Actors Who Played Roles Written For Someone Completely Different - And Nailed It

In 1984, casting comedians in action movies was a very uncommon thing to do. Beverly Hills Cop changed that. The original script was designed as a vehicle for Sylvester Stallone, and it was intended to lightly spoof his tough-guy image. Everything was set to go until, two weeks before production was slated to start, the actor got cold feet. He took it upon himself to rewrite the script as a more typical action flick, with a hero who occasionally made wisecracks, rather than as a comedy that happened to have some action in it. The executives at Paramount Pictures didn't like this change, nor did they want to sink more money into the budget. Sly was out.

Eddie Murphy had scored a hit for Paramount via a co-starring role opposite Nick Nolte in the action-oriented 48 Hrs., so they offered Beverly Hills Cop to him. The impact was profound. Whereas 48 Hrs. gave Murphy a big-screen breakout, Beverly Hills Cop made him a full-on movie star. His turn as Axel Foley is hilarious. In fact, it's become his signature role. Murphy handles the action credibly, too, bringing a streetwise quality to Foley that infuses the movie with a distinct edge. 

After winning an Oscar for Goodfellas and demonstrating his comedic abilities in Home Alone, Joe Pesci cranked out another winner with My Cousin Vinny. He plays Vinny Gambini, a bottom-of-the-barrel lawyer who takes on the murder case involving his cousin and a buddy. It's funny because Vinny is the exact opposite of what you'd expect a lawyer to be like. He's brash and profane, with a tendency to say whatever's on his mind, whether appropriate or not. Screenwriter Dale Lautner had comedian Andrew Dice Clay in mind for the role, saying:

Vinny was supposed to be a heavyweight boxer. It was mentioned in the screenplay, but got cut out. But he was supposed to look like a big thug, like muscle for the mob. I saw him as six feet four and 220 pounds.

Clay's vulgar, controversial stand-up routine made the studio executives nervous, and a rude comment he once directed at its Vice President led to them refusing to cast him. However, 20th Century Fox had a good experience with Pesci on the massively successful Home Alone, so they pushed for him to get the role instead. He won the part after meeting with director Jonathan Lynn, during which he talked about the story featuring “two yutes.” Lynn added that now-famous bit to the movie, and the actor delivered an ace comic performance that people still quote to this day.

Blade is a singular comic book character. He's a dhampir, a cross between a human and a vampire. His mission in life is to hunt down and slay vampires. When transferring the role to the big screen, writer David S. Goyer knew he needed an actor with an intense physical presence, someone who looked rugged and ready for a fight. He therefore wrote the screenplay for 1998's Blade adaptation with rapper/actor LL Cool J in mind. 

As the movie's projected production budget grew, the studio became convinced that a bigger “name” was needed to justify the cost. LL Cool J was not a box office draw. That opened the door for Wesley Snipes to step in. Already an accomplished martial artist, he was an ideal choice. Snipes handles the action scenes with great credibility, while his acting talent sells Blade's tough-guy attitude. With the actor in the role, Blade became a solid hit, spawning two sequels and bringing Marvel to theater screens a full decade before the formal start of the MCU. 

George Lucas has made no secret of the fact that Star Wars was heavily inspired by Flash Gordon serials, as well as by Akira Kurosawa's 1958 film The Hidden Fortress. That film stars Toshiro Mifune as General Rokurota Makabe, a general who pays two peasants to escort him across enemy lines. For his space opera, Lucas wanted to pay direct homage to The Hidden Fortress by casting Mifune as Obi-Wan Kenobi, the wizened Jedi who mentors hero Luke Skywalker. The actor turned it down because, according to his daughter, “he was concerned about how the film would look and that it would cheapen the image of samurai.”

That paved the way for Alec Guinness to come onboard. The veteran British actor was notoriously dismissive of Star Wars, finding it silly and full of badly written dialogue, but his performance never let on his true feelings. Through his stoic, deeply moral performance, he turned Obi-Wan into the kind of teacher millions of children wished they could have. Guinness sells the Force, a concept that proves vital to the entire franchise. Without his commitment to the role and to that idea, in particular, Star Wars would not have had the same impact. 

Audrey Hepburn gives one of the all-time iconic screen performances as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's. For that reason, envisioning another actress in the role feels wrong. Truman Capote actually pictured Marilyn Monroe when he wrote the book on which the film is based. And when you really look at it, the choice makes perfect sense. Aside from the fact that Capote and Monroe were friends, the writer borrowed many qualities from Monroe in conceiving the character. Both came from impoverished backgrounds, reinvented themselves in a more glamorous image, and were exploited by men, to give just three examples. Hepburn's background was completely different. 

Director Blake Edwards wasn't sold on Monroe, choosing Hepburn to play Holly instead. His instincts proved correct. The actress doesn't need to have real-life things in common with the character. She's able to make Holly three-dimensional through her talent alone. It also helps that Hepburn has her own distinct look. Whereas Monroe had the inescapable va-va-voom factor, she possessed a sense of elegance that really works for the film. Her performance makes Breakfast at Tiffany's what it is. 

Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg made a lot of cinematic magic together with the Indiana Jones movies. They almost worked together again on Jurassic Park - or at least they would have had the director gotten his way. When adapting Michael Crichton's best-selling dinosaur novel, Spielberg had Ford in mind for the character Alan Grant from the get-go. The part was even written to fit Ford's quiet strength onscreen. During a 30th anniversary screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ford cracked that Spielberg only ever hired him to play Indy. The director responded by revealing, “You know who I offered Jurassic Park to? This guy. Alan Grant, Jurassic Park, right here.”

For reasons he has never publicly stated, Ford turned the role down. Sam Neill stepped in instead, and it ended up being the part that made him a star. He brings great intelligence to the role, while creating nice chemistry with co-star Laura Dern. Most of all, Neill has a calming presence. Even as all the dangerous dinosaur mayhem takes place, he makes it clear that Grant will know what to do. Any sane viewer would stick by his side in this situation. Although the mind-blowing CGI helped made Jurassic Park a massive hit, the human element Neill brings was vital to its success.