Selena Gomez was offered the role of Mitchie Torres in Camp Rock but turned it down, recommending Demi Lovato, her best friend at the time, to the producers instead. The role ended up launching Lovato’s career.

Nicolas Cage passed on the role of Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy because he felt like he couldn’t commit three years of his life to the production. The role was eventually played by Viggo Mortensen instead.

Tom Hardy was cast to play Elton John in Rocketman but after the film got stuck in development hell, he dropped out and was replaced with Taron Egerton.

Mark Wahlberg was originally cast as the lead in Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko but dropped out due to creative differences; he wanted the character to have a lisp while Kelly didn’t. The role eventually went to Jake Gyllenhaal.

Ryan Gosling was set to star in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones but after he gained 60 pounds because he thought the character should be overweight, he was fired and replaced with Mark Wahlberg, leaving him, in his own words, “fat and unemployed”.

Harry Styles auditioned for and got the part of Prince Eric in Disney’s live action The Little Mermaid remake but ended up turning it down for undisclosed reasons. Jonah Hauer-King was eventually cast instead.

Emilia Clarke was offered the lead role of Anastasia Steele in the 50 Shades franchise but turned it down, fearing she would get typecast due to the nudity involved in both this and Game of Thrones. Dakota Johnson ultimately landed the role instead.