10 Actors Who Stupidly Turned Down Iconic Roles

9. Molly Ringwald - Pretty Woman

The Role: Vivian Ward

For a while there in the 80s, Molly Ringwald was the princess of Hollywood, thanks to her performances in classic fare like Pretty In Pink and The Breakfast Club before the tail-end of the 80s brought less successful films, followed by obscurity for the best part of the past two decades.

it would have been an awful lot different for Ringwald if she had decided to accept the role of Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman, which eventually led to an Oscar-nomination and a sparkling career for Julia Roberts, who didn't turn it down. Perhaps the chance to play a prostitute made Ringwald balk, given her family's sensibilities: David Lynch had apparently sent her the screenplay of Blue Velvet to try and get her interested in playing Sandy, but Molly's mother read it first, and refused to show it to Molly because she was disturbed by it.

Who knows, if she'd accepted the role, Molly could have went on to have greater longevity in her career, going on to make important films like Erin Brockovitch, rather than becoming a footnote from the 80s and a figure of fun in Family Guy.