10 Actors Who Turned Down Roles In MCU Movies
7. Rachel McAdams- Iron Man
The Rejected Role: Tony Stark's right-hand woman and love interest, Pepper Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow.
What Happened?: Rachel McAdams came on the scene with extremely popular turns in Mean Girls and The Notebook. Since then, apart from a slight detour with Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, she largely avoided big-budget films and remained pretty low-key. That didn't stop Jon Favreau from putting her at the top of his wishlist when casting Tony Stark's red-headed "Girl Friday".
McAdams, however, could not be swayed into the glossy world of superhero movies and chose to make more adult fare like State of Play and The Time Traveler's Wife.
For Better Or Worse?
Not a lot of people were fans of Paltrow in this role, but I'd argue that her chemistry with Robert Downey Jr. is very strong and she is actually quite good once she's given things to do in the sequels.
For that reason, it's not surprising McAdams turned down the role because Pepper was nothing more than a damsel in distress. However, like Mikkelsen, McAdams was more intrigued by Marvel's mystical world and will be appearing in this year's Doctor Strange, rumored to be playing Night Nurse.