After the recent release of Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos, a behind-the-scenes insight into the casting process of The Sopranos, the idea of ‘what could have been’ is something that’s been sitting within the public subconscious.

The chance to see an entire unseen archive of grainy audition tapes from one of the most successful television shows of all time is a rather jarring experience that leaves you feeling as though you’re witnessing an alternate alien reality of the world we know. In what universe could Tony Soprano not be played by James Gandolfini? The casting of his character seems obvious to us now with the benefit of hindsight, and when we see him walking into the taping room you almost want to scream at the screen, ‘that’s him! That’s Tony! You’ve found THE guy!’ But what’s interesting about the casting process is that much of it relies on instinct and intuition, and with the possibility of sometimes hundreds of other actors competing for the same role, there’s another world out there in which perfect actors were not aligned with the parts that they were almost made for.

The process of booking and losing out on parts is something all too familiar to those in the business. Jennifer Lawrence lost out on the part of Bella in Twilight to Kristen Stewart, Emma Watson to Emma Stone in La La Land and Will Smith to Keanu Reaves in The Matrix. However, Matthew McConaughey recently cleared up a rumour about his near-casting of Jack in James Cameron’s Titanic, in which Gwyneth Paltrow was also being eyed for the role of Rose. Given the infamy of the film now and the beautiful friendship that has since sparked between Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, this paring seems completely impossible. How could they not know?

However, the gossip at the time was that McConaughey had declined the role, but he recently clarified that this wasn’t true, stating, “I wanted the part. The rumour is that I got the part and I declined it, that’s false”.

When asked how he dealt with this rejection, he simply said “You accept it and just move on. I was already onto the next.”

Hollywood is a very small club, and when you’re constantly being bombarded with marketing and posters of all the recent releases and goings-on in the business, it must be difficult to escape the creative ‘one that got away’. I, for one, would feel haunted if all my perceived career failures and competitors were splatted over the front page of magazines and billboards, but I suppose it’s all part of the game. You win some and you lose some. However, McConaughey then went on to star in Interstellar, Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective, winning him a selection of Academy Awards.

Hollywood is the living definition of ‘when one door closes, another one open’s’, and part of working within the machine requires you to embrace the unknown, and as actors, hope that casting directors continue to see past the realm of possibility and predict the inevitable.