“Star Wars” and “Star Trek” — and chooses to decline both. Yaphet Kotto, who portrayed Parker, the lead engineer in Ridley Scott’s legendary “Alien,” nonetheless, fits into that exclusive group. Notably, as he mentioned in a conversation with Big Issue, he regrets one of those choices but not the other.
Kotto confessed that rejecting the part of Captain Picard (which ultimately went to Patrick Stewart) in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was a mistake. He stated, “I believe I made some poor choices in my life, man. I should have taken that but I turned it down. When you’re involved in filmmaking, you often tend to reject TV. It’s akin to being in college and someone invites you to the high school dance. You say no.” While working on “Alien” (whose xenomorph was based on nightmares), the actor was also presented with the role of Captain Lando, which he had to decline because he was already engaged in a project with Robert Redford.
“I was offered the role of Lando Calrissian in “The Empire Strikes Back” by Irvin Kershner, who had just directed me the previous year in “Raid on Entebbe.” [He] mentioned, ‘You’re going to stay in space.’ I asked, ‘Why?’ He replied, ‘I’m directing “Empire Strikes Back” and you’ll be in it. I said, ‘No, I’m not’ (he laughs),” he recounted to IGN. “I had to keep my momentum, and I told him, ‘If I take this,