Mary Steenbergen says she once took the role she should have taken.
She says she does not regret it because her choices have given her the life she has today.
“It’s impossible to imagine how different my life would be,” he said.
Mary Steenbergen, 73, says she is not upset about the roles she has lost because they led her to the life she has now.
Speaking on Saturday’s episode of The Daily Beast “Obsessed” Podcast, the actor said he made “a big mistake” in his career by playing a role that he “probably should have done.”
Steenbergen said she would “never tell anyone” that it was out of respect for the actor who ultimately got the role. However, looking back, she doesn’t really regret her decision because changing that one choice could have changed the direction of her life, she said.
Steenbergen said, “I know someone who is very influenced by the roles that other people – including myself – get, and I feel terrible for this person, because for whatever reason, I am free from it.” “I always have been.”
He said that his “weird spirituality” has led him to believe that everything happens for a reason, including the roles he thought he was supposed to accept.
Steenbergen said, “The truth is I really don’t think I should have done it, because if I had done that, I probably wouldn’t have met Ted and then Kate and Alexis wouldn’t be my stepdaughters.” “It’s impossible to imagine all the ways my life would be different.”
Steenbergen married actor Ted Danson in 1995.
He has a blended family, with two children each from a previous marriage.
Steenbergen said that rather than focusing on other people’s success, she finds joy in watching actors she admire perform brilliantly.
“I feel sorry for people who don’t feel the same way,” he said. “This is not a competitive sport. You’re in this together.”
Steenbergen said she takes a similar approach regarding films that did not perform as she expected.
He always found something meaningful in the projects he worked on, he said, whether it was lifelong friendships, a lesson he learnt, or memories he made with his children.
Steenbergen said, “I’ve made really good movies, and some of them are good occasionally, but I’ve also made some turkeys, and I’m glad I made them.”
Other actors have also said they are at peace with missing out on career-defining roles.
Before Margot Robbie became Barbie, Anne Hathaway was attached to an earlier version of the film. In the presence of the 2023 “Happy, Sad, Confused” podcast, Hathaway said she views it as a “lucky thing” that never happened because it made way for the version that audiences ultimately fell in love with.
Hathaway said, “He was exactly right. And the whole world reached this level of ecstasy because of that eye. Now imagine that version – so much energy, so much anticipation, so much emotion – but that’s not the right version.”
Cillian Murphy almost got the role of Batman in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy before it went to Christian Bale. In 2023, he told GQ it was “for the best.”
Murphy said, “I never considered myself the perfect physical model for Batman. For me, it was always Christian Bale.”
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