10 Potential TV Castings We’re SO Glad Didn’t Happen
8. Ray Liotta As Tony Soprano (The Sopranos)
Given that Ray Liotta’s career hasn’t exactly sparkled in the past 25 years or so, you have to wonder if the Goodfellas star regretted his decision to turn down seminal TV drama The Sopranos. The show is hailed with ushering in the golden age of high quality television drama, but Liotta wanted no part of it.
He was scouted by producers for the crime drama, but decided against even auditioning, fearing playing Tony Soprano so soon after Goodfellas would see him typecast as a one note guy. It’s an understandable decision; typecasting has stalled many a star’s career. In Liotta’s case though, he might be wishing he’d let himself be typecast now.
After Liotta turned them down, showrunner David Chase changed tactics. He decided to go for a relatively unknown actor, one without typical Hollywood good looks, and cast James Gandolfini. This decision paid off handsomely as The Sopranos became a huge hit off the back of Gandolfini’s performance.
Sopranos writer Matthew Weiner would later repeat this trick of casting an unknown star with Jon Hamm as Don Draper in his own show, Mad Men; another decision which turned out to be genius.