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Most actors wait years for a breakout role that will propel their name into Hollywood lights.

So, it must be a pretty bitter pill to swallow to watch someone else rise to fame in a role that you were originally offered.

Earlier this month, Molly Ringwald revealed her regret at giving up the lead role in Ghost to Demi Moore.

While the romance-thriller went on to become a Nineties box office success, Molly described the project as the one she 'still regrets turning down'.

Admitting it would have 'changed the entire trajectory' of her career, Molly praised Demi for her performance as she added: 'But Demi is great in it. So good for Demi. She did a great job.'

But Molly is by no means the only star to turn down a killer part.

Earlier this month Molly Ringwald revealed her regret at giving up the lead role in Ghost to Demi Moore which 'changed the entire trajectory' of her career

But Molly isn't the first star to have given up a huge role and regretted it; pictured Demi Moore in Ghost in 1990

Al Pacino said no to playing Han Solo in Star Wars, telling interviewers he didn't understand the script, he said: 'It was at that time in my career where I was offered everything'

Al Pacino in Star Wars

Al Pacino said no to playing Han Solo in Star Wars, telling interviewers he didn't understand the script.

'It was at that time in my career where I was offered everything,' Pacino told MTV in 2014 as reported by Men's Health.

'I was in The Godfather. They didn't care if I was right or wrong for the role, if I could act or not act.'

Burt Reynolds was also up in the role but wrongly assuming it would be a financial risk, he turned it down.

Speaking to Business Insider in 2016, he said: 'I just didn't want to play that kind of role at the time. Now I regret it. I wish I would have done it.'

Harrison Ford got the role instead and the rest is history.

Will Smith in The Matrix

Will Smith was originally approached to play Neo in The Matrix, but passed, saying the pitch didn't make sense to him at the time

Madonna also shared that she was supposed to swap the stage for the set and star in The Matrix but turned down the role, later admitting the decision made her want to 'kill herself'

Will Smith was originally approached to play Neo in The Matrix, but passed, saying the pitch didn't make sense to him at the time.

He made Wild Wild West instead – and has openly admitted he regrets the choice.

Madonna has also shared that she was supposed to swap the stage for the set and star in The Matrix.

While the legendary singer didn't reveal what part she was meant to play, she revealed she was approached but turned down the role, later admitting the decision made her want to 'kill herself'.

Appearing on The Tonight Show in 2021, she said: 'I also turned down the role in The Matrix. Can you believe that? I wanna kill myself. That's like one of the best movies ever made.'

Sean Connery in The Lord of the Rings

Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy because he 'didn't understand the script'

And in what may be one of the most expensive rejections of all time, Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy because he 'didn't understand the script'.

The former James Bond actor was reportedly offered $10million per film – plus 15 per cent of the box office.

The role would have earned him nearly $450million.

To add insult to injury, Connery was also reportedly offered to join the cast with a 15 per cent stake in the film franchise’s box office profits, meaning the now 82-year-old lost out on a potential huge payday.

But instead the role of Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Tolkien’s fantasy trilogy, went to Sir Ian McKellen.

While Connery has never revealed that he was offered the role as Gandalf, he has admitted that he 'never understood the script'.

He said: 'I read the book. I read the script. I saw the movie. I still don’t understand it. Ian McKellen, I believe, is marvellous in it.'

John Travolta in Forrest Gump

John Travolta (right) turned down Forrest Gump who was played by Tom Hanks (left) in the end

The first choice for the role of Forrest Gump actually belonged to John Travolta.

The actor had starred in many hugely popular films in the 1970s, such as Grease and Saturday Night Fever, but by the 1990s Travolta was in need of a career resurgence.

After being offered the role of Forrest Gump, Travolta decided to turn the film down in favour of another project, the role of Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

Luckily for Travolta, this choice revitalised his career and the role led to the actor’s Oscar nomination against Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump, which Travolta subsequently lost.

Travolta claimed he does not regret turning down the role of Forrest, instead said: 'If I didn’t do something Tom Hanks did, then I did something else that was equally interesting or fun, […]

'But I feel good about some I gave up because other careers were created.'

Forrest Gump went on to make $678million worldwide.

Leonardo DiCaprio in Brokeback Mountain

Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon all reportedly passed on Brokeback Mountain, which eventually starred Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in career-defining roles

Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon all reportedly passed on Brokeback Mountain, which eventually starred Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in career-defining roles.

