20 Actors That Crazily Turned Down Legendary Roles

6. Michael Madsen - Vincent Vega (Pulp Fiction)

aaa Michael Madsen is very much a long overlooked and forgotten actor. In fact, in recent years he has been so sidelined from Hollywood that he resorted to appearing in the new series of Celebrity Big Brother, amongst the all-star cast of Frankie Cocozza and Ryan Giggs€™ ex wife. Madsen is probably most famous for his roles in the Tarantino films such as Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs and Budd in the Kill Bill Volumes. However neither of those roles defined his career, like the role of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction would have. Pulp Fiction is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time and John Travolta's portrayal of Vincent Vega in Tarantino's cult hit was the point in which he managed to turn around his spiralling career. So this begs the question, Why did Madsen turn this role down? A role which could have been the makings of a glittering film career. He himself has famously remarked €œQuentin€™s the only one that€™s ever going to give me a job.€ In fact Madsen passed up this opportunity in favour of a minor supporting role in Kevin Costner€™s Wyatt Earp, a film which was nominated for as many Razzie€™s as Pulp Fiction was Oscars. At the time it seemed like a strange decision and Madsen still to this day regrets it. In fact for many years afterwards, (as a result of Madsen shunning the film,) Tarantino and Madsen lost contact and didn't speak for 6 or 7 years.
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Massive Arsenal fan Jacob Savill, is a new-ish contributor to WhatCulture and his first few articles have proved popular amongst the sports and film pages. As an A-Level English Student and an aspiring journalist he's using WhatCulture as preparation for what he hopes to be a successful journalistic career.