10 Actors Who Got Paid To Do Pretty Much Nothing

Bob Hoskins has such an uncanny resemblance to Alphonse "Scarface" Capone it's criminal he never got the chance to play the infamous gangster in a film adaptation.

However, Hoskins was suppose to play Capone in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables. When the director met Hoskins to discuss the movie, he admitted Robert De Niro was his first choice to play Capone. Because De Niro had yet to agree to work on the film, De Palma told Hoskins the role was his if he wanted it, which the Cockney actor agreed to.

So, when Hoskins discovered De Niro had accepted the part shortly after, Hoskins assumed he no longer had ties with the project.

But one day, he received a check worth $200,000 from De Palma and a letter reading, "Thank you Bob for being my stand-by. Love Brian." Hoskins was bewildered since he hadn't the slightest clue he would be paid for his time with the renowned filmmaker.

Immediately after receiving the money, Hoskins rank up De Palma and said, "Brian, do you have any more films you don't want me to be in?"