After turning up his nose at doing television, Noah Wyle’s career has been, well, mostly television. The Emmy-winning actor has gone from ER to Leverage: Redemption to now The Pitt on the 2026 TV schedule, and many more, with several films under his belt. He’s done a lot on the big and small screens, but there were actually a couple of roles he had to turn down because of ER, and this includes a reunion with George Clooney.Even though Wyle starred on ER as Dr. John Carter for most of ER’s 15-season run, Clooney bowed out at the end of Season 5 as Dr. Doug Ross to pursue his film career. While there have definitely been some actors who have made film and television work together, sometimes it’s easier to balance one and not the other, like what Clooney did. In Wyle’s case, he stuck around on ER for a long time and it hurt his chances to expand his career. He was asked on the Still Here Hollywood Podcast if there were any roles that he wanted that he didn’t get, and he revealed two big ones that he couldn’t do because of the hit medical drama that would have included a reunion between Carter and Doug:Yeah, tons. Happens all the time. We’ve talked about a couple of them actually. Good Night, and Good Luck, George offered me a part in that. I couldn’t get out of ER to do it. I was offered the part of Private Ryan in Saving Private Ryan. [I] couldn’t get out of ER to do it. It’s definitely disappointing to know that we could have gotten more of Clooney and Wyle together on-screen in completely different roles, and the fact that Clooney even offered him a part in 2005’s Good Night, and Good Luck shows just how close they had gotten in those first five seasons. Luckily, the two remain close today, and even though Clooney may not be appearing on The Pitt any time soon, there have been some mini ER reunions, which are better than nothing. If anything, we can see more of Carter and Doug on ER with an HBO Max subscription and a Hulu subscription.And Saving Private Ryan is another big one that would have definitely been a game-changer, but it just didn’t work out because of a particular show. However, Wyle doesn’t seem too torn up about the roles he had to pass on because of how great they eventually turned out:There was, you know, there was a bunch that, in retrospect, I’m glad that I didn’t do them, because those guys made those parts.Just like with Good Night, and Good Luck, it’s disappointing to know that Wyle was close to playing the titular soldier in Saving Private Ryan, which eventually went to Matt Damon. Apparently, that wasn’t even the only role that Wyle was offered in the critically acclaimed film, meaning that they really wanted him:There was two. I got offered the part of [Timothy] Upham, which was Jeremy Davies’ part, and he was so phenomenal in that. I couldn’t imagine doing anything close to what he did.It’s hard not to think about the “what ifs?” when it comes to roles because if Wyle had done Good Night, and Good Luck or Saving Private Ryan or any other projects he almost did but couldn’t because of ER, who knows how much would have changed. If Wyle followed in Clooney’s footsteps and left ER earlier than he had, a lot would have been different.Of course, Wyle doesn’t have any ill will towards the outcome because there’s nothing he can do to change it, and he knows that the films turned out phenomenal. He also seems to love doing television, so some things just work out for the better.