TV Shows That Actors Refused To Be A Part Of

By their very nature, TV shows get viewers comfortable with the idea of certain actors playing certain characters. Whether it's 22 half-hours of a sitcom or 13 hours of a cable drama, spending so much time with a performer who's inhabiting a specific role makes it hard to imagine anyone else taking on those parts. That's especially true when the actor is amazing at portraying their character. Could anyone else have played Walter White like Bryan Cranston on Breaking Bad? Ditto Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha on Bewitched? It's impossible to comprehend anyone else taking on those parts.

But while these actors seem tailor-made for their roles after hours of viewing, the inherent process of casting means that these stars were rarely the first choice for their characters. As it turns out, many of the original picks just flat-out refused to be part of TV shows that would end becoming some of the most iconic programs of all-time. Though it may sound preposterous to turn down those series with the benefit of hindsight, a multitude of reasons informed these actors and their decisions to walk away. 

Sometimes, salary disputes kept certain performers at bay, while other times, it was as simple as an actor being uncomfortable performing on television. Whatever the issues, there are endless examples of famous faces decidedly saying "no" to some of the most beloved TV shows of all-time.

You'd have to live under a rock not to know about musician Whitney Houston's vast library of iconic songs. In addition to being one of the all-time great singers, Houston also scored a number of high-profile acting gigs in movies like The Bodyguard and The Preacher's Wife. But there's a timeline where both her acting career and her career as an artist in general would've been dramatically altered. Such a deviation would've occurred if Houston had taken an offer in the 1980s to headline The Cosby Show as the character Sondra Huxtable.

Houston wasn't just in contention for the role — she came extremely close to signing on for part. It's easy to imagine Houston having far less time to headline movies or deliver hit songs if she was busy working on one of the most popular sitcoms of the '80s. Cosby Show director Jay Sandrich remembers that was actually Houston's motivation for not signing on the dotted line. As he explained to the Daily Mail, "She said, 'Well, I want to be a singer ... I can't be in every show ... I have to be in every tour.'" Sabrina Le Beauf would end up taking on the part of Sondra Huxtable while the subsequent success of Houston's music career proved that her decision to turn down The Cosby Show was extremely wise.

Nowadays, when people think of Natasha Lyonne and television, they probably think of her unforgettable lead role in the TV show Russian Doll. Or perhaps they think of her work as Nicky Nichols in Orange Is the New Black. Perhaps some even associate her with her childhood acting role as Opal on Pee-Wee's Playhouse. While Lyonne has inhabited many memorable TV characters, her portfolio could've been all the more impressive if she'd ended up taking on the famous TV role of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The first mention of Lyonne consciously passing on an opportunity to appear in the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer came all the way back in 2000, with her reasoning being a desire to focus on smaller-scale projects. Of course, the matter didn't just end there. Since Lyonne never specified what part she turned down, speculation ensued on who Lyonne could've played. After more than a decade of guessing, the truth finally came out in 2013. Lyonne made an offhand comment to Entertainment Weekly (via HuffPost) about how her mother said she should've done Buffy before making a joke that revealed she'd been offered the titular role herself. 

While Sarah Michelle Gellar made for a widely beloved vampire slayer, Lyonne's track record for playing TV characters you can't turn away from makes it impossible not to wonder what the Russian Doll lead could've done headlining Buffy.

For all seven seasons of The Shield, Vic Mackey was a character who took viewers on some of the darkest stories to ever grace the airwaves. This brutal show needed an actor who could handle bleak material without batting an eye. The Shield got just that with Michael Chiklis, an actor who made viewers both hate and sympathize with a corrupt, complex cop. Though Chiklis delivered a widely acclaimed turn as Vic Mackey, he wasn't the first pick for the role. In fact, somebody vastly different was originally eyeballed for the role

The Shield's network, FX, originally had hopes that Eric Stoltz would take on the part of Mackey, a fact The Shield creator Shawn Ryan revealed on Twitter in July 2012. "FX wanted Eric Stoltz to play Vic Mackey. Made him an offer, almost took it," Ryan said. No further details have surfaced on why Stoltz turned down the show. This makes Vic Mackey the second iconic role to slip through Stoltz's fingers after losing out on the role of Marty McFly in the first Back to the Future movie. But unlike that case, Stoltz intentionally turned down the part of Mackey. Considering how critical Chiklis would end up being in making The Shield work like it does, Stoltz passing on being a part of FX's classic crime show was ultimately a blessing.

