10 Actors Bullied Into Roles They Never Wanted

9. Pierce Brosnan - Remington Steele

NBC

In his early career, Pierce Brosnan must have been counting his lucky stars that he landed the Remington Steele gig, though his role in the popular romantic detective show ended up being a grand source of anguish for the actor, who ended up having to drop out of his original placement in the James Bond franchise because of it.

A personal choice of Albert R. Broccoli, it seemed like smooth sailing for Brosnan in 1986, as Remington Steele had just been cancelled and he could seamlessly glide from one job to the next. NBC, however, had other plans.

The publicity of Brosnan being announced as Bond allowed NBC to crassly renew the show and Brosnan had to decline the role as he was, yes, contractually obliged to appear on the show. Timothy Dalton instead filled in for two films, and in 1995, Brosnan finally got to live the dream by ably playing James Bond, admittedly in what were admittedly the spy's worst entries on the whole.

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