10 Strangest Reasons Actors Turned Down Famous Movie Roles
6. Jet Li Didn't Want His Martial Arts Moves Digitally Captured - The Matrix Sequels
The Role
Seraph, the AI authenticator program who also serves as the bodyguard of the Oracle (Gloria Foster and Mary Alice) in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
The part eventually went to thoroughly badass Taiwanese martial artist Collin Chou, though before him it was first offered to Michelle Yeoh, who turned it down. After this, Seraph was gender-flipped and then presented to the legendary Jet Li.
Why He Turned It Down
As easy it is to imagine Li playing the hell out of the role, he turned down a presumably sizeable payday for a most unexpected reason - he had major concerns about Hollywood "owning" his martial arts skills. He said:
"It was a commercial struggle for me... I realized the Americans wanted me to film for three months but be with the crew for nine. And for six months, they wanted to record and copy all my moves into a digital library. By the end of the recording, the right to these moves would go to them... I was thinking: I've been training my entire life. And we martial artists could only grow older... Yet they could own [my moves] as an intellectual property forever. So I said I couldn't do that."
While back in 2003 that might've seemed pretty ridiculous on Li's part, in an age where actors' likenesses are becoming increasingly appropriated in digital form, he was actually ahead of the curve.