Actors Who Refused Roles In Tom Hanks Movies

Mykleti Williamson was relatively unknown when he landed the role of Bubba in "Forrest Gump," a part that would send him straight into major film acting and out of the guest star roles on episodic television to which he'd grown accustomed. Before casting him, "Forrest Gump" producers attempted to land an actor with whom audiences would be more familiar, and in addition to rising star Dave Chappelle, David Alan Grier said no, too.

A film and Broadway veteran, Grier was best known in the early 1990s for his role in "Boomerang," and his four-year stint on Fox's popular sketch comedy series "In Living Color." "Forrest Gump," starring Tom Hanks and directed by "Back to the Future" helmer Robert Zemeckis, would've been the most profile gig yet for Grier, but he passed nevertheless. "I'm like, listen if I'm going to be playing a mentally challenged person, I got to be the lead, I can't be no mentally challenged sidekick," Grier told "Busy Tonight" in 2018 (via JustJared). "So I read 20 pages and I said 'listen man, I'm not going in on this. He's talking about shrimp the whole d*** movie. Despite Zemeckis asking Grier to do the role on three separate occasions, and getting word that Hanks wanted him for the movie, too, he still passed. "I screwed that up," Grier admitted.