10 Actors Cast In Different Movie Roles Than They Wanted

It must be quite devastating to wander into an audition with hopes of securing a fascinating or even life-changing movie role, only to eventually learn that you didn't quite have what those casting the project were looking for.

However, while the majority of the talented thespians out there who just weren't right for a specific character simply had to swallow that rejection and move onto the next potential project, this lot didn't actually walk away from those failures empty-handed.

Sure, they may not have looked like Gods of Thunder, a bloke who could carry a legendary shield, or the ingénue of an eventual teen hit, but that didn't mean there wasn't still a place for them in the following features. And thanks to the various directors and casting departments involved here, some of the most iconic and entertaining performances in movie history were eventually born after these actors found themselves being offered a role they definitely didn't originally plan on landing.

Cinematic universes, classic comedies, and absolute epics could have looked entirely different if this lot were successful in getting the parts they initially wanted.

In what eventually turned out to be a breakthrough year for the ages, the fantastic Rachel McAdams starred in both The Notebook and Mean Girls back in 2004. And it was her tremendous work as the ridiculously quotable leader of the Plastics, Regina George, that still arguably sits as the actor's most iconic performance to date.

However, that wasn't actually the role she had her eyes on back when McAdams was auditioning for a part in director Mark Waters' movie.

As Waters himself would explain (via Cosmopolitan) years on from the eventual teen hit's release, despite McAdams being "incredible" during her audition for the part of Cady Heron - the innocent 16-year-old who transfers to the Plastics' high school - the director felt the 25-year-old star was just a bit "too old" for that ingenue character.

The team behind the movie originally felt Lindsay Lohan would have made for a great Regina, too, at one point. But after swapping those roles around during the testing process, Waters noticed how Lohan got a little nervous around the older and experienced McAdams. After that it soon became clear that the older actor was "the better choice" for Regina, and the rest was captivating history.