The Roles That Almost Went to Someone Else
It is hard to picture Walter White without Bryan Cranston or Gandalf without Ian McKellen. Yet many of the most famous casting decisions in recent TV and film were second choices, last-minute swaps or happy accidents. Here are the near-misses we came across while researching the quizzes on this site, grouped by how they happened.
The network wanted someone else
Walter White, Breaking Bad. AMC was nervous about Bryan Cranston because it knew him only as Hal, the dad in Malcolm in the Middle. It approached John Cusack and Matthew Broderick first, and both turned the role down. Vince Gilligan wanted Cranston because they had worked together on The X-Files. Once cast, Cranston built much of the character himself: he gained ten pounds, dyed out his red hair and designed what he called a "dead caterpillar" moustache. See the Breaking Bad quiz.
Michael Scott, The Office. NBC's Kevin Reilly suggested Paul Giamatti, who declined. Martin Short, Hank Azaria and Bob Odenkirk were reportedly interested. Steve Carell only became available because his other NBC sitcom, Come to Papa, was cancelled quickly. See the Office quiz.
Tony Soprano, The Sopranos. David Chase wanted Steven Van Zandt, the E Street Band guitarist, after seeing him induct The Rascals into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, even though Van Zandt had never acted. HBO wanted an experienced actor as Tony, so Chase wrote a new part, Silvio Dante, for Van Zandt instead. His real wife, Maureen, plays Silvio's wife. See the Sopranos quiz.
The first choice said no
Jim Hopper, Stranger Things. Billy Crudup was the first choice and passed. David Harbour, who had mostly played small villainous parts, got the role. The Duffers felt he had been "waiting too long" for a lead, and Harbour was excited to play "a broken, flawed, anti-hero character". See the Stranger Things quiz.
The Professor, Money Heist. The part was first offered to Javier Gutiérrez, who was already committed to a film. The producers had imagined a 50-year-old Harvard professor type. The casting directors pushed for Álvaro Morte, whom they knew from a soap opera, and his primary-school-teacher look made the character more believable. See the Money Heist quiz.
Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings. Sean Connery and Christopher Plummer were both approached and declined. Christopher Lee wanted the part so badly that he sent Peter Jackson a photo of himself dressed as a wizard; he was cast as Saruman instead. McKellen became Jackson's first choice after co-writer Philippa Boyens watched a tape of Patrick Stewart acting opposite him and suggested McKellen. See the Lord of the Rings quiz.
Recast after filming had started
Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings. Stuart Townsend was originally cast. The studio thought he was too young, and after shooting had begun Jackson agreed and recast the role with Viggo Mortensen. Russell Crowe, who had earlier auditioned for Boromir, was the backup choice.
Daenerys and Catelyn, Game of Thrones. HBO disliked the original pilot and had about 90 percent of it reshot. Emilia Clarke replaced Tamzin Merchant as Daenerys, and Michelle Fairley replaced Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark. Peter Dinklage and Sean Bean were the only actors the writers had wanted from the start. See the Game of Thrones quiz.
Penny, The Big Bang Theory. In the unaired first pilot, the woman Leonard and Sheldon meet was a different character, Katie, played by Amanda Walsh. Test audiences disliked Katie but liked the two physicists, so the show was reworked with Kaley Cuoco as Penny. See the Big Bang Theory quiz.
The actor chose a different part
Monica, Friends. The producers saw Courteney Cox's "cheery, upbeat energy" as right for Rachel. Cox wanted Monica because she liked how strong the character was, and after her audition Marta Kauffman agreed. Jennifer Aniston was then cast as Rachel. See the Friends quiz.
Dr. Melfi, The Sopranos. Lorraine Bracco was first offered Carmela Soprano. Having already played a mob wife in Goodfellas, she chose the psychiatrist as the bigger challenge. In 2001 the American Psychoanalytic Association honoured her for "the most credible psychoanalyst ever" on screen.
Auditioned for one role, cast as another
Dwight Schrute, The Office. Rainn Wilson auditioned for Michael Scott first and later called it a "terrible Ricky Gervais impersonation". The casting directors loved his Dwight.
Cedric Daniels, The Wire. Lance Reddick tried out for Detective Bunk Moreland and the addict Bubbles before being cast as the commander of the detail. See the Wire quiz.
Paulie Walnuts, The Sopranos. Tony Sirico originally auditioned for Uncle Junior, which went to Dominic Chianese. He took Paulie on one condition: the character must never become an informant.
A part written for one actor
Sometimes there is no near-miss at all. David Crane and Marta Kauffman had worked with David Schwimmer before and wrote Ross Geller with him in mind, which made him the first of the six Friends actors to be cast. The others went through auditions that started with around a thousand applicants per role.
And sometimes the plan was set before the show existed. When The Walking Dead was first pitched to HBO, Thomas Jane, who had starred in Frank Darabont's film The Mist, was set to play Rick Grimes. The show went to AMC instead, and Andrew Lincoln played Rick from the pilot to season nine. See the Walking Dead quiz.
What the near-misses show
The pattern here is that the safe choice was often the wrong one. Networks reached for established film actors, and the roles went instead to a sitcom dad, a character actor known for small villains, a soap star and a man who could not get the lead because he had never acted. Many of these performances became the defining roles of those actors' careers.
Sources: the English Wikipedia articles on Breaking Bad, The Office (American TV series), The Sopranos, Stranger Things, Money Heist, The Lord of the Rings (film series), Game of Thrones, The Big Bang Theory, Friends, The Wire and The Walking Dead (TV series), as cited in each quiz's answer key.