10 Actors Who Must Regret Turning Down 2015’s Biggest Movies

9. Sean Penn - The Revenant

The Role: John Fitzgerald, the criminal frontiersman who leaves protagonist Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) for dead after a bear attack, and finds Glass out to seek revenge on him. Penn was actually cast in the part by writer-director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, but dreaded scheduling caused Penn to turn it down, leading to Tom Hardy landing the part instead. Why They Regret Turning It Down: Because what else has Penn done lately worth missing out on it for? The only release Penn has had over the last two years was the terrible thriller The Gunman, and though it was clearly a passion project for him (a heavy-handed political action flick he co-wrote), it's heartbreaking to think he squandered working with one of the world's best filmmakers and possibly scoring himself another Oscar nomination for a Taken knock-off that was critically and commercially panned. Would It Have Worked?: Definitely. Penn is great at playing complex, vicious characters, and though we're equally lucky to have Hardy in the part, it's interesting to consider how different it would've been with a veteran of Penn's caliber in the role.