

With the Lord of the Rings TV show getting decent reviews, we were reminded of one star who decided that the Peter Jackson movie wasn’t for them.
The star was Sean Connery who, according to IMDb, said about the film: “I had never read Tolkien and I did not understand the script when they sent it to me. Bobbits? Hobbits?”
He was in line for the role of Gandalf, which eventually went to Ian McKellen. But he isn’t the only actor who has turned down huge roles.
At the height of their powers, actors can get sent a dizzying amount of scripts to sift through and without the trusty guidance of a confirmed psychic, it's often rather difficult to know which one is worth picking.
So when you find out that the one you threw in the bin ends up winning all of the Oscars, you might feel a bit peeved. Here are some actors talking about huge roles they turned down, for better or for worse...
Actors who said no to big movie roles
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As Content Director of Shortlist, Marc likes nothing more than to compile endless lists of an evening by candlelight. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.