Tom Hanks has one of the most uniquely prolific acting careers in Hollywood history. He got his start as a comedy actor and starred in some of the funniest movies ever made before proving himself as a top-tier dramatic performer with back-to-back Oscar wins. Hanks has played all kinds of roles over the years, earning a reputation as the ultimate everyman and the most likable star on the A-list.
But for every iconic high-profile role that Hanks has played, from Forrest Gump to Sheriff Woody, scheduling conflicts or casting producers or simply a lack of interest prevented him from taking a bunch of others.
Harry Burns In When Harry Met Sally
According to Mental Floss, before casting Billy Crystal, director Rob Reiner talked to a handful of movie stars about playing the male lead opposite Meg Ryan in his seminal romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally. Reiner met with Hanks, Albert Brooks, Richard Dreyfuss, and Michael Keaton, but Crystal shared instant, palpable chemistry with Ryan.
This is pretty ironic, since Hanks went on to star opposite Ryan in Joe versus the Volcano, Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail, solidifying a place alongside Richard Gere and Julia Roberts as one of the most iconic romcom pairings.
Jack Traven In Speed
The Die Hard formula has produced a handful of action-packed gems: Executive Decision is “Die Hard on a plane,” Olympus Has Fallen is “Die Hard in the White House,” and Speed is “Die Hard on a bus.” Keanu Reeves sets the movie apart from Die Hard by playing Jack Traven as more of a straight arrow than Bruce Willis’ grubby-vested John McClane.
But Reeves wasn’t the first choice to play Traven. According to WhatCulture, Hanks turned it down. Reeves was cast as a backup, solidifying his status as a reliable action star after Point Break.
Mahoney In Police Academy
According to Mental Floss, in 2005, Police Academy creator Paul Maslansky revealed that Steve Guttenberg wasn’t the producers’ first choice for the lead role of Mahoney.
They had a casting wish list for Mahoney that included some of the world’s biggest movie stars at the time: Hanks, Michael Keaton, and Judge Reinhold.
Jerry Maguire In Jerry Maguire
According to WhatCulture, Cameron Crowe wrote the role of the eponymous sports agent with a heart of gold in Jerry Maguire specifically for Hanks, but the writing process took too long for Hanks to be a suitable match.
Crowe explained, “I took so long doing the script that Hanks was no longer a 35-year-old man. By the time he got [the script], he was almost 40 and had two Academy Awards and wanted to direct.” Hanks later graciously admitted, “I think you look at it now and it couldn’t have been anybody other than Tom Cruise.”
Lt. Col. Gordon Tall In The Thin Red Line
According to Mental Floss, in the late ‘90s, Hanks was offered two star-studded World War II epics shooting around the same time: Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. Since Hanks had already committed to the former, he politely declined the latter and the role in the Malick film went to Nick Nolte. Interestingly, Tom Sizemore also turned down the Malick WWII epic to appear in the Spielberg WWII epic.
Despite losing out on Hanks and Sizemore, Malick was hardly short on A-listers in his Thin Red Line cast. The movie features an ensemble of George Clooney, Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, Adrien Brody, and a trio of famous Johns (Travolta, Cusack, and C. Reilly).
Phil Connors In Groundhog Day
Phil Connors, the news reporter stuck in a time loop in Harold Ramis’ comedy classic Groundhog Day, was the perfect role for Bill Murray: a hilariously cynical curmudgeon who gradually reveals his sweet side. But according to the Hollywood Reporter, Ramis originally sought Hanks for the role.
Ramis recalled at a 2009 Q&A in Chicago that Hanks later told him, “Audiences would have been sitting there waiting for me to become nice, because I always play nice. But Bill’s such a miserable S.O.B. on- and off-screen, you didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Andy Dufresne In The Shawshank Redemption
Tim Robbins gave the performance of his career as inmate Andy Dufrense in Frank Darabont’s acclaimed prison drama The Shawshank Redemption. But according to Mental Floss, Hanks, Cruise, and Kevin Costner all passed on the role before Robbins was cast.
After turning down Shawshank, Hanks ended up playing the lead role in Darabont’s next Stephen King-based prison epic, The Green Mile, as a guard who meets a wrongly convicted Christ figure on death row.
Bill The Butcher In Gangs Of New York
According to WhatCulture, both Robert De Niro and Willem Dafoe were attached to play Bill the Butcher at different times while Martin Scorsese was trying to get Gangs of New York – his ambitious cinematic origin story for America – off the ground.
Before Daniel Day-Lewis was cast as Bill, Hanks expressed interest in the script. Gangs of New York would’ve been Hanks’ second 2002 collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio along with Catch Me If You Can. But Hanks chose to star in Sam Mendes’ Road to Perdition instead.
Mario In Super Mario Bros.
According to Jeff Ryan’s book Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America, Hanks was initially cast in the infamous Super Mario Bros. movie. However, the studio fired Hanks and replaced him with Bob Hoskins, who had a lower asking price.
It’s fair to say that this one worked out for the best. Hanks instead went on to win consecutive Best Actor Oscars for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, while Hoskins would later call Super Mario Bros. the biggest disappointment of his career.
Bruce Wayne In Batman Forever
After the success of Batman and Batman Returns, Michael Keaton decided not to reprise his role as Bruce Wayne for a third movie. Val Kilmer ended up being cast as the Caped Crusader in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever, but according to WhatCulture, a bunch of other actors were considered to replace Keaton in the threequel.
Warner Bros. offered the role to Hanks, but he turned it down. Daniel Day-Lewis, Johnny Depp, Mel Gibson, Keanu Reeves, and Kurt Russell were all considered to play the Bat before Kilmer was cast.