10 Actors Who Were REJECTED For Recent Movies (And Why)

The Role: Though it hasn't been 100% confirmed who Samara Weaving was set to play, most fans seem to agree it was almost certainly protagonist Sam Carpenter, as was played by Melissa Barrera.

Why She Was Rejected: As soon as Ready or Not directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett were confirmed to be making the fifth Scream movie, many speculated on whether or not that film's star, Weaving, would end up cast in Scream.

And back in the summer of 2020, shortly after shooting started, Weaving herself confirmed that the filmmakers had planned to cast her in the slasher sequel, but the combination of scheduling conflicts and the impact of the pandemic prompted them to move on without her.

With COVID-19 pushing Scream's originally planned shooting dates back four months, it ended up clashing with Weaving's work filming the miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers in Australia. As Weaving herself put it, "Traveling is very difficult these days."

Given that Sam is really the only age-appropriate part for Weaving to play, and Barrera was only cast weeks before shooting started, it seems self-evident that the directors were eyeing her to play the lead.

It's easy to see how she would've knocked it out of the park, but they landed on their feet pretty well with Barrera regardless.