10 Roles Written For Actors That Didn't Play Them

10. James Woods Was Supposed To Be In Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut couldn't have existed without the cast he'd assembled. Michael Madsen's sociopathic bank robber, Harvey Keitel's criminal with a conscience and the bombastic Steve Buscemi spout out the writer's idiosyncratic dialogue like a second language, and he blends the gang of relative newcomers with old Hollywood relics at home in film noir.

Lawrence Tierney's old mob boss was straight out of the 1940s noir that had made him famous - a hulking presence of few words that menaced with a glance rather than a verbal threat (according to commentary on his guest appearance on The Simpsons, he was the only guest to actually frighten the producer's in the studio).

But one actor familiar with the gangster genre was on Tarantino' s wish list while casting: reportedly, he had sent the script to James Woods' agent. What role he had in mind for the actor has never been revealed, but it is largely assumed it was Tim Roth's ill-fated Mr. Orange. Whatever the role, Woods would have been at home.

Years later, Tarantino told Woods he had sent his agent the script - but his agent laughed it off and didn't even bother showing it to his client. Shortly afterward, Woods fired his agent.