Film-maker Gus Van Sant, who was originally considered as a director for the film, believed it needed a 'famous cast'.

'Nobody wanted to do it,' he told IndieWire. 'I was working on it, and I felt like we needed a really strong cast, like a famous cast. That wasn’t working out.

'I asked the usual suspects: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Ryan Phillippe. They all said no.'

Brokeback Mountain producer and screenwriter Diana Ossana confirmed in an email to IndieWire that those actors had passed on the film, writing, 'Yes, all those young gentlemen (at the time) turned down the project, for various reasons.'

The 2005 film, which chronicles the complicated love story of two modern cowboys, went on to become one of the most groundbreaking and successful LGBTQ films ever made.

It was nominated for eight Oscars, including best actor and best supporting actor nods for Ledger and Gyllenhaal.

Ang Lee took home the award for best director, and the film also won for best adapted screenplay and achievement in music.

Van Sant added: 'What I could have done, and what I probably should have done, was cast more unknowns, not worried about who were the lead actors.

'I was not ready. I’m not sure why. There was just sort of a hiccup on my part. There was something off with myself, I guess, whatever was going on.'

John Lithgow in Batman

John Lithgow turned down the chance to play The Joker in Tim Burton's Batman and even talked the director out of casting him

John Lithgow turned down the chance to play The Joker in Tim Burton's Batman and even talked the director out of casting him.

Lithgow had previously turned down the iconic role of Frasier Crane on Cheers because TV was beneath him, but it was the role in the 1989 Batman that he rejected that must still give him nightmares.

The actor has described the audition as the 'worst' one of his entire career.

'I tried to persuade him I was not right for the part, and I succeeded,' he revealed. 'I didn’t realise it was such a big deal'.

Unfortunately for Lithgow and his bank account, Batman was a huge deal, as this was the first serious attempt to bring the character to the big screen since the Adam West days, with Burton determined to update the story for a more modern audience.

The role eventually went to three-time Oscar winner Jack Nicholson.

As it turns out, Burton wasn’t the first director who wanted Lithgow under the clown makeup, as Joe Dante had been offered the chance to make a Batman film after the success of Gremlins, and while that movie never happened, he wanted Lithgow to star as the villain.

Once again, Lithgow had the chance to bring one of comic books’ most famous characters to life, but once again, he found a reason to say no.

'I was doing M Butterfly on Broadway, and it was an exhausting show,' Lithgow told Entertainment Weekly.

'It would have meant leaving that show and going right into a movie, and I said, ‘I just don’t think I can’. How about that for stupid? Actors are not necessarily smart people.'

Ultimately, Lithgow probably made the right move as the Dante movie never happened.

Burt Reynolds in James Bond

Burt Reynolds rejected the role of James Bond in 1973s Live and Let Die, saying he didn't think the public would accept an American 007

Burt Reynolds rejected the role of James Bond in 1973s Live and Let Die, saying he didn't think the public would accept an American 007.

Only six actors have played the iconic spy character in the 25 official instalments to date, with several other stars auditioning and being unsuccessful.

The previous 007's have all been British or Irish with the exception of Australia-born George Lazenby, who starred as James Bond in the On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969.

Previously, American actor James Brolin was also up for Bond but Roger Moore changed his mind and decided he fancied saving the world again.

Tom Mankiewicz, who wrote Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, and The Man with the Golden Gun, was an integral part of the Bond brain trust in the early 1970s.

He recalled in the book Nobody Does It Better: 'Burt Reynolds almost played Bond.'

'What was funny is, at the time we were doing Diamonds Are Forever, Cubby and Guy [Hamilton] went over to meet an actor named Burt Reynolds, who was doing a series called Dan August at the time.

'Guy thought he was charming as hell. Burt’s name came up again at Live and Let Die. As a matter of fact, the choice was between Burt Reynolds and Roger Moore.'

But Reynolds failed to convince, the Broccoli family – Cubby Broccoli co-founded Eon Productions and launched the James Bond franchise – Mankiewicz added: 'Cubby really put his foot down and said James Bond has to be English.'

This instantly ruled Reynolds out of contention.

Halle Berry in Speed

Halle Berry turned down one of the biggest 90s films Speed after not understanding the script

One of the biggest films of the 90s was Speed starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.

However, it could have been very different, with Halle Berry once in the frame for the character of Annie Porter, Bullock’s character.

The film centres around a bus that is rigged by a terrorist to explode if its speed falls below 50 miles per hour.

