10 Actors Who Rightly Turned Down Iconic Roles

10. Leonardo DiCaprio - Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)

Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale have both established themselves as two of the best character actors of the 21st Century, either as standout supporting characters or as the stars. Despite DiCaprio’s good looks, he’s more than willing to get his hands dirty in movies like Django Unchained, The Revenant and The Departed.

However, back in the late ‘90s, DiCaprio had just become one of the biggest stars on the planet thanks to Titanic, a role which made him a major heartthrob. He was all set to take that momentum with him into American Psycho, before his entourage encouraged him to drop out.

It didn’t really do to have the world’s biggest teen dream chasing around murdering girls with chainsaws after all, did it?

After Leo left, Christian Bale stepped up and made the role his own, inhabiting the truly twisted mind of Patrick Bateman better than anyone could have. Two years later in 2002, DiCaprio starred in Gangs Of New York and began shedding his heartthrob image to take on more serious, gritty parts.

Skipping American Psycho seems to have worked out well not only for him, but for Christian Bale too.