Mark Rylance rejected Spielberg's 'Empire of Sun' twice

Mark Rylance won his first Oscar for Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies", but the actor revealed they had earlier discussed about working together on the director's 1987 movie "Empire of Sun".
Rylance turned down the role first for he found the role very small. When the director went to the actor after "bettering" the part, Rylance let it go for a play.
"It was 'Empire of the Sun'... He offered me a small part. I turned that down, and then he came back and offered me a better part, and I accepted it, but then a theatre director who I very much wanted to work with, had wanted to work with for a number of years, also offered me a part.

"And Steven very nicely said I could step away from the film if I wanted to but I had to tell him in four hours, and I did decide after those four hours to step away and do the season of plays. And though the season of plays didn't go that well, I met my wife on the first day and now I've been able to work with Steven again. So, it turned out to be an all right call," he said in Oscars backstage interview.
Rylance won the best supporting actor award at the 88th Academy Awards a KGB spy in Cold War drama "Bridge of Spies".