Ray Liotta's biggest film role is Henry Hill, the gangster protagonist in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. That part has forever associated Liotta with tough guys and mobsters, and he's played plenty of them over the years in movies ranging from Wild Hogs to Killing Them Softly. He had another chance to explore this territory when he was offered a part on The Sopranos. Today considered one of the greatest TV programs ever made, it would've seemed like a no-brainer for Liotta to extend his penchant for playing gangsters over into this series, especially since Sopranos already made use of so many Goodfellas actors like Michael Imperioli and Lorraine Bracco.

However, Liotta turned down a chance to be a part of this beloved TV program. This wasn't due to concerns over typecasting but rather worries about how much time it would to take to be on the program. "It was for a two-year commitment, and I didn't really want to give up that time now," Liotta said in 2001, with his intent apparently being to concentrate on appearing in movies. While he opted not to be a part of the Sopranos TV show, that doesn't mean Liotta has been locked out of the franchise forever. As it turns out, Liotta plays a part in the Sopranos prequel movie, The Many Saints of Newark, bringing this staple of the modern gangster genre into the Sopranos franchise at long last. 

Between Ed O'Neill, Ty Burrell, and Julie Bowen, Modern Family was a show whose lead actors had plenty of experience headlining network TV comedies. However, another veteran of this domain almost made it into the show's cast. Former Coach star Craig T. Nelson was offered O'Neill's role of Jay on Modern Family. However, Nelson turned out to be one sitcom veteran who refused a part in Modern Family in no uncertain terms.

Considering what a massive hit Modern Family turned out to be, it sounds ludicrous to turn down such a big part. But speaking to Access Hollywood, Nelson revealed what caused him to forego the role of Jay. While Nelson said that he liked the script he'd received for Modern Family, his decision to walk away came down to the proposed (meager) paycheck. "I just felt disrespected to tell you the truth," Nelson said of the offered salary. Wanting better pay, Nelson let Modern Family go, opening up the chance for Married... with Children star Ed O'Neill to take on the role in the process. O'Neill would proceed to play Jay in Modern Family for over a decade. Meanwhile, Nelson would find himself another sizeable role on a modern TV comedy with his part on the NBC program Parenthood.

The chemistry between the four lead ladies was crucial to making Sex and the City a phenomenon. However, there almost was an entirely different dynamic between the cast members of this show, given that Dana Delany was almost cast in Sarah Jessica Parker's role of Carrie Bradshaw.

Delany has opened up about her decision in recent years, and she attributed the move to ensuring she didn't get stuck in a rut as a performer. "I had done a movie called Live Nude Girls with Kim Cattrall that was somewhat similar. It was women sitting around talking about sex," Delany explained to Irish Central. "[Sex and the City creator] Darren Star was a friend of mine ... and he asked if I'd be in it. ... I had just done Nude Girls and Exit to Eden, and I just said to Darren, 'I cannot do a show with sex in the title.' People will lynch me if I do one more thing about sex."

Delany's decision allowed the eventual rapport between the four leads of Sex and the City to flourish. Plus, we've got to think that Parker is pretty appreciative that Delany passed on the program.

For ten seasons, actor Angus T. Jones portrayed the character of Jake Harper on Two and a Half Men. Playing the titular "half," Jones grew up before the eyes of audiences everywhere, starting out as a precocious ten-year-old boy and eventually becoming a grown adult. Something else audiences got to witness was Jones' priorities drastically changing once he hit adulthood. At this point in his life, Jones didn't want to star in Two and a Half Men anymore ... and he also wanted viewers to actively avoid it. 

In November 2012, Jones released a YouTube video in which he made this point clear by imploring viewers, "If you watch Two and a Half Men, please stop watching Two and a Half Men. I'm on Two and a Half Men. I don't want to be on it. ... Please stop filling your head with filth."

Jones' change of tune was apparently due to how the show contradicted his new religious beliefs. In response to this video, Jones left the show after its tenth season, with the role of the "half" in the program eventually being filled in by a new character, Amber Tamblyn's Jenny. So, what happened to Angus T. Jones? In the years since his departure, Jones has mostly stayed out of the limelight and acting altogether, though he did reprise the role of Jake Harper one last time for the series finale of Two and a Half Men.

No matter how many Oscars he gets nominated for or dramas he appears in, Steve Carell will always be Michael Scott. He goes as perfectly with the role as Jim does with Pam. But initially, Carell wasn't set to play the part. Back when the American version of The Office was first getting off the ground, a number of other actors were considered for the character. Everybody from Philip Seymour Hoffman to Bob Odenkirk was considered for the part that would provide the anchor for the entire program.

Among those actors in contention to play Michael Scott was Paul Giamatti. In fact, the Sideways performer was outright offered the role of the Dunder Mifflin boss. Giamatti's entire demeanor as an actor is totally different than Carell's, meaning we nearly got a radically unique take on Michael Scott. However, viewers never got to see it since Giamatti turned the role down. Reportedly, this was due to Giamatti's hesitance to perform in television, which does line up with how Giamatti almost exclusively appeared in movies in the 2000s. 

One exception to this was the prestige HBO program John Adams. However, that historical drama was only a seven-episode commitment, whereas The Office had individual seasons running between 22 and 24 episodes. That kind of lengthy commitment led to Giamatti turning down The Office and paving the way for Carell to take on his most iconic character.

In 2021, it's hard to imagine Mad Men without its individual cast members. Elisabeth Moss, John Slattery, Christina Hendricks — none of them are disposable. Each performer brought something unique and critical to the table in their individual performances. In the process, this cast of actors all coalesced to help make Mad Men one of the most acclaimed dramas of all-time. This is especially true of the show's leading man, Jon Hamm, who was essential in making protagonist Don Draper so compelling. Hamm is so tied directly to Draper that it's hard to imagine another actor playing him. Originally, though, the producers of Mad Men were eyeballing not Hamm but a veteran of 2000s genre movies to take on the part of Don Draper.

In October 2011, Hamm revealed to Entertainment Weekly that The Punisher and The Mist leading man, Thomas Jane, was the first actor approached to play Draper. "I think they went to Thomas Jane for it, and they were told that Thomas Jane does not do television," Hamm recalled. While a disdain for small-screen work kept Jane from headlining Mad Men, it wasn't a rule Jane would adhere to for his entire career. As Hamm observed, at the time of the interview, Jane had just signed on to star in the cable show Hung, indicating that he'd gotten over his trepidation for television work in the years since declining the widely acclaimed AMC series. 

Lost is a show famous for its twists and turns, including ones that make about as much sense as a polar bear showing up on a tropical island. Perhaps more shocking than anything that happened in the show, though, is that one of the lead characters of the program was originally supposed to be played by a movie star. The character of Jack wasn't always meant for Matthew Fox. In fact, the first pick for the role was actor Michael Keaton, who was initially excited to be a part of Lost. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Keaton explained that he was originally signed on to the role because Jack was supposed to die at the end of the pilot episode. Intrigued by a show killing off what seemed to be its lead character at the end of a pilot, Keaton hopped on board.

Of course, given that Keaton is nowhere to be found in the actual show, something changed after Keaton signed on. The problems emerged when producers changed their mind on their long-term plans for Jack. As the series got reshaped, the producers of Lost decided that killing off Jack was no longer in the best of in the show. With Jack set to be a regular for the entire program, well, in the words of Keaton himself, "That didn't interest me." Keaton left, and Fox ended up taking on the role for the landmark program.

Sam Elliot helped kick off the broader universe of "Yellowstone" spin-offs by playing the character Shea Brennan in the Paramount+ program "1883." This critical role made Elliot the face of the first of several extensions of the expansive "Yellowstone" universe, a fighting feat given that this franchise occupied a genre (Westerns) Elliot has become so closely tied. Despite Elliot being such a prominent figure in the saga's mythos now, though, he once shot down an opportunity to appear in "Yellowstone."

During an appearance on The Official Yellowstone Podcast, Elliott revealed that his first interaction with "Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan came when Sheridan reached out to him about the possibility of appearing on the show. For undisclosed reasons, Elliot opted to pass on this gig but that didn't mean the interactions between himself and Sheridan came to a close. After the initial offer, Elliot and Sheridan kept communicating with one another and the former figure became more and more impressed with just how much Sheridan was juggling as an artist. Eventually, the opportunity for Elliot to play one of the lead roles in "1883" came up and that's when he leaped at the chance to join the "Yellowstone" universe.

In his career as an actor, Paddy Considine has largely acted in films and TV shows that are incredibly grounded, with minimal forays into the highly stylized. He hasn't entirely eschewed genre fare, as seen by his notable presence in projects like "The World's End" or "The Outsider." But more often than not, he's quite comfortable acting in productions that are all about emphasizing normal human beings navigating everyday scenarios, like "Pride," rather than resurrected dinosaurs. However, that norm was upended when Considine took on the role of King Viserys in "House of the Dragon," a TV show packed with dragons and other trappings of fantasy storytelling.

Considine wasn't always so open to working with the world established by George R.R. Martin, though, and was actually approached years ago to be in the original "Game of Thrones" TV show, though he never even seriously considered it. The actor recalled to The Sunday Times that he was sent the script for "Game of Thrones," but upon seeing that it was a fantasy program, he dismissed it so quickly that he never even read the scripts he was given. Of course, "Game of Thrones" went on to become a pop culture phenomenon that defined what kind of success a TV show could secure. Needless to say, Considine didn't hesitate to break away from his usual grounded acting choices when the chance to headline "House of the Dragon" came around.

With acting credits that date back to the 1960s, it's an understatement to say that Brian Cox has been a tremendously notable actor for decades. Of course, even with such a momentous reputation, Cox still leaped to a new level of fame and award-season recognition when he got to play the devious Logan Roy on the HBO program "Succession." Handing Cox such a plotting and wicked character turned out to be a perfect vehicle for his acting talents and both Cox and viewers everywhere have prospered thanks to this casting decision. However, he almost got the chance to show up in an HBO program long before "Succession" kicked off. 

Cox revealed in his memoir "Putting the Rabbit in the Hat" (per GQ) that he turned down the part of Robert Baratheon in Season 1 of "Game of Thrones." His reasoning for skipping the role was that the pay he was offered to portray the character was minimal while the fact that Baratheon was going to be killed quickly also diminished Cox's potential enthusiasm for the gig. Cox had no problem rejecting the domain created by George R.R. Martin and, considering he would eventually get to anchor "Succession," it seems like everything worked out for the best when it comes to Cox's career.

Lil Nas X has already done a lot in his music career after breaking out with the 2019 global hit, "Old Town Road." The artist told Variety, though, that his ambitions as a creative extend far beyond just being a musician. Lil Nas X shared his aspirations of being an actor,  looking to the likes of Lady Gaga as a blueprint for how a singer can leap into the world of acting. While expressing these aspirations, Lil Nas X revealed that he'd already had one brush with a potential acting gig: a role of unknown size in the second season of "Euphoria."

It's easy to see why Lil Nas X would be attracted to a project like "Euphoria." Both he and that HBO program are well-known for pushing buttons and explicit material, but more importantly, there's also an emotional rawness to Lil Nas X that would fit like a glove in "Euphoria." A tune like "Sun Goes Down," an unflinching portrait of coming to terms with one's queerness while experiencing the slings and arrows of adolescence, is a great extension of the show's willingness to tackle hard issues relevant to teenagers. However, Lil Nas X passed on the opportunity to appear in "Euphoria" due to his desire to focus solely on his album "Montero" released in late 2021. Even with this reveal, though, Lil Nas X still expressed hopes for appearing in a third season.

"The Sopranos" is an incredible show for countless reasons, but one of its greatest assets is its impeccable casting. Not only are the lead actors of the show (like James Gandolfini and Edie Falco) perfectly placed, but even the show's briefest cameos are interesting. Look at Michael K. Williams, for instance, who showed up in Season 3 and demonstrated the kind of acting chops he'd get to regularly employ later on in his career on "The Wire." The list of impressive guest stars on this show almost included a very unexpected face in the form of Chris Rock, though the comedian turned down the multiple opportunities he got to show up on "The Sopranos."

Saying no to a role in a show that big may sound like lunacy, but Rock had a very specific reason for his response. He noted in a Hollywood Reporter panel that he received several offers to show up in "The Sopranos" and each time felt so worried about spoiling a TV show he was deeply passionate about. Even if it missed out on featuring a legend like Rock, though, "The Sopranos" can still hold its head high with the incredible list of guest stars it did secure.

"The Walking Dead" wasn't just another TV show acting gig for Jon Bernthal. It turned out to be a turning point in his career, one that put him on more people's radars than ever before. Since his time on that show, Bernthal's been able to parlay "The Walking Dead" popularity into further roles ranging from playing The Punisher in a series of Marvel and Netflix shows to appearing in movies directed by filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, James Mangold, and Steve McQueen. However, his career could've gone in a wildly different path if Bernthal had ended up headlining a CBS procedural rather than showing up on "The Walking Dead."

In 2012, Bernthal revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that he turned down a chance to be on "NCIS: Los Angeles" as one of its series regulars just so he could audition for "The Walking Dead." Bernthal's comments indicate that he didn't have something against that "NCIS" spin-off per se, it's just that he was so committed to being on the AMC series that he didn't want another project to take up his time and energy. In hindsight, the lengthy time commitment of shooting a show like "NCIS: Los Angeles," which produces seasons that typically run for over 20 episodes each, could've also prevented Bernthal from taking on all the exciting roles he secured after his beloved stint on "The Walking Dead."