10 Movie Actors Who Really Couldn't Handle Casting Rejections
7. Ashley Judd Sued Harvey Weinstein For "Torpedoing" Her Lord Of The Rings Audition
Once Harvey Weinstein's pervasive sexual harassment allegations were brought to light, actress Ashley Judd filed her own lawsuit against the Miramax boss for allegedly "torpedoing" her career after she refused to sleep with him in the late 1990s.
Judd claimed that she was being tipped for a major role in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and had even met with Jackson over playing a number of different parts, after which she abruptly never heard from the director again.
Judd long suspected that Weinstein had "blackballed" her among the Hollywood elite, and shortly after Weinstein's transgressions surfaced, Jackson indeed confirmed that Weinstein had called both her and Mira Sorvino - another actress up for Rings who similarly rejected Weinstein's advances - nightmarish actresses to be avoided "at all costs."
You certainly can't argue with Judd's entirely justified bitterness, losing an extremely lucrative role - most likely either Arwen (Liv Tyler) or Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) - as well as her career momentum on the whims of an industry tyrant.