FSU Student Life Cinema

1) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

When casting “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, Richard Harris (Dumbledore) was approached by denied the role for numerous reasons: his health had started to decline and Harris did not want his role in the Harry Potter films to overshadow the rest of his 50 year film career.  He relented and accepted the role though when he found out that his 10-year-old granddaughter “threatened never to speak to him again if he did not take” the role.  When Harris died before filming of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, the role of Dumbledore was offered to Sir Ian McKellen but he turned it down to due Harris having once called him “a dreadful actor”.  McKellen also felt that he had played a similar character in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, as the wizard Gandalf.

2) The Matrix

Though Keanu Reeves would eventually get the role of Neo in the films, he was actually not the first choice.  Will Smith was offered the part but turned it down “because of skepticism over the film’s ambitious bullet time special effects”.  He would later say it was his biggest career regret yet if he had been given the role, “he would have messed it up.”  Nicolas Cage was also offered the role but family obligations got in the way.  Opposite Neo, was Trinity, which Sandra Bullock turned down because she didn’t see herself working well with the actor who, at that time was considered for Neo.  Even more interesting, Sean Connery, better known for his work in the James Bond films, turned down the role of Morpheus.

-Raymond Calderon