20 Actors Who Turned Down Major Movie Roles

Although Halle Berry's Oscar speech is probably more famous than the film she won it for at this point, there is no denying that she was well deserving of the vast praise she received.

Before she was cast in Monster's Ball, however, the role of Leticia Musgrove was offered to Angela Bassett. Herself no stranger to gritty roles and powerful pictures - Malcolm X, The American Dream, What's Love Got to Do With It? - it may come as a surprise that she turned the role down.

But, boy, did she have her reasons.

After the film's release, Bassett said in an interview that she didn't take the role because she wouldn't have been proud of it. Why? Well, Bassett didn't mince her words when it came to explaining her rationale, stating that Berry's character is "a prostitute" and a terrible "stereotype for black women and sexuality."

She did go on to praise Berry, however, as she went on to be the first African-American woman to win a Best Actress Oscar, but Bassett insists it's not a role she could live with having played.