Speaking to Movieline in 1995, Berry revealed: 'I turned down Speed because I thought, "I don't want to drive that bus."

'There wasn’t a whole lot of dialogue. I admit, I just don't get it when I read action stuff like, "The bus flies 100 miles per hour over an overpass." One of the script versions they sent me, the bus never got out of Dodger Stadium, it just kept driving around and around the parking lot!'

She added: 'When I watched the finished movie, I loved it and I thought to myself, "The movie gods sure didn't talk to me that day."'

Billy Crystal in Toy Story

Billy Crystal has admitted he regrets turning down the role of Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story films due to taking his agents advice

Billy Crystal has admitted he regrets turning down the role of Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story films.

Main toys Woody and Buzz Lightyear are played respectively by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, but producers initially wanted someone else to be the Space Ranger.

The When Harry Met Sally star was initially approached to be the voice actor for Buzz, but turned it down on the advice of his agent.

Crystal confessed on The Graham Norton Show: 'I was the dope that turned it down, but it wasn’t about the character, it was a business thing, and my agent said not to do it, so I passed.

'Then it comes out and it is genius.'

The star went on to voice Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc, another successful Pixar and Disney animation, he continued: 'Two years later when the producers of Toy Story first mentioned Monsters, Inc, I said, "Whatever it is, say yes."

'They convinced me by showing me a screen test they had done of me as Buzz Lightyear in the scene from When Harry Met Sally where I am yelling about a wagon wheel coffee table. They even had a little Buzz under the table. It was astonishing, and if I had seen that I would definitely have done Toy Story.'

Toy Story has become one of the most influential animated films of all-time, being the first entirely computer-animated movie and establishing Pixar as a major animation studio.

Over the last 30 years, there have been five Toy Story films created as well as the 2022 spin-off film Lightyear, which focused on Buzz Lightyear.

For voicing Buzz Lightyear across the Toy Story franchise, Tim Allen's pay has grown from an estimated $50,000 for the original 1995 movie to roughly $20million for Toy Story 5.

Henry Winkler in Grease

Henry Winkler who played the iconic 'The Fonz' in Happy Days ended up being the first choice for many in the casting department but turned it down out of fear of being typecast

Grease was one of the smash hits of the 70s, and at the time became the highest-grossing musical ever.

It is now hard to imagine anyone other than John Travolta playing Danny Zuko, but at the time producers did have someone else in mind.

Henry Winkler who played the iconic 'The Fonz' in Happy Days for 11 seasons ended up being the first choice for many in the casting department.

However, Danny and 'The Fonz' were both incredibly similar, which led to Winkler turning down the leading role out of fear of being typecast.

He admitted to CNN in 2022: 'I am a damn fool. I only realised years afterwards. I thought, 'I've played the Fonz, I don't want to do it again.'

'I should’ve just shut up and had a really good time making that movie. Now, I go home, I say no, and I have a Diet Coke. John Travolta goes home, and has done the movie, and buys a plane.”

Travolta was paid an upfront reported salary of $200,000 to star in Grease and his salary was supplemented by backend profit-sharing deals tied to the movie's monumental box office success.

The film made an astonishing $396 million globally on a $6 million production budget, making it one of the most profitable movies in cinema history.

Christina Applegate in Legally Blonde

Christina Applegate revealed she passed on the lead role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde because wanted to focus on building her acting career as an adult

Christina Applegate revealed she passed on the lead role of Elle Woods in the 2001 movie Legally Blonde, that helped make a star of Reese Witherspoon.

She found fame as Kelly Bundy on the long-running sitcom Married... with Children which ended in 1997 after a decade.

But Applegate, then 26, wanted to focus on building her acting career as an adult.

'I wasn’t actually offered it, but the script had came to me,' Applegate said during an appearance on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live in 2019.

'But I had just gotten off Married with Children and I felt like it was too close to what I had just been doing and I was very interested in removing myself from that.

'I don’t regret it because Reese Witherspoon did a much better job than I ever could and she has way more money and more success, and why would I ever regret that?' she said.

Witherspoon was paid $2.5million for the original 2001 Legally Blonde but following the massive box-office success, her salary skyrocketed to $15million for the 2003 sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde.

The now Hollywood star had a special clause put into her contract for Legally Blonde that allowed her to keep her entire character wardrobe from the film, including 77 pairs of Jimmy Choo shoes.