These 25 Actors Passed on the Role of a Lifetime, but Most of Them Didn't Regret It

It's hard to imagine anyone other than Reese Witherspoon in the iconic role of Elle Woods, but apparently, she wasn't the first choice! Applegate told Entertainment Tonight that she got the script right after wrapping Married... With Children and rejected the role out of a fear of being typecast early in her career.

"I got scared of kind of repeating myself. . . . What a stupid move that was, right?" she joked, adding: "Reese deserved that. She did a much better job than I ever could, and so that's her life."