10 Actors Who Turned Down Movie Roles Because Of Spite

Rapper-actor Ja Rule appeared in the original Fast and the Furious as racer Edwin, and naturally when Universal was putting together the sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, it was assumed that he would return.

With Vin Diesel opting not to reprise his lead role of Dominic Toretto, the decision was made to beef up some of the supporting roles, including that of Edwin. Rule was offered $500,000 to return, after earning just $15,000 on the first film.

2 Fast 2 Furious' late director John Singleton revealed in a more recent interview that Rule, whose rap career was skyrocketing in 2002, felt that he was now "too big" for the franchise. He said:

"Ja got too big for himself. He turned it down. He turned down a half a million dollars... He was acting like he was too big to be in the sequel. He wouldn't return calls. I went to the studio to go see him... He was kinda playing me to the side and I was like, 'What? What is this s**t?'"

Singleton then decided to offer Rule's part to Ludacris instead, which was rewritten to be an entirely new character, Tej Parker, as of course became a massively lucrative role for Ludacris.

As for Rule? He claimed at the time that he was "trying to do this acting thing very seriously," though it's not being unkind to say that his acting career never went anywhere particularly fruitful - certainly not enough to turn down a Fast and the Furious sequel.

And that's without even getting into Rule's involvement with the infamously bungled Fyre Festival.