10 Actors Who Turned Down The Decade's Biggest TV Shows

1. Matthew Broderick - Walter White (Breaking Bad)

For years, word has spread around the Internet that John Cusack turned down the role of teacher-turned-drug-dealer Walter White on AMC's hit show Breaking Bad. However, Cusack took to Twitter last year to categorically shoot this widely-believed rumour down, casually declaring to a fan "Didn€™t turn it down u crazy". The belief that Matthew Broderick was handed the show's script continues to hold strong, however, and given the Ferris Bueller actor's rather meager prospects these days, we're pretty surprised he didn't take it. Would It Have Worked? This is a tough one. Broderick is an actor who rarely stretches himself by playing bad guys: he's just too fresh-faced and likeable for that, so would we ever have been able to buy him saying things like "I am the one who knocks"? More to the point, would Broderick be willing to throw his vanity aside and shave his head for the part? We could imagine the show being cancelled during its first season simply because Broderick wouldn't have fit the part, but then the same could easily have been said of Bryan Cranston prior to the show airing, and look how that turned out. Whether it would have worked or not, it's virtually impossible to imagine anyone but Cranston as Walter White. End of story. How do you think these original casting choices would have fared? Let us know in the comments!