15 Actors Who Foolishly Turned Down Career-Making TV Roles

5. John Hawkes Was Almost The Governor - The Walking Dead

Similar to Thomas Jane's situation, John Hawkes had his doubts about being a series regular on a television show on basic cable, which is what led to him ultimately passing on the goldmine that was The Governor on AMC's The Walking Dead.

"They offered me the role, and I just felt there would be someone else who could do it better," he said in an exclusive interview with MovieWeb in 2010. "There are going to be sponsors. No matter how good the show is, if there are commercials, it's going to be a different show, to me. That's just my personal feeling."

While Hawkes' reasoning for not taking the role actually makes a lot of sense, the Governor will go down as one of the best characters in the history of the show regardless, and has utterly transformed the career of David Morrissey. When all was said and done, Morrissey threw on an eye patch and struck fear into the hearts of everyone that watched him.

Hawkes shouldn't be losing any sleep for his gaff though as he has had large roles in critically acclaimed films such as Winter's Bone, Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Sessions to name a few, but there's nothing quite like turning down the coolest TV villain of the past decade.