It should come as no surprise that actors often miss out on roles due to various background factors in the play. Often actors turn down a role due to conflicting production schedules, while sometimes this is due to creative differences between the many stakeholders involved in the making of a film. In the worst cases, actors are even fired from their movie roles for various reasons. These are everyday events in filmmaking and are not often noticeable. However, when it comes to huge blockbuster franchises achieving unparalleled success, it’s always interesting to look back and see what almost was and/or could have been.
Under the spell of the Ring franchise was indeed no stranger to this and had a large number of actors almost cast in major roles. When director Peter Jackson first took on the challenge of editing JRR Tolkien’s novel series, he had many actors in mind for lead roles in his ensemble. While everything worked out in the end as far as the cast is concerned, here’s a list of actors who played nearly iconic roles in the franchise.
6 Jake Gyllenhaal – Frodo
Frodo Baggins was indeed an extended character in The Lord of the Rings franchisee. To get the character right, extensive casting interviews were conducted with various agencies in the industry. In an interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jake Gyllenhaal remembered bombing his audition for Frodo. According to him, the audition material had hardly any lines, focusing instead on portraying the moment when Frodo finds the infamous One Ring. Gyllenhaal, unaware of the weight of Frodo’s character in the franchise, however, pulled out of the ring with little to no amusement and, to top it off, even delivered the minimal dialogue he had in a regular American accent. Given how the audition went, it should come as no surprise that Jackson not only immediately turned him down for the role, but more importantly, asked him to switch acting agencies.
5 Nicolas Cage — Aragorn
Nicolas Cage has made his priorities clear when it comes to choosing between family and career. For him, family comes before his acting career. In his four-decade career, Cage has turned down roles that take time away from his family. Apart from refusing to play Neo in The MatrixCage said a hard “no” to Aragorn in Under the spell of the Ring franchisee. The reason was quite direct, as explained by IGN: He was hesitant to go to New Zealand for production for three years because he wanted to spend more time with his son Weston. In the end, Aragorn’s character was played by Viggo Mortensen, who undoubtedly did a great job.
4 Sir Patrick Stewart – Gandalf
While it’s virtually impossible to imagine anyone other than Ian McKellen playing Gandalf, McKellen’s frequent opponent and longtime friend Patrick Stewart was Jackson’s first choice for the role. Unfortunately, Stewart was never too keen on the idea of playing Gandalf’s character, and in fact, went on to criticize the film’s plot. Lord of the Rings franchisee. Although he expressed his slight interest in playing another character from the franchise, the details of this character have not been revealed to date. Nevertheless, it worked out for the best, as McKellen was still the best choice for the role, 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 while casting – that is, Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace – eventually died, a fate he didn’t want to repeat in Lord of the Rings.
2 Uma Thurman — Arwen
The role of Arwen, originally played by Liv Tyler, was initially offered to: Uma Thurman. However, the actress was pregnant with the child of her then-husband Ethan Hawke. In an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Thurman revealed that she considered this decision her biggest career mistake. She went on to explain: “I had a little kid then and I couldn’t leave for a year… Oh, I really wish I could have taken that leap, and maybe I should have, but I could take it. that moment just not.”
1 Kate Winslet — Eowyn
Kate Winslet experienced new heights in her early career during Lord of the Rings‘ casting, as she had just broken out with James Cameron’s success Titanic. Winslet’s successive notable appearances in films over the years earned her a role in Under the spell of the Ring franchise as Eowyn’s character. However, after initially investing little interest, Winslet ultimately turned down the role of Eowyn due to her unwillingness to commit to lengthy production schedules. In fact, during that period in her career, the actor consciously chose to stay away from big budget studio movies.