20 Actors That Crazily Turned Down Legendary Roles

20. Daniel Day Lewis - Aragorn (The Lord Of The Rings)

daniel day lewis Multiple times was Daniel Day-Lewis presented with the role of Aragorn in Lord of The Rings and much to the frustration of Peter Jackson, multiple times he declined. We all know that Daniel Day Lewis is widely reknowned as being one of the most choosy actors in film history, appearing in under 20 films throughout his 35 year career. With this in mind, it was always going to be improbable that Day-Lewis would pledge himself to three films at one time, so perhaps the makers of The Lord Of The Rings approached him for the role more in hope than in expectation. Taking nothing away from Viggo Mortensen, whom I thought was a real revelation as Aragorn, (in fact one of the standout performances of the trilogy) but I don't suppose that I'm alone in the fact that I would have paid good money to see Daniel Day-Lewis strut his stuff amid the striking scenery of Middle Earth. Of course we already know that he can execute the role of the "romantic ranger" to perfection, as we have seen him in a comparable role to that of Aragorn, in the 1992 film The Last Of The Mohicans, a performance which netted him a BAFTA nomination.
 
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Massive Arsenal fan Jacob Savill, is a new-ish contributor to WhatCulture and his first few articles have proved popular amongst the sports and film pages. As an A-Level English Student and an aspiring journalist he's using WhatCulture as preparation for what he hopes to be a successful journalistic career.