7 Actors Who Rejected Movies For Being Too Evil (And Regretted It)
3. John Lithgow - Batman
If things had worked out differently, the world could've been blessed with a Batman movie starring John Lithgow as The Joker.
In the early stages of developing what would eventually become Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, Gremlins director Joe Dante was attached to helm, and for the role of The Joker he couldn't imagine anyone else but Lithgow playing the part.
However, Lithgow ended up taking himself out of the running due to feeling that, coming off the back of mentally draining stage work, he didn't have the emotional energy to tackle a character as dark as The Joker. He said in a 2017 Vulture interview:
"I was doing M. Butterfly on Broadway and it was an exhausting show. It would have meant leaving that show and going right into a movie, and I said, 'I just don’t think I can.' How about that for stupid? Actors are not necessarily smart people."
Curiously, Lithgow ended up turning the Joker role down a second time years later when Burton came aboard, noting that during his audition he effectively talked Burton out of casting him:
"My worst audition was for Tim Burton for Batman... I have never told anyone this story, but I tried to persuade him I was not right for the part, and I succeeded. I didn't realize it was such a big deal. About a week later I heard they were going after Robin Williams and Jack Nicholson."