21 Actors Who Almost Quit Hollywood Just Before Their Big Break, In Case You Needed Something To Inspire You Today
1. Robert Pattinson
Pattinson’s audition for the role of Edward in Twilight went so terribly, he apparently called his parents afterward and said he was done torturing himself. However, he got called back in and eventually nabbed the role!
2. Ashleigh Murray
Murray was about to take a six-month break from acting to make money and get out of debt when she won the part of Josie on Riverdale.
3. Monique Coleman
Coleman told BuzzFeed that she was on the brink of giving up on acting because she didn’t think it would happen for her. She debated with her agents and manager about the audition for High School Musical, but ended up going and securing the part of Taylor!
4. Chrissy Metz
“Literally, I was going to quit acting and move back home,” Metz told the Today show about how she felt before booking the role of Kate on breakout NBC hit This Is Us. Metz was nominated for an Emmy for the role in 2017.
5. Elizabeth Olsen
After seeing how the media covered Mary-Kate and how the paparazzi affected both of her sisters’ lives, Olsen considered quitting acting. However, she soon starred in Martha Marcy May Marlene, a performance that generated Oscar buzz, and of course today she’s an integral part of the MCU.
6. Noah Centineo
Centineo almost quit acting after shooting a role for a Disney Channel pilot. It wasn’t picked up, but he was still barred from auditioning for six months. However, soon after his short hiatus, he was cast on The Fosters!
7. Gal Gadot
Gadot considered quitting acting before Wonder Woman, telling her husband that she wasn’t sure how much more she could take after putting up with so many “almosts.” However, she soon got a call from Zack Snyder to audition for a secret role — one guess as to what that role was.
8. Kristen Stewart
As a kid, Stewart auditioned for a year without getting any commercials and decided to stop auditioning. Her mother convinced her to go to her last scheduled audition, which was for The Safety of Objects — and she landed it.
9. John Krasinski
Krasinski recounted to Stephen Colbert how his mom told him to give it two and a half to three years to try out acting. At the end of the two and a half years, he called his mom to tell her he was done and to ask her to pick him up in New York. However, she encouraged him to wait it out until the end of the year, and two weeks later, he was cast in The Office.
10. Melissa McCarthy
McCarthy had been telling herself for years that she was going to quit acting and move into a different industry once she turned 30. The week she turned 30, she was cast in Gilmore Girls.
11. Jenna Fischer
Fischer planned to return to Missouri after seven years if the business didn’t lead to any breakout success, but her manager convinced her to audition for one more season. She did, ultimately getting cast as Pam in The Office.
12. William Jackson Harper
Harper was planning on giving up on acting and decided to do one last pilot season. He said this helped him be more relaxed in the audition, which is part of the reason he thinks he got the role of Chidi in the critically acclaimed comedy The Good Place.
13. Courtney Henggeler
Henggeler wanted to quit acting, but her husband asked her to keep at it until they could figure out new health insurance, since at that time they got it through the Screen Actors Guild. She kept on auditioning, eventually booking the role of Amanda LaRusso in Cobra Kai.
14. Joshua Bassett
Bassett almost quit acting before discovering he’d been cast on the Disney+ show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. He soon got a record deal at Warner Records and recently released an EP.
15. Bradley Cooper
After his role got reduced on Alias, Cooper quit the show, then tore his Achilles tendon soon after and basically had to spend a year on the couch. However, after being able to audition again, he quickly landed Wedding Crashers.
16. Millie Bobby Brown
After failing to get a role on Game of Thrones, Brown considered quitting acting — however, she persevered, and two months later she booked the role of Eleven in Stranger Things.
17. Amy Adams
Adams was about to turn 30 when she went to film Junebug, and had just discovered she’d been dropped from the TV show Dr. Vegas. She planned to find a new career after the film, and even after shooting it, she was trying to figure out what to do next. However, she soon booked Enchanted and she garnered an Oscar nomination for Junebug, turning her into a star.
18. Chris Hemsworth
Hemsworth was sick of dealing with rejection and decided to go home to Australia. However, he first auditioned for The Cabin in the Woods, gaining the part of Curt in 2009. Two years later, he’d play Thor in the MCU.
19. Jon Hamm
Like Melissa MCarthy, Hamm had promised himself if he didn’t make it by 30, he’d quit. He ended up turning 30 on the set of We Were Soldiers and says that he “made it under the wire.”
20. David Harbour
Harbour was ready to give up on taking film acting seriously when he was cast in Stranger Things, saying that he would do it to make money on the side while pursuing theater but wouldn’t put his heart in it. He thought he’d never get the Stranger Things role, and after he got it, he decided that it would be the last film or TV role he cared about. It ended up reinvigorating him and encouraging him to pursue more film and TV acting. This year, he’ll star alongside Scarlett Johansson in Black Widow as Marvel character the Red Guardian.
21. And finally, Mark Ruffalo
After his brother was murdered in 2008, Ruffalo got rid of his agent and manager and moved to upstate New York with his family, saying he’d “had it with acting.” He ended up taking a role in The Kids Are All Right, and this helped him fall in love with acting again, especially when he saw it at the Sundance Film Festival.
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