The role Anthony Hopkins and Sean Connery both refused to play: “I hope they feel silly”
It’s impossible to know if a movie character will instantly become iconic, with a combination of an unforgettable performance and audience reception ultimately making the decision. Anthony Hopkins and Sean Connery played at least one each but missed out on the chance to add another to their collection.
Obviously, it goes without saying which role they’ll be remembered for. In the former’s case, he only ended up with the part of Hannibal Lecter when a number of Hollywood legends, including Gene Hackman and Robert De Niro, baulked at the prospect of playing a cannibalistic psychiatrist.
Their loss turned out to be Hopkins’ gain, with The Silence of the Lambs winning him an Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ and immediately searing the chilling antagonist into the zeitgeist. He’s one of the United Kingdom’s greatest-ever performers across stage and screen, but that’s the role that defines him.
Connery was in a similar boat, with the untested Scotsman nowhere near first choice to play James Bond in Dr No. And yet, more than 60 years after 007’s debut, he remains the definitive take on the character for many. There’s definitely a pattern, with countless actors driving their characters to iconic status by the process of elimination after several of their peers knocked back the offer.
Take Ian McKellen, for example. He was a veteran of stage and screen with a career dating back to the early 1960s, but he was never a household name. Sure, he earned a ‘Best Actor’ nomination at the Academy Awards for Gods and Monsters, but he wasn’t exactly well-known among the average cinemagoer.
That all changed at the turn of the 21st century when he played Magneto in X-Men and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings in consecutive years, with his ‘Best Supporting Actor’ nod for The Fellowship of the Ring making him the only person involved with Peter Jackson’s seminal trilogy to be shortlisted for their on-camera efforts.
In everyone else’s defence, it was a risky gambit. There had never been a production like Lord of the Rings before, which required the person playing Gandalf to commit to three massive films being shot consecutively on the other side of the world, which required a commitment that many thespians in McKellen’s age range weren’t willing to make. Still, he was more than up to the task.
“I don’t think you’re ever the first choice,” he admitted of his hiring. “I certainly wasn’t the first choice for Gandalf. Tony Hopkins turned it down. Sean Connery certainly did. They’re all coming out of the woodwork now, and I hope they feel silly.”
It’s been the gift that’s kept on giving for McKellen, who’s played Gandalf six times onscreen with at least one more coming down the pike. As for Hopkins? He got his chance at high fantasy in Marvel Studios’ Thor, which reinvigorated his career. Connery, meanwhile, retired after his dismal experience making The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Would that have happened had he played Gandalf? Who knows, but it’s fascinating to think about.
