Rachael Leigh Cook Calls Turning Down Marvel's 'X-Men' Offer A 'Huge Misstep'

Rachael Leigh Cook admitted that turning down the Marvel series, the "X-Men" franchise, was a bad decision.

The 41-year-old actress revealed that she denied playing Rogue's character, which was later given to Anna Paquin. Since 2000, Paquin went on to feature in five "X-Men" movies including the 2014's release "X-Men: Days of Future Past."

Cook went on to say that she didn't accept Marvel's offer because she wasn't interested in working with greenscreens. However, she now considers it a "huge misstep."

"As soon as I saw the posters for it, I knew that I’d made a mistake," she told The New York TimesMonday. "I really thought what everyone told me was correct when they said, ‘What we need to do now is make sure you’re taken seriously.’ I definitely did things for the wrong reasons."

Cook chose "She's All That" instead of the "X-Men" movie in 1999. Recently she was featured in the reboot movie, "He’s All That" starring Addison Rae, which was released on Aug. 25.

Last week, Cook opened up about working with her "She’s All That" co-star Freddie Prinze Jr. and noted he mistakenly put his arms around her, thinking her to be his then-girlfriend, Kimberly McCullough.

"The first time I met Freddie was in Sundance," she told E! News Saturday. "We were both in ‘House of Yes’ and I was in a house that he and Parker [Posey] and Josh [Hamilton] and everybody were in just saying hello to everybody."

"I was standing in the living room and I felt these giant arms just throw themselves around me and hug me and rest a chin on top of my head," she explained. "And it was Freddie and he just goes, ‘Hey babe.'" She recalled how "hilarious" and "funny" was their first meeting.

On the work front, the actress is a regular on the "Robot Chicken" animated series. She lent her voice to various characters from 2006 to 2021. She was also seen in a television movie last year, "Cross Country Christmas" starring Greyston Holt, Jon Cor, Luke Roessler and Nils Hognestad.

Considering the Marvel franchise, they are all set to release their highly anticipated movie, "Eternals" later this year.