Movie Smashes That Could Have Been Totally Different — We Reveal the A-Listers Who Nearly Played Iconic Roles

Admitting she "stupidly said no" to the role that eventually landed in the lap of up-and-coming Sandra Bullock.

Halle Berry noted: "But in my defense, when I read the script, the bus didn’t leave the parking lot. I was like no, no, no, no. Then I see the movie and I’m like, ‘Arrrrghh.’"

Brad Pitt may have thought it was a good idea at the time but turning down the role of Bourne turned out to be the Pitts!

Not only did the film he made instead, Spy Game, become very forgettable, Matt Damon made a mint and a career playing Bourne four more times.

A star on Married … with Children, Christina Applegate didn’t want to play Elle Woods in fear of being typecast as a "dumb blonde."

Acknowledging she should have said "Think Pink," Applegate said: "What a stupid move that was, right?"

Lucky Reese Witherspoon did not have such a "dumb blonde" moment – and played the role in two movies.

Johnny Depp’s quirky portrayal turned Captain Jack Sparrow into a beloved film character, but who knows what Jack would have been had Jim Carrey put his goofy but genius comedic touch on the scallywag role instead of playing a man with Godlike powers in Bruce Almighty.

Even though then-wife Demi Moore landed the role of the Ghost's very alive wife Molly, Bruce Willis passed on the movie with a strange script, which Patrick Swayze eagerly accepted.

Willis said: "I just didn’t get it.

"I said, 'Hey, the guy's dead. How are you gonna have a romance?' Famous last words."

Jack Nicholson passed on the chance to play Michael Corleone because he wasn’t Italian.

He said: "Back then I believed that Indians should play Indians and Italians should play Italians.

"There were a lot of actors who could have played Michael, myself included, but Al Pacino was Michael Corleone. I can’t think of a better compliment to pay him."

Shawshank Redemption is one of the great classics, but Kevin Costner nixed the role for what he believed would be an even bigger blockbuster … the box-office bomb Waterworld.

That left the juicy role opposite Morgan Freeman for a grateful Tim Robbins.

Saying "there was such evil in that film," Michelle Pfeiffer refused the role, but too bad she didn’t see the light, which can now be seen sparkling on the Best Actress Oscar that Jodie Foster took home for playing the FBI’s Clarice Starling, one of the greatest heroines ever put on film!

She admitted: "The thing I regret most is missing the opportunity to do another film with Jonathan (Demme)."

Al Pacino as Han Solo? Whoo-ah! The Force didn’t let it happen, though.

Pacino revealed: "It was mine for the taking, but I didn’t understand the script."

While Harrison Ford then made the space cowboy his own, it would have been interesting to see the spin the Oscar winner would have put on the role!

Friends don’t let Friends star David Schwimmer turn down the juicy role of Agent J that Will Smith rode through three films grossing more than $1.6 billion.

Instead, David appeared in The Pallbearer and Kissing a Fool. Remember those? No, we don’t either!

At the time, action star Mel Gibson decided he was too old to play Maximus, opening the Colosseum gates for Russell Crowe to become a star … an Oscar-winning star to boot!

Gibson also passed on Dustin Hoffman’s role in Rain Man, which went on to win Best Picture.

Not wanting to be typecast as a leather-jacketed greaser, Henry Winkler was The Fonz on Happy Days and nixed portraying Danny opposite Olivia Newton-John’s Sandy.

Winkler noted: "John Travolta went on to buy his own plane, and I just went home."

Grease is the word that Winkler wishes he’d said "yes" to!

The Saturday Night Fever star said it wasn’t his best move to turn down a beloved film character for which Tom Hanks won his second Oscar in a row.

Life is like a box of chocolates — and Travolta picked the one you spit out.

Yippee Ki-Yay! Don Johnson refused to turn in his iconic Miami Vice white suit to play New York cop John McClane in the action-packed thriller.

Instead, the role went to relatively unknown Moonlighting star Willis, who picked up the ball and ran with it to stardom!

Although he said he "would have benefitted from" playing Aragorn as did Viggo Mortensen in the iconic trilogy.

Nicolas Cage 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."

Instead of the opening film of an immensely successful movie franchise, Smith roped himself a bum steer — he opted to make the universally despised flop Wild Wild West.

Unlike Keanu Reeves in the film, Smith chose the real-life blue pill of blissful ignorance instead of the risky red one.

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