10 Craziest Reasons Actors Were Rejected For Movie Roles
7. Robert Redford Had Never Struck Out With A Girl - The Graduate
Of the truly laughable reasons an actor has ever been thrown out of the running for an eventually iconic role, Mike Nicholls' justification for not handing the reins over to Robert Redford for The Graduate ranks as perhaps the most unintentionally flattering.
Despite Redford very much angling to play the part of leading man Benjamin Braddock in Nicholls' flick, the director simply felt he lacked one vital quality that was needed to play the underdog role. In short, he wasn't exactly unlucky when it came to women in his life.
As the director reportedly posed to Redford, "Have you ever struck out with a girl?" Redford, baffled by the query, then was said to have replied by asking, "What do you mean?", and that was enough to confirm to Nicholls that Redford most definitely had not walked in the same shoes as Braddock.
This eventually opened the door for Dustin Hoffman to step into those shoes of the now-well known graduate, kick-starting a career which would see him join Redford as one of the real heavyweights of the industry.