10 Actors Who Passed On Iconic Movie Roles

There are few performances in cinema history more terrifying than Anthony Hopkins turn as psychopathic cannibal Hannibal Lecter in the 1992 Best Picture winner The Silence of the Lambs. From the second that FBI agent Clarice Starling and the audience lay eyes on the madman, you know that his dead-eyed stare and unnatural hissing will be stuck in your mind for the rest of your life.

But as iconic as Hopkins is in the part, it could very well have passed him by if one Gene Hackman had decided to accept the role. In fact, Hackman was the one who initially bought the rights to the book the movie is based on and had his eye on the director’s chair too. He first cast himself as Hannibal before deciding it would be too much to handle and gave himself the part of Jack Crawford, Clarice’s boss.

Eventually, he was convinced by one of his daughters to drop out entirely because she thought it was too violent a film for him to do that soon after Mississippi Burning. Hackman sold the rights to Orion, who hired Jonathan Demme and he brought on Hopkins. And the rest is Oscar history.