Stars Who ALMOST Quit Before Their Big Break (And Why)

Life

4. David Harbour

When David Harbour’s big role on State of Affairs came to an end, he figured it was over for him. While it didn’t take long for things to change, Harbour was close to quitting when he got the news that his show was cancelled. “I got the ‘Stranger Things’ script like a week before NBC canceled ‘State of Affairs.’ I really had this moment where I’m like, ‘I’m done.’ My neurosis is very sophisticated: I was like, ‘I am done. Hollywood is done with David Harbour. They are finished.’ And then these two young dudes, these North Carolina Duffer brother dudes, sent me the script and they were really interested in me.” Even though the interest was there, Harbour felt defeated. “I was like, ‘This is a lead in Netflix, there’s no way I’m going to get it. This is amazing. There’s no way.’ And the script was so beautiful, well-written, sweet, fun, and exciting. It was an indie movie and then you throw in like Jaws, a shark or something. I went in, read one scene and signed on very early.”

3. Elizabeth Olsen

Elizabeth Olsen almost quit the industry before she ever really got into it. Sure, she did a movie when she was a kid, a tiny bit part, but she didn’t act for real until 2011. Still, she knew the industry and she saw what it could do to a person. “That was when the media was what I found to be abusive to my sisters, and I thought I really didn’t want to be in the industry,” she said, looking back on how people and the industry treated her sisters, the Olsen twins, back in 2004. “They turned 18 and what was going on in her life—I’m talking about Mary-Kate—was all over the news. They would follow us shopping and [Mary-Kate and Ashley] would almost get into car accidents because of the paparazzi, and I didn’t want to be a part of it. I just thought, ‘This is such bullsh*t.'” Now, Olsen just finished with The Avengers playing Scarlet Witch and Wind River in a starring role next to Jeremy Renner.