When I write stuff and I help cast it, I turn away good people all the time. I may turn them down because this one's too tall and that one doesn't have a high enough voice or this one looks to old to match up with that one - there's a billion reasons not to hire somebody.
I had to know if I could make it somewhere else. I did not want to go through the rest of my life wondering what might have been without putting myself to the test.