10 Actors Who Originally Turned Down Their Most Iconic Roles

Before Tom Hanks did comedy-drama, he did outright comedy, and his most famous role from those early years is probably that of Josh Baskin in Big.

Big tells the story of a kid who is transformed into an adult to hilarious consequences, and it's one of the roles that - despite having played tons of iconic characters across the years - Tom Hanks fans always seem to go back to.

Hanks wasn't actually the first choice for the part of Josh, believe it or not. Before he was cast, the studio considered everyone from Clint Eastwood (?) to Robin Williams (makes sense). What they really wanted, however, was for Harrison Ford to star in a film directed by Steven Spielberg, but both men were uninterested in the idea and passed.

When the film eventually came around to Tom Hanks, he immediately signed on, convinced that the project would be a hit. Just kidding: he was forced to turn it down due to a scheduling conflict, and the project moved in Robert De Niro's direction. When DeNiro asked for too much money, it eventually came back around to Hanks, who agreed to play Josh Baskin for the sum of $2 million.

Big was the movie that made Hanks a star in Hollywood, so good thing that De Niro was being greedy, or we might have missed out a lot of amazing '90s films.