Sean Connery turned down the chance to become the highest paid actor in movie history. If Connery had accepted the role offered to him as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he would have would have made as much as $440 million, based on a 10-15 percent cut of the movies' future earnings. The three films in the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring (2000), The Two Towers (2001) and The Return of the King (2002), earned a total of $2.9 billion at the box office.
Last year Sir Sean explained his decision to turn down the role: "Yeah, well, I never understood it. I read the book, I read the script, I saw the movie. I still don't understand it."
It goes without saying, but Sean Connery is an idiot, albeit with a pretty kick-ass accent. If actors didn't take movie roles because they didn't understand the script, Keanu Reeves would be working at a grocery store right now: "Wait, lemme get this straight, if the bus goes under 50 mph, it explodes, right? But what about if the bus goes under 48 mph, dude?" Good guy, though, that Keanu.
