10 Craziest Reasons Actors Were Rejected For Movie Roles

10. Gillian Anderson Wasn't Allowed To Play Another Detective - Hannibal

Of the many terrific personalities Gillian Anderson has effortlessly executed on the big and small screen in her three decades of acting brilliance, it's hard to look past The X Files' Agent Dana Scully as the part she is most synonymous with when all is said and done. Picking up countless gongs for her stellar work opposite David Duchovny's Agent Fox Mulder, Anderson made up one half of arguably the most recognisable pair of agents in pop culture during the '90s and '00s.

However, it was this notable work on the Fox show that ultimately cost her the chance of playing another mouth-watering and no less popular agent in what would become the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal.

Despite being considered alongside the rest of the formidable stars of the time, Anderson was reportedly dropped out of contention for the 2001 flick due to Fox placing a strange rule in her contract that stated she could not play another FBI agent whilst The X Files was still running.

That still didn't stop Anderson from finally dipping into the Hannibal pool years later, though, as Bedelia Du Maurier in the TV Show adaptation of Hannibal.