Bernsen — 7 years ago(April 03, 2019 05:00 AM)

Here are actors who could have been in the three major starring roles in Matrix, Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/TheMatrix
Will Smith was offered the role of Neo, but turned it down for Wild Wild West. Smith explained his decision in 2004, in an interview with Wired:
“You know, The Matrix is a difficult concept to pitch. In the pitch, I just didn’t see it. I watched Keanu’s performance — and very rarely do I say this — but I would have messed it up. I would have absolutely messed up The Matrix.”
The Wachowskis wanted
Johnny Depp
for Neo, while Warner Bros. wanted either
Brad Pitt
or
Val Kilmer
.
Ewan McGregor
turned down the role of Neo, as he was filming Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
David Duchovny
turned down the role of Neo to make The X-Files: Fight the Future.
Nicolas Cage
turned down the part of Neo because of family commitments.
Tom Cruise
was also considered.
Leonardo DiCaprio
turned it down, supposedly because he was concerned about the amount of special effects.
Gary Oldman
and
Samuel L. Jackson
were considered for Morpheus. Also,
Chow Yun-fat
was offered the role of Morpheus, but turned it down.
Russell Crowe
also turned down the role of Morpheus. He said: “I just didn’t get it. I couldn’t get past page forty-two. That world was just not interesting to me.”
Sandra Bullock
turned down the role of Trinity because she couldn’t see herself acting alongside the actor the studio intended to play Neo. (This was before Reeves, her co-star from the 1994 hit Speed, was cast.) She later regretted this decision.
Janet Jackson
was initially approached for the role of Trinity, but scheduling conflicts prevented her from accepting it. In an interview, she stated that turning down the role was difficult for her, so she later referenced the film in the “Intro” and “Outro” interludes on her tenth studio album Discipline.
Michelle Yeoh
was also considered for Trinity, as was
Gillian Anderson
.
At the film's 20th anniversary, she revealed she was also offered Neo, with the Wachowskis being willing to make the character female if it meant getting a big star.
Jean Reno
was approached to play Agent Smith. He turned it down and took a role in Godzilla (1998) instead. He was also unwilling to move to Australia.