5 movie stars who missed the Oscars through their fingers

Sometimes a brilliant actor or actress turns down a role that ends up winning another actor that prestigious gold statuette. For example, Gene Hackman almost starred in The Silence of the Lambs in 1991.

5 PHOTOS

1. Dallas Buyers Club is a 2013 biography drama starring Matthew McConaughey. Gael Garcia Bernal considered starring but never closed the deal. Instead, the role went to Jared Leto and earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

2. Romantic drama "Monster's Ball" in 2001 with the participation of Halle Berry. For this film, she received an Oscar for Best Actress and became the first black woman to do so. However, the award could have gone to Angela Bassett instead. She turned down the role "because it's such a stereotype about black women," she told Newsweek.

3. Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for Lincoln - this dramatic historical biography (for Best Actor in a Leading Role), but Liam Neeson could have stood in his place. However, after years of waiting for the project to begin, Neeson simply felt that the new script "had nothing to do with him," as he stated in an interview with GQ.

4. The musical comedy-drama "La La Land" received as many as 6 "Oscars". The Best Actress award went to Emma Stone, but her namesake Emma Watson could have won it. However, Watson turned down the role due to scheduling conflicts with Beauty and the Beast.

5. Another multiple winners, Million Dollar Baby, a sports drama, won 4 Academy Awards. Hilary Swank received an Oscar for Best Actress, although Sandra Bullock was attached to this role for many years. It was difficult to find a studio to make the film, and by the time it started, Bullock had taken on Miss Congeniality 2 and was unable to change the schedule.