Brad Pitt Turned Down One Of Matt Damon's Best Roles

Following the release of "Good Will Hunting" in 1997, Matt Damon quickly established himself as a legitimate Hollywood star. In the years that followed, Damon appeared in a string of successful and critically acclaimed movies, with "Rounders," "The Talented Mr. Ripley," and "Ocean's Eleven" being just a few examples. It wasn't until 2002, however, that Damon made the leap to action star on the back of "The Bourne Identity."

Widely considered one of the best action movies of the 2000s, "The Bourne Identity" follows Jason Bourne, a secret agent with no long-term memory, who slowly comes to find out he has a secret past working for a CIA black ops program. Damon's portrayal of Jason Bourne instantly became iconic and helped launch a movie franchise that spanned five films over the course of 15 years. Damon starred in four of those films.

It's hard to imagine anyone but Damon in the role of Jason Bourne, but an oft-forgotten piece of movie history is that the role almost went to Brad Pitt. According to a Variety report from 2000, Universal was trying to persuade Pitt to take on the role of Jason Bourne. Pitt ultimately passed on the role and committed to star in "Spy Game" instead. "Spy Game" was a decent action-thriller in its own right, but the 2001 film that saw Pitt team up with Robert Redford clearly didn't have a long-lasting cultural impact in the way that "The Bourne Identity" did.

To be fair to Brad Pitt, it's not uncommon for A-list stars to turn down roles that go on to become cultural touchstones. After all, top Hollywood stars routinely field several film offers at once, and it's not always easy to predict which scripts have the power to become blockbuster films. Luckily for Pitt, plenty of other big opportunities would come along. In addition to appearing alongside Matt Damon in "Ocean's Eleven," he won an Oscar for "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" and starred in "F1," Apple's first real blockbuster movie.

All that said, Pitt has turned down several iconic roles. Aside from turning down Jason Bourne, Pitt also said no to playing Neo in "The Matrix." Also interesting is that Pitt isn't the only A-lister to have turned down a part in "The Matrix." Famously, in one of the dumbest decisions on his movie career, Will Smith turned down the role of Neo so he could star in "Wild Wild West" instead. 

We have also highlighted that Sandra Bullock turned down not one but two roles in "The Matrix." Early on in the production process, "The Matrix" creators were having a tough time casting Neo and briefly considered making the character a woman. And one of their top choices was Bullock, who ultimately decided to pass on the offer. Later on, Bullock was also offered to play Trinity before declining that role as well. "At the time, it wasn't cast with Keanu, and I didn't see myself with the person they wanted," she explained on the "Today" show. "Later, I saw the movie and loved it."