12 Actors Who Nearly Turned Down Their Most Iconic Role & What Changed Their Minds (There's 1 Oscar-Winning Role On the List!)

Rachel Zegler – The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Rachel Zegler took center stage in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the prequel movie to the original, mega-successful franchise. However, she was initially hesitant to play Lucy Gray Baird because filming started shortly after Snow White.

“I was away from everybody that I knew and loved, and I said, ‘No.’ And I regretted it the second I said it. I had another project lined up that fell through that got pushed into 2023, and I just kind of put my name back into the mix and got it, and I feel really bad for any of the girls,” she said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, “because I put my name back in, and they were just like, ‘Yup, OK, cool, we’ll do it.’”

What changed her mind: Rachel‘s boyfriend Josh Andres Rivera got cast. Director Francis Lawrence told EW that he wasn’t aware of the connection until someone else on his team pointed it out.

Leonardo DiCaprio – Titanic

Leonardo DiCaprio became one half of a beautiful and tragic love story when he signed on to portray Jack Dawson in Titanic. However, he wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to accept the offer when it first came through.

Director James Cameron told People that he had to convince Leonardo that it was a worthwhile role.

“He didn’t want to do a leading man,” he recalled. “I had to really twist his arm to be in the movie. He didn’t want to do it. He thought it was boring.”

What changed his mind: James said that the actor accepted “only when I convinced him that it was actually a difficult challenge.”