Steven Spielberg is one of the most famous directors in the world. Even casual moviegoers who barely know what the job of a director is are familiar with Spielberg’s work. With hits like Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park, and the Indiana Jones series under his belt, Spielberg is responsible for many people’s favorite movies.

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The legendary filmmaker tends to cast the perfect actors to play his characters, like Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones or Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler. However, as is usually the case with movie castings, these actors were rarely the first choice.

Quint In Jaws

Perfectly Cast: Robert Shaw

Robert Shaw as Quint in Jaws

Veteran shark hunter Quint is the roughest, meanest character in Jaws. Chief Brody is a likable everyman and Hooper is a relatable nerd, but Quint is tough-as-nails and standoffish thanks to years of gruesome experience.

Seasoned actor Robert Shaw was the perfect person to play Quint, because he brought a real grizzled edge to the role. The Indianapolis speech alone is a masterclass in acting.

Almost Cast: Lee Marvin

While it’s hard to imagine anybody playing Quint as well as Shaw did, he wasn’t Spielberg’s top choice. His top choice for the part was actually Lee Marvin, according to Donald Zec’s 1980 book Marvin: Story of Lee Marvin.

Shaw ended up being cast in the role after Marvin turned it down. The book quotes him as telling Spielberg, “What would I tell my fishing friends who’d see me come off a hero against a dummy shark?”

Oskar Schindler In Schindler’s List

Perfectly Cast: Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler looking pained in Schindler's List

One of the most culturally significant and critically acclaimed movies of Spielberg’s career is Schindler’s List, a harrowing black-and-white epic that captures the tragedy of the Holocaust through the eyes of a businessman who saved as many people as he could from concentration camps.

Long before Taken redefined him as an action hero, Liam Neeson gave a revelatory turn as the titular Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List. This is a historical figure riddled with inner conflicts, and Neeson didn’t make the usual biopic mistake of blindly deifying Schindler.

Almost Cast: Bruno Ganz

Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler in Downfall

According to Reuters, before casting Neeson as Schindler, Spielberg offered the role to Bruno Ganz – a Swiss actor who became a legend in German theater, cinema, and television – who turned it down.

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Ganz went on to play a very different historical figure from the Second World War, Adolf Hitler himself, in the movie Downfall, which depicts Hitler’s final days.

Captain Miller In Saving Private Ryan

Perfectly Cast: Tom Hanks

Captain Miller wearing a military uniform in Saving Private Ryan

Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan is a different kind of war movie protagonist. He’s not a fearless military hero who marches boldly into battle. He’s a schoolteacher who gets drafted and finds himself completely unprepared for the horrors of war.

Instead of a gun-toting badass like John Rambo or the “Dirty Dozen,” Miller is just a regular guy. This made Tom Hanks the ideal casting, because he’s made a name for himself as the quintessential everyman.

Almost Cast: Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson on the phone in a warzone in We Were Soldiers.

Although Hanks was the perfect Captain Miller, Newsweek reports that he wasn’t the first or even second choice for the role. Both Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson were considered for the role before Hanks was cast.

Although he didn’t end up starring in Saving Private Ryan, Gibson did contribute to the war film genre by starring in We Were Soldiers and directing Hacksaw Ridge.

Dr. Ellie Sattler In Jurassic Park

Perfectly Cast: Laura Dern

Laura Dern sees the first dinosaur in Jurassic Park

All three lead roles in Jurassic Park were perfectly cast: Sam Neill as the curmudgeonly Dr. Grant who slowly warms to Hammond’s grandkids; Jeff Goldblum as the irresistible Dr. Malcolm, who has a well-timed wisecrack for every situation; and Laura Dern as the fierce Dr. Sattler, who’s equal parts nurturing and self-assured.

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Thanks to Dern’s deadpan delivery of lines about “sexism in survival situations” and “woman inherits the Earth,” Sattler is praised as one of the great feminist icons of ‘90s cinema.

Almost Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow steps off the bus in The Royal Tenenbaums

Dern was always Spielberg’s top choice to play Dr. Sattler, but according to Digital Spy, the studio wanted Gwyneth Paltrow for the role. This would’ve put Paltrow in the spotlight five years before her Oscar-winning turn in Shakespeare in Love.

Plenty of other names were circulated around before the producers relented and allowed Spielberg to cast Dern: Sandra Bullock, Elizabeth Hurley, Julianne Moore (who would later star in the sequel), Helen Hunt, Robin Wright.

Indiana Jones In Raiders Of The Lost Ark

Perfectly Cast: Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in an ancient temple in Raiders of the Lost Ark

After bringing pitch-perfect pulpy coolness to the role of Han Solo in the Star Wars trilogy, Harrison Ford beautifully captured a different kind of pulp archetype in the role of archeologist-turned-explorer Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

With Ford rocking the fedora and leather jacket look, Indy quickly became one of the most recognizable icons in movie history. He’s one of the few characters that audiences can identify from their silhouette alone.

Almost Cast: Tom Selleck

Tom Selleck in a promotional image for Magnum PI

While Ford was undeniably the right choice to play Indy, Lucas was initially reluctant to cast him because he didn’t want to become inextricably tied to the actor. So, he and Spielberg began actively looking for an actor who wasn’t Ford and ended up seeing just about every potential leading man in Hollywood.

According to IGN, Tom Selleck was initially cast in Ford’s place, but had to drop out because he couldn’t get the time off from Magnum, P.I., his TV show. This allowed Ford to be cast and film history to be made.

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