8. Vince Vaughn - Donnie Darko (Donnie Darko)
I'm not sure why this one was ever an option, given that Vince Vaughn was about thirty years old when
Donnie Darko got made back in 2001. Still, the actor best known at the time for
Swingers and Gus Van Sant's
Psycho remake, was offered the role of the movie's protagonist - who is, by the way, a 16-year-old boy. And ol' Vince had exactly the same problem with that concept as I do: he didn't like the idea of playing a teenager, given his age. In this case, too, it would've been a terrible idea to change the script to focus around somebody closer to Vaughn's age, because half of what makes
Donnie Darko great is that it's a teen angst flick. Instead, Vaughn bailed on the movie and Jake Gyllenhaal was rightly cast in the role instead. Gyllenhaal's sister, Maggie, was even brought in to play Donnie's movie sister, which was pretty cool. That's to say,
Donnie Darko reached its full potential because Vince Vaughn was wise enough to say "no." Thank you, Mr. Vaughn.