Have you ever thought about Game of Thrones without Kit Harington come Jon Snow? Well, actually it wasn’t such a remote possibility, in fact another famous actor who then played another role in the series had applied. But that wasn’t the only time in the world of Hollywood and not only that, another actor applied for the lead role and instead got another character’s script. In most cases, the role of the protagonist is the most iconic one, the one that fans become attached to more easily and this is what makes it the most coveted. If we think about it, there are few cases in which a secondary character has entered the hearts of viewers more than the main character, o no?
Yet not all bad comes to silver: in fact, there are several actors who have been rejected for the main role and have instead been welcomed into the cast by becoming the face of a secondary character, still succeeding in the scope of conquering viewers.
An actor of Game of Thrones wanted to be Jon Snow, but who are the missing protagonists?
In this article we find out 8 Actors Who Applied For The Lead Role But Got Another Character Instead! Some of these actors are still iconic and extraordinary, as if the characters were written especially for them.
1) Hank Azaria had attempted the role of Joey in Friends
It seems impossible to imagine the group of Friends different from the one we know, who knows if he would still be at the top of everyone’s hearts if he had other actors to give a face to that group of friends who gathered at Central Perk. Think instead of if instead of Joey Tribbianithe character played by Matt LeBlancthere had been Hank Azariahow would it go? Impossible, would you say? And instead Hank Azaria ha Really tried to be one of friends, so much so that he auditioned for Joey twice. However, the casting director decided something else for him: in fact we all remember him as David “The Science Guy”, Phoebe’s first boyfriend. The actor Hank Azariaperhaps still resentful for the refusal, during the first season of the sitcom he was not convinced of LeBlanc’s interpretation, but he changed his mind already in the second season, returning several times to the set of Friends to play Davidproud to have managed to catch Anyway part of the project.
2) Charisma Carpenter wanted to be Buffy – The Vampire Slayer
Charisma Carpenter it was excellent Cordelia Chase in the TV series Buffy – The Vampire Slayer. When we first met her she was a snobbish and snooty cheerleader, but in the following seasons she proves to be a sidekick and an essential friend to Buffy, Willow and Xander (not forgetting her character in the spin off Angel) . But if instead of Cordelia, Charisma Carpenter played Buffy Summers? Who knows what the teen drama would have been like without Sarah Michelle Gellar who spent her days impaling vampires while always keeping her hair in perfect order? Does it seem possible to you to imagine the roles of the two enemy-friends exchanged? It could happen. In fact the first audition of Charisma Carpenter was for the role of the protagonist, but the director of the TV series Joss Whedon was not very convinced, so much so that in the end he gave her the role of the bad girl, or Cordelia Chase. The relationship then between the actress and the director of Buffy – The Vampire Slayer went more and more sour with the passage of time, so much so that Carpenter was among the first to complain of Whedon’s toxic behavior towards her.
3) What if Michael’s The Office Was it Rainn Wilson?
Steve Carell was the perfect Michael Scott in The Officebut if in its place there had been Rainn Wilson Would the show have been as successful? Probably yes, given the actor’s talent in playing Dwight Schrute, but it wouldn’t have been the same thing. And not because Wilson couldn’t have been an excellent Michael, but because no one else could ever have played the fussy and demanding Dwight Schrute as well as him, whom we learned to love little by little, episode after episode. Definitely the nerd side of him and his unbridled passion for Star Wars they helped. Rainn Wilson wanted to try and make us laugh by becoming the lead of the American remake of The Officebut little did he know that the best laughs would come as Dwight, the misfit “assistant regional manager” we all loved.
4) Janel Parrish come Spencer in Pretty Little Liars
Do you remember the Liars, the protagonists of Pretty Little Liars? And if instead of Troian Bellisario, in the role of Spencer there had been Janel Parrish who later played Mona on the show? Can you imagine the whole group? Doesn’t that bother you even a little bit? Well, incredibly it could have gone like this: in the main quartet of the TV series there could have been Parrish who in fact initially auditioned for the character of Spencer, also arriving in the shortlist of favourites. She eventually she lost the role and when there seemed to be no more hope she was called to play Mona, character that the same actress loved to play! If we retrace the TV series Pretty Little Liars we immediately realize a paradox: Mona felt excluded from the Liars group made up of Spencer, Emily, Aria and Hanna, her best friend. She wanted so much to bond with them to the point of getting closer and closer to them, even if often subtly. Janel Parrish wanted so much to be one of the Liars just like her character in the TV series.
5) Iwan Rheon is your protagonist Games of Thrones?
If there is one truly iconic thing about the tv series Game of Thrones And Kit Harington in the role of Jon Snowil Prince of Dragonstone e the heir to the elusive Iron Throne. But among the first actors to audition for the lead in Game of Thrones there was too Iwan Rheon. Of course, as we know, she didn’t get the part and instead won one of the most evil and cruel roles in the TV series: that of Ramsay Bolton! For years – and who knows how many more – the his character turned out to be among the most sadistic ever and actor Iwan Rheon takes great pride in his work, despite not being the first he’s coveted in the bloodthirsty world of Game of Thrones.
6) Betty’s Riverdale it could have been Madeleine Petsch
It seems absurd to us to imagine Betty Cooper as red and refined as Madeleine Petsch. Instead, of all the crazy and bizarre things that happened on the set of Riverdale, many of which are still unexplained, for a moment this too could have happened. Though come to think of it, something similar in storyline actually happened. In the early days of Riverdale, when the TV series was still in the planning stage, among the first to cast was Madeleine Petch, who at the time had proposed for the role of Betty Cooper, the good girl next door. However, Reinheart’s arrival at the castings turned the tables so much that Madeline Petsch she eventually landed the role of Cheryl Blossom. Was it Lili’s angelic face that convinced the writers? Or was it Madeleine’s natural red that convinced the casters that the role of seductive Cheryl Blossom really had to go to her? We’ll probably never know for sure, but then again in a TV series like Riverdale there are very few certainties and answers about the (ultra)creative processes of the showrunners.
7) Liza Weill aspired to be Rory Gilmore
One thing is certain: Liza Weill wanted to play the nerd and finally won the role as close to what she wanted: Lisa Weill was in fact the shy scholar Paris Geller in A mum for a friend. Soon her character became Rory’s faithful study partner, the youngest protagonist of the TV series. And that was the original role Weill had applied for: her goal was to be Rory Gilmore and had almost reached the finish line when Alexis Bledel showed up and would have immediately landed the coveted role. However, showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino did not want to abandon the actress and wrote the likeable character of Paris Gellerwhich after the first hesitations of the public won the hearts of the fans and made all of us poor nerds feel special, always with our heads in the books.
8) Olivia Wilde could have been Marissa Cooper in The O.C.
For the series: when you want to be so much a character that you end up becoming his girlfriend. This is the story of Olivia Wilde nel teen drama The O.C.who originally pitched for the role of Marissa Cooper and instead landed the character of Alex, the bad girl with whom Marissa will have a brief relationship during the TV series. This was revealed by showrunner Josh Schwartz himself in an episode of the podcast Welcome to The O.C. Bitches in which he said that for the role of Marissa the ideal candidates were Olivia and Mischa Barton. Both had been phenomenal, but Olivia had a “flaw” that made her unlikely to be a good Marissa, tragic and desperate. Olivia Wilde appeared ‘Too strong’and it was precisely this detail that allowed her to get the role of Alex Kelly in the TV series, a role written especially for her, suitable for Wilde!