Actors Who Almost Said 'No' to Iconic Roles & Why They Changed Their Minds (1 of Them Won an Oscar for the Part!)

Jenna Ortega – Wednesday

Jenna Ortega stole hearts with her interpretation of the delightfully dark Wednesday Addams in the hit Netflix series Wednesday. But she only took the role after initially turning it down.

“I had done so much TV in my life, all I’ve ever wanted to do is film,” she explained to The Times. “When I first started acting, I don’t want to say nobody believed in me, but at the same time, nobody believed in me. You have to prove yourself. It’s only in the last three or four years that I’ve been able to start going up for film.”

She continued, saying, “I was scared that signing on to another television show could prevent me from doing other jobs I really wanted and cared about.”

What changed her mind: Simply put, Tim Burton. “[He] is such a legend, and we just happened to get along very well,” she recalled. “But even then I said, ‘Ah, no — I think I’m OK,’ a couple [more] times.”

Chris Pratt – Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel has a thing for making perfect casting decisions, and they got it right when they cast Chris Pratt to play Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy. However, some bad experiences with previous auditions made him hesitant.

He told Esquire that his first response was “I don’t think so.”

“I just didn’t picture myself getting the role. I didn’t want to go and embarrass myself like I did when I auditioned for G.I. Joe a couple of years previously. I went in there, and halfway through I saw the director’s eyes just glaze over. It made sense—I was a little heavy and out of shape. I was not gonna play someone from G.I. Joe. I did not look like a G.I. Joe action figure come to life,” he explained.

There were 15 other actors in the running to play Star-Lord before Chris was cast.