10 Actors Who Must Regret Turning Down Major Film Roles

4. Kevin Costner - Andy Dufresne (The Shawshank Redemption)

Kevin Costner was one of the world's most famous, sought-after actors during the late 80s and early 90s. He starred in the likes of Dances With Wolves, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, JFK and The Bodyguard, and was invariably excellent in every role he played. When talk arose of him playing Andy Dufresne in the 1994 classic The Shawshank Redemption, he seemed perfect for the part. His star quality would make it hugely successful money-wise, and he had the talent to nail the white-collar banker wrongly accused of murder. Costner inexcusably decided to reject the role, however, because of his commitments to Waterworld; comfortably one of the worst films of the last 20 years. Despite making a fair amount of money, the film was panned, and Costner's career never continued its meteoric rise from that point on. Shawshank, meanwhile, is now widely considered as one of the best films of all time, and Tim Robbins' performance as Dufresne was absolutely brilliant. It earned him an Oscar nomination, but he lost out to Tom Hanks, who had also declined the role. If Costner had just said yes, rather than making the woeful decision to star in Waterworld, the likelihood is that he would have nailed the part, and continued to enhance his reputation as one of Hollywood's most consistent leading men.