10 Actors Who Had To Beg For Famous Film Roles

"When you want something, go get it. Period." - Will Smith

We often think of Hollywood celebrities lazily auditioning for parts and nabbing them anyway - more of a formality than anything, right? Just to please the fat cats upstairs; to make sure they look okay on camera, and get on with the director. Imagined less, then, is the idea that the same Hollywood stars are having to fight for great parts and - more often than not - have to pit themselves against other established actors in the battle for a great role. It's strange to think about that occurring, mostly because we tend to envision the Hollywood elite as "having it made." When all else fails, though, and it looks like a role might be going to somebody else, an actor might resort to one final tactic: to beg. Despite the fact that the majority of us associate these folk with doing anything but begging, on a few notable occassions an actor has literally been given no other choice but to beg for a specific part. This might happen for a number of reasons, of course, but the main one tends to be that the director is unconvinced, whereas the actor feels as though they were born to play the role and can't bear the thought of it going to somebody else entirely. Join us as we take a look at 10 instances of actors begging for the parts that eventually became what are arguably their best and most memorable roles (in most cases, anyway). With a lot of the examples here, the associated directors had good reason to be nervous about casting said actors, but were presumably swayed by the sheer conviction and dedication these guys showed...
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