Robert Duvall Once Chose 'Days of Thunder' Over Another Notorious Role

With a career spanning more than six decades, Robert Duvall's acting portfolio was diverse and abundant. Still, despite the abundance, the famous actor didn't say "yes" to every role he was offered. He followed his instincts, even when they led him to turn down one of the most acclaimed films of the 1990s.

In an interview with writer Bill DeYoung, Duvall revealed that he was offered a role in The Silence of the Lambs, but ultimately chose to walk away from the project, opting instead to appear in Days of Thunder, the NASCAR drama starring Tom Cruise.

Robert Duvall Said the Choice Between 'Days of Thunder' and 'Silence of the Lambs' Wasn't Complicated

When explaining what led him to opt for Harry Hogge over Hannibal, Duvall recalled, “They offered me one part, and then the other, and I said, ‘I’d rather work with Tom Cruise than wait around for these people to make up their minds.’”

Duvall described a confusing back-and-forth during the casting process, including a lunch meeting to discuss him playing the lead role — later played by Anthony Hopkins — only to receive a call shortly after suggesting the roles be switched, with Duvall cast as an FBI agent instead.

“That was a strange move for a director to do,” Duvall said. “So I’m just as glad I did the Cruise thing.”

While The Silence of the Lambs would go on to sweep the Oscars and become a cultural landmark, Duvall remained characteristically unsentimental about the path not taken (unlike Tim Curry, who also turned down the role and deeply regretted it). He acknowledged the film was effective, but stopped short of praising it as groundbreaking.

“I think it’s a well-made film,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a great film. I don’t think there’s one great performance in it. It’s very effective — very talented clichés. There’s nothing really fresh about it.”

That blunt honesty was vintage Duvall. He wasn’t dismissive, but he also wasn’t swayed by consensus or hindsight. To him, the appeal of Days of Thunder was immediate and human: a chance to work with people he respected, without uncertainty or creative second-guessing, or, as Harry Hogge would say, "You can't know what a car can or can't do unless you run it."

In another interview with USA Today, the actor was asked if he regretted turning down roles in Silence of the Lambs or Nashville, to which he replied "Absolutely not, no. There are a few things I look back on that I wonder if I should have done – I turned down the lead in Jaws. But not so much either of those.

True to form, he never sounded like he regretted it for a second. Man-eating sharks? Sure. Man-eating men? Nah.