15 Actors Who Foolishly Turned Down Career-Making TV Roles

2. Matthew Broderick Was Almost Walter White - Breaking Bad

1. And So Was John Cusack

Not only is it hard to imagine someone other than Bryan Cranston playing Walter White on AMC's Breaking Bad, but it is also difficult to accept that both Matthew Broderick and John Cusack were offered and turned down the role of the cancer-suffering science teacher turned crystal meth kingpin. Fortunately for just about everyone, Cranston was the one to get the job and he ran with it, committing one of the greatest performances of the last decade to screen in the process. In his almost six years as Walter White, Cranston earned himself 3 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series during Breaking Bad's first three seasons, making him the second person in history to win the award three years in a row along with Bill Cosby for his role in the NBC adventure series I Spy. While both Cusack and Broderick have been just about able to keep their careers from going down the tubes completely, most of their recent work hasn't been too flattering, and nothing at all stands up to what Walter White could have done for them. With films like the critically panned The Raven for Cusack and a few small films that also didn't receive good reviews for Broderick, both could have used the help of one of the most acclaimed characters of all time to shove them back into stardom. When all was said and done, it was they who broke bad, not the show. Did we miss any other actors who infamously turned down career-making TV roles? Share your own picks below.