10 Actors Who Turned Down Doctor Who

Why are all three of these Hollywood A-list actors lumped together in one entry, you might ask? Because they all have one thing in common – Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, and Jim Carrey were all, at one point, offered to play the eighth Doctor in the 1996 TV Movie of Doctor Who.

Both Fox and Universal Studios wanted a big name attached to the movie as the leading role. But all three men rejected the role for different reasons. Hanks was a huge fan of the franchise and would have loved to have portrayed the Doctor, but felt as though an American playing the main character wouldn’t have done justice for the show’s legacy. Meanwhile, Carrey turned down the opportunity because he had never actually seen an episode of the main show and believed audiences would have been outraged by a non-fan playing such an iconic character. As for Harrison Ford, he simply didn’t want to work in television.