a lost Bond opportunity, here are just a few huge movie roles these A-list actors regret turning down.

Few modern action franchises have left as big of a mark as The Matrix, which cemented Keanu Reeves as an genre star and boasted winning turns from Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Hugo Weaving. The groundbreaking original installment, which introduced "bullet time" to audiences across the world and broke barriers with its inventive narrative, seemed like a slam dunk project for any actor — except one, apparently.

When Will Smith was approached about the leading role of Neo in The Matrix, he apparently wasn't particularly impressed by the writer-director Wachowski siblings' pitch. In his YouTube series "Storytime," Smith says the Wachowskis are "geniuses," but also that "there's a fine line in a pitch meeting between genius and what I experienced in the meeting." According to Smith, the way the Wachowskis sold the concept didn't exactly sell him, and he passed on the project to star in Wild Wild West, which became one of the biggest flops of his career. However, Smith admits that the movie wouldn't have been the same without Reeves in the leading role, and with Smith on board, the rest of the movie would have been quite different as well. Apparently, the studio would have cast Val Kilmer as Morpheus, a part that ultimately went to Fishburne.

The daughter of Bruce Paltrow and Blythe Danner, Gwyneth Paltrow has been Hollywood royalty since birth, and she's also a powerful member of Hollywood's A-list thanks to her sheer talent and drive. An Academy Award winner for her work in Shakespeare in Love, Paltrow has more than proven her worth in plenty of projects, but as one of the most popular stars in the business, she's had to say no to her fair share of worthy opportunities.

In an interview with Howard Stern in 2015, Paltrow addressed some of her most infamous non-roles. She famously turned down Boogie Nights out of sheer embarrassment (as she told Stern, "I just thought, 'I can't be totally naked [...] onscreen. I'll kill my grandfather!" She definitely has more regrets when it comes to the role of Rose Dewitt-Bukater (played by Kate Winslet) in Titanic. Stern certainly criticized her during the interview, and Paltrow agreed. "I look back at the choices I've made and think, 'Why the hell did I say yes to that? And no to that?' And you know, you look at the big picture and think: There's a universal lesson here. What good is it to hold onto roles?"

Dustin Hoffman, who has starred in everything from Kramer v. Kramer to The Graduate to Midnight Cowboy, is one of the most recognizable names in the business... which almost guarantees that he's made a few mistakes along the way. As his career took off, he apparently encountered a director he hadn't yet heard of, and the results were nothing less than disastrous.

According to Digital Spy, Hoffman met with Martin Scorsese early in his career to talk about a small project called Taxi Driver for a role that would later go to Robert De Niro, and Hoffman got a bad impression of the director right off the bat. "I remember meeting Martin Scorsese. He had no script and I didn't even know who he was," he recalled. "I hadn't seen any of his films and he talked a mile a minute telling me what the movie would be about."

In hindsight, Hoffman sees his decision to turn down Taxi Driver as a mistake. "I was thinking, 'What is he talking about?' I thought the guy was crazy! [...] I made so many dumb mistakes [turning down hit movies]. The list is endless."

Denzel Washington might be one of the most famous actors in all of Hollywood, but he actually has multiple regrets when it comes to huge roles. The Malcolm X and Philadelphia star, who won Academy Awards for Training Day and Glory, wishes he had said yes to two very specific projects, both of which became resounding successes.

The first of the projects was David Fincher's Se7en, which ultimately starred Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. Washington could have snagged Pitt's plum starring role, but he thought the material was too dark and upsetting, and he turned the project down. He also said no to Michael Clayton, which went on to star George Clooney and earn multiple Oscar nominations. When GQ asked which films he regretted turning down, he named both, and explained at least one of his decisions: "Se7en and Michael Clayton. With Clayton, it was the best material I had read in a long time, but I was nervous about a first-time director, and I was wrong. It happens."

The late Burt Reynolds, known for his roles in everything from Smokey and the Bandit to Boogie Nights, made his mark on the big screen in plenty of unforgettable projects, but his most famous role could have come elsewhere.

While promoting his autobiography on Good Morning America, as reported by The Guardian, Reynolds revealed his biggest career secret. Long ago, the legendary actor passed on one of the biggest parts in show business, deciding that he couldn't possibly play 007; after George Lazenby retired as James Bond, Reynolds was offered the role, but said no. As Reynolds said, "I think I could have done it well. In my stupidity, I said, 'An American can't play James Bond, it has to be an Englishman — Bond, James Bond. Nah, I can't do it.' Oops. Yeah, I could have done it." Reynolds went on to earn acclaim with his first big film role in Deliverance in 1972, but a stint as Bond could have put him on the map even earlier.

True to his idiosyncratic reputation, Nicolas Cage doesn't like to use the word "regret." In a 2015 interview with Newsweek, when asked if there are any roles he regrets turning down, Cage insisted he sees regret as a "waste of time," but added, "There certainly were movies that I probably would have benefited from if circumstances in my life allowed me to make them."

Pressed for specific examples, Cage responded, "Lord of the Rings. That trilogy. Aragorn [...] But the thing is about those movies, I can watch them. I can enjoy them as an audience member. I don't really watch my own movies. And so I genuinely do have the joy of watching these — especially with Lord of the Rings." As for what led to him turning down the opportunity to play Aragorn in Peter Jackson's Rings adaptations, he revealed, "There were different things going on in my life at the time that precluded me from being able to travel and be away from home for three years. And I do mean it. I get to enjoy the movies as an audience member, because I don't watch my own movies."