Roles Actors Refused To Give Up On

It takes a lot of dedication to become a successful actor, and a big part of that is learning to not take no for an answer. Some actors take this concept to a whole new level once they fall in love with a role. Whether it's an iconic part they're hoping to reprise one more time, or a personal favorite they can't stand to see someone else play, these actors refused to be turned down. Some were successful, others weren't, but here are the roles that actors simply refused to give up on.

Even though he played the role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds never felt like he actually got to play the part of Deadpool. Wolverine came out in 2009, and Reynolds has been talking about doing a Deadpool movie that actually gets the character right ever since. Unfortunately, it's kind of hard to get people excited about a movie where the pitch is "it won't suck this time!" Even worse, the script went through several different writing teams and directors, which pretty much guaranteed it would be a mess. The only thing that kept the movie alive at all was Reynolds' insistence that he still wanted to do it. It wasn't until visual effects test footage was leaked online and gained positive reaction that the movie actually went into production. Reynolds finally got the chance to be in a Deadpool movie.

John Travolta spent almost 20 years trying to get Battlefield Earth made. He started shopping the project around Hollywood during the early '80s, hoping to play the lead role of Jonnie. Unfortunately, Travolta's career wasn't doing so great at the time. No one was really excited about filming a movie with an insane, weird plot that starred a potentially washed-up actor. When he made his comeback in 1994's Pulp Fiction, he immediately went back to work on B.E. Unfortunately, so much time had passed that Travolta was too old to play the hero. Instead, he decided that he could play Terl, the lead villain. Even with all of the buzz behind his comeback, however, Travolta still struggled to get the movie made. He even tried to get Quentin Tarantino involved at one point. Travolta finally brought Terl to life in 2000, in a movie that's considered one of the worst box office bombs ever. So, all of the hard work was totally worth it.

Not every story can have an ending as Travolta's. Sean Young was originally cast as Vicki Vale in Tim Burton's Batman, but lost the role when she broke her arm. Apparently, she decided that she had to be in a Batman movie, however, and lobbied aggressively to be cast as Catwoman in the sequel, Batman Returns. When she wasn't able to convince Tim Burton to put her in the movie, things got...weird. Unable to accept the fact that she wasn't getting the part, Young built a homemade catwoman costume. She then showed up on the Warner Brothers lot dressed as Catwoman and attempted to confront both Burton and Michael Keaton. Surprisingly, instead of being cast in the movie, Young was just publicly embarrassed by the whole event. Sure, she might have proved to Burton that she was physically capable of wearing a Catwoman costume. But she also proved that was just way too batty for Batman.

There's just something about Batman villains that makes them appealing to actors, apparently. During the pre-production on Batman, the studio really wanted Jack Nicholson to play the Joker. It seemed like Nicholson didn't want the part, however, so the studio cast Robin Williams. It's rumored that this was only done to pressure Nicholson into saying yes, which he eventually did. Whether or not that's true didn't matter to Williams, who was extremely hurt when he was dropped from the movie. He was also potentially offered the role of the Riddler in Batman Forever, but that role ended up going to Jim Carrey. When Christopher Nolan took over the Batman franchise, Williams made it perfectly clear that he still wanted the part he was cast for back in the late '80s. He lobbied heavily for the role, and spoke about it at length publicly. While Nolan didn't end up casting Williams, at least he didn't tease him with the role. Still, it's likely that if he were still alive, Williams would have tried to grab the once-again rebooted Joker in Suicide Squad.

If you've ever seen either one of the Ghost Rider movies, you might have found yourself asking the question "who thought this was a good idea?" The answer is Nic Cage. He's a huge fan of the comic book, and even has a Ghost Rider tattoo (because of course he does). When Ghost Rider first began development, however, nobody was mentioning Cage's name. Like many comic book movies, Ghost Rider had a long production, beginning back in the '90s. Originally, Johnny Depp had expressed interest in the role. When Cage found out about this, he contacted the director and pleaded his case. Cage convinced the studio to replace Depp with him as the frontrunner for the role. Then, planned director Stephen Norrington left the project, so Nicolas Cage dropped out. When Mark Steven Johnson came on-board to direct, Cage fought his way back to the role. Ghost Rider was finally made, with Cage in the role he had both fought so hard for and walked away from. It's usually considered one of the lousier comic book movies of recent times.

After the success of Terminator 2, and Arnold Schwarzenegger's status as a megastar, you would think that Terminator 3 was a sure thing. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to do it, probably considering the fact that playing an emotionless robot is the easiest acting job in the world. The problem was that James Cameron kept delaying finishing the script, and the studio that owned the rights to the franchise eventually went bankrupt. Once that happened, Cameron moved on from the franchise entirely. Schwarzenegger tried to convince Cameron to stick around, but to no avail. Then, in 2001, Schwarzenegger was planning on entering politics when he was called into a meeting with producers about Terminator 3. Given the timing, Schwarzenegger had to choose between Terminating or Governating. Obviously, he put off his political career to film Terminator 3.