Cuba Gooding Jr. Says He Turned Down Roles in 'Ray,' 'Hotel Rwanda' & More

Cuba Gooding Jr. says he was offered a lot of really great roles in the past, but turned them down.

Some of the directors he turned down working with were Steven Spielberg (for Amistad), Michael Mann (for Collateral), Terry George (for Hotel Rwanda), and Taylor Hackford for the lead in the Ray Charles biopic that landed Jamie Foxx an Oscar.

“I had all these big directors offering me roles, and I read their scripts and said, ‘I don’t think this part is right for me.’ And what happens is, if you offend enough big directors, you get taken off their lists,” he told The Guardian.

“Oh yeah, I did some real clunkers,” Cuba said, adding it wasn’t because of money.“Not for me. For me, it was always about protecting the sanctity of that golden statue… Because I felt I needed to show people that I can do more, I can do better.”

Then, he was reminded, “You just reminded me of another one – I’m kicking my balls in this interview – I was offered Idi Amin in The Last King Of Scotland. And I said to myself, ‘I can’t do that. He’s a bad guy!’”

Cuba won an Oscar in 1997 for Jerry Maguire, and has since made Snow Dogs, Boat Trip, Ticking Clock, The Way Of War, Wrong Turn At Tahoe, Ryan Murphy‘s American Crime Story, and more.