It should come as no surprise that, quite often, actors miss out on roles as a consequence of several background factors being at the play. Often, actors turn down a role as a result of conflicting production schedules, while, other times, it is due to creative differences among the many stakeholders involved in the making of a movie. In worst-case scenarios, actors are even fired from their movie roles for various reasons. These are everyday occurrences in filmmaking and are not often notable. However, when it comes to huge blockbuster franchises that see unparalleled success, it’s always interesting to look back and see what almost was and/or could have been.
The Lord of the Rings franchise, indeed, was no stranger to this, and had its fair share of actors almost cast in major roles. When director Peter Jackson first took on the challenge of adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel series, he had many actors in mind for leading roles in his ensemble. While everything worked out in the end in terms of its cast, here’s a list of actors who almost played now-iconic roles in the franchise.
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6 Jake Gyllenhaal — Frodo
New Line Cinema
Frodo Baggins, indeed, was an elaborate character in The Lord of the Rings franchise. To get the character right, extensive casting calls were carried out to several agencies across the industry. In an interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jake Gyllenhaal recalled how he bombed his audition for Frodo. According to him, the audition material barely had any lines, focusing instead on acting out the moment when Frodo finds the infamous One Ring. Gyllenhaal, however, unaware of the weight of Frodo’s character in the franchise, pulled out the ring with little to no amusement and, to top it off, even delivered the minimum dialogues he had in a regular American accent. Given how the audition panned out, this should not come as a surprise that Jackson not only straightaway rejected him for the part, but, more importantly, also went on to request him to change his acting agency.
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5 Nicolas Cage — Aragorn
Nicolas Cage has set his priorities straight when it comes to choosing between family and career. For him, family comes before his acting career. In his four-decade-spanning career, Cage has turned down roles that demanded time away from his family. Aside from declining to play Neo in The Matrix, Cage said a hard “no” to Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings franchise. The reason was quite direct, as outlined by IGN: he was reluctant to movie to New Zealand for three years for production as he wanted to spend more time with his son Weston. Ultimately, the character of Aragorn was portrayed by Viggo Mortensen, who undoubtedly did an excellent job.
4 Sir Patrick Stewart — Gandalf
While it is quite impossible to picture anybody apart from Ian McKellen playing Gandalf, McKellen’s frequent co-star and long-time friend Patrick Stewart was Jackson’s first choice for the role. Sadly, Stewart was never too enthused about the idea of portraying the character of Gandalf, and, in fact, even went on to point criticism at the plot of the Lord of the Rings franchise. Though he expressed his slight interest in playing another character from the franchise, however, to date, the specifics of this character have not been revealed. Nonetheless, it worked out for the best, as McKellen was equally the best pick for the role, going on to receiving an Oscar nomination for his work.
3 Liam Neeson — Boromir
Jackson’s first choice for the role of Boromir in the Lord of the Rings franchise was always Liam Neeson. However, Neeson’s last role in a major franchise during casting — that is, Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace — ultimately died, a fate he did not want to repeat in Lord of the Rings.
2 Uma Thurman — Arwen
New Line Cinema
The role of Arwen, originally played by Liv Tyler, was initially offered to Uma Thurman. However, the actress was pregnant with her then-husband Ethan Hawke’s child. In an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Thurman revealed that she considered this decision her biggest career mistake. She explained further, “I had a small child at the time, and I couldn’t go away for a year… Oh, I truly wish I could’ve been able to take that plunge, and maybe I should have, but I just couldn’t at the time.”
1 Kate Winslet — Eowyn
Kate Winslet was experiencing new heights in her early-career during Lord of the Rings’ casting, as she had just broken out with the success of James Cameron’s Titanic. Winslet’s consecutive remarkable performances in movies over the years earned her a role in The Lord of the Rings franchise as the character of Eowyn. However, after investing slim interest at first, Winslet ultimately decided to decline the part of Eowyn following her unwillingness to commit to long production schedules. In fact, the actor consciously chose to steer away from big-budget studio movies during that time in her